17Aug Yongnuo YN-622C wireless E-TTL flash trigger
I don’t do a lot of flash photography work, but I keep a set of Pixel King E-TTL wireless triggers around just in case I need to cover an event or shoot a few head shots. The Pixel King works great for the price but it doesn’t have TTL ratio control or let you have multiple groups at different power levels. It also uses a transmitter/receiver setup instead of a transceiver, so if for some reason you forget to put the transmitter back in the bag, you’re out of luck. None of these issues are deal breaker but they’re all things I’d like to have.
Yongnuo, maker of the very handy and affordable YN 565EX speedlite flash, basically a $135 knock off of the Canon 580EX II without high speed sync, is now offering a Pixel King E-TTL competitor with everything plus the kitchen sink.
Not only are each of the Yongnuo YN-622C E-TTL units transceivers, but they support ratio control and multiple group power level settings. On top of that, you can connect a flash on top of the transceiver on camera and still get full E-TTL functionality.
A pair Yongnuo YN-622C E-TTL transceivers will set you back about $100, get another set and you basically have a 3 flash setup for $200. Compare that to Pixel King’s $260 3 flash setup and it looks like a pretty good deal. The major downside I see is that the Pixel King includes a usb port that allows you to update the firmware as new cameras are released, the YN-622c is missing that port.
The Yongnuo YN-622C Transceivers just started showing up on ebay last week and I haven’t seen any test results yet, but if you do a bit of flash photography it would definitely be something to check out. I might have to put my Pixel king setup on ebay and give these a try.
August 17th, 2012 at 11:28 am
Pretty interesting option. Amazing how cheap ttl triggers are these days. I picked up a Yongnuo flash as a third flash and haven’t been too impressed with it. Maybe I got a lemon but its not too reliable, so I’ve been lukewarm about Yongnuo.
August 17th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
From what I understand the first generation of their 565 units had a few problems. Apparently they’ve fixed that and the new 565 flash guns are supposed to be problem free on canon systems. The Nikon issues are a whole other story. The name was never changed so you don’t know if you’re getting a problem child or a newer model.
I have the Nissin Di866 mark II and a YN-565ex coming in. So we’ll see how well they perform.
August 19th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Hey Deejay if you happen to get your hands on these babies please do a review on them and let us know what you think! I started out with The flex TT5 and Mini TT1 which are great units but they costed me about $200 each unit, I needed an additional 2 units they would have ran another $400 bucks. As an alternative I invested in the Yongnuo triggers which work excellent but they do not support ETTL. I Then came across the King Pixel Receivers and Transceivers which I think are excellent units as well but I think the lack something. One thing I can say I do not like about the K/P units by default they are set on ETTL mode and you can only change those settings by going in the menu settings and manually change it, and you have to do that each and every time you use the units. I sold the pocket wizards for the Pixel’s lets see if I will sell the Pixel’s for the Yongnuo!!