Review sites abound. I'm sure that a couple of google taps away and you can find an exhaustive review of the Phottix Stratos radio triggers. Not only that, but there are likely some detailed reviews that will point out the merits (or lack thereof) of these triggers vis-a-vis Pocket Wizards and the various other triggers on the market (I even read some of them ;-) ). Some techie out there has probably even gone so far as to measure the exact frequency that these triggers use. That doesn't matter a jot to me I'm afraid. What I cared about was whether these small and relatively cheap triggers would fit into my workflow without causing too many headaches.

The short answer is that I cannot believe I ever managed to work without them. They really are fantastic. So now for the long answer. A radio trigger is essentially a device that triggers your flashes wirelessly using radio waves. They've been around for a while with most of the lighting manufacturers now producing their own variants, such as Elichrom's 'Skyport' triggers. Currently the de facto king of the hill when it comes to flash triggering via radio receivers are the trusted, hardy, and extremely expensive Pocket Wizards (or PWs for short). A plethora of cheap Chinese manufactured variants have flooded the market in the costly wake of the American PW. Some are nasty, others are reasonable and a few are really good.

If you have ever worked with multiple flashes you will know of some of the headaches that photographers have had to contend with. The 'old-fashioned' way is to use the camera's PC-sync and physically connect the camera to a flash. From personal experience I know of the explosive results when someone trips over the serpentine mass of cables that can cover the floor of a studio. So 'wireless' was the answer to trigger multiple flashes. Before radio and infra-red triggering, a optical 'slave' was the only way to wirelessly trigger a flash. This is a small unit that registers when a flash goes off and fires it's own flash that it is attached to. most studio strobes have this optical trigger built in. The problem is that any flash burst will trigger these units. Fine for a studi then, but a pain in the neck for location or event photography.

Nikon and Canon currently both have very versatile triggering systems that use infrared to communicate between camera and flash. What's even more impressive is that the infrared communication along with a series of almost imperceptible 'pre-flashes' means that the flashes can actually meter TTL while being wireless! That's impressive, but it comes with a downside - distance, brightness and line of sight. Basically the infrared is only effective over a relatively short distance, a distance that is made even shorter outside in daylight. Then there'e the line of sight issue. Infrared triggers have to have unbroken line of sight between the flash and the camera. Tilt the flash slightly and you can break this line of sight. So infrared can be unreliable even if it does have the advantage of wireless control of the flashes output.

So, radio triggers which use a radio frequency are the preferred flash triggering method by most professionals. The next problem is that the preferred PWs are inordinately expensive. In South Africa you are looking at about R3000 for a single receiver (you still need a transmitter as well). This is almost the same cost as most flash guns, even some studio lights. Enter Phottix, a fairly well-known Hong-Kong based company that produces generic triggers, light modifiers and various other bits and pieces that are often exorbitantly expensive from the marque manufacturers. For a while now Phottix have been manufacturing their 'Atlas' trigger, a look alike to the PWs which even works with the PWs (a fact that has them in some hot water in the states where PW are suing Phottix over patent infringement).

One of the issues I have with the traditional PWs, apart from their cost, is their physical bulk. They are heavy and big. On a smaller DSLR they are positively overwhelming. The Atlas has the same problem, being almost a carbon copy of the American original (albeit with the rather desirable addition of a hot-shoe, which means that unlike with the PW, a hotshoe flash can be used in conjunction with the radio trigger). However, the Atlas is also quite a bit more expensive that some of the other offerings that Phottix has.

So I started to look at the Stratos II which is relatively inexpensive, has a TTL pass through hot-shoe and is small and light to boot. When I say inexpensive I mean they are cheaper than the PWs, but not the cheapest on the market. Phottix also manufacture the dirt cheap Asters, and there are a myriad number of other small, light and extremely cheap single frequency triggers available, of both Chinese and Western manufacturers.

What caught my attention though was the relatively good construction and the high praise that other users seemed to bestow in these small triggers. Considering a set of four receivers and one transmitter was still less than a single PW receiver I decided to give them a try and placed an order directly with the Phottix Store in Hong Kong. 10 days later I unwrapped my new toys and started to play.

The Stratos is not indestructible and is certainly a notch down in construction compared to the PW that I've played with. But wow they are small and unobtrusive. Essentially my only negative points have to do with construction. First and foremost is the on/off switch. This dinky little slider switches on an off with the slightest amount of pressure. They are continually turning on and off in the bag which is annoying. The buttons at the back of the transmitter to select groups is a far better design and works brilliantly in comparison to the on/off slider. That's a pity as it lets the package down as a result. The battery compartment cover is a similar cheap plastic that I know is going to break at some stage. I guess as the price I shouldn't be too picky, but dammit I am.

The last let down in terms of construction has to do with the TTL pass through hot-shoe, which incidentally works beautifully. No, the issue is with the plastic parts in between the foot of the transmitter and the metal shoe. There is obviously little metal here and the flash with a modifier such as a softbox, or bounce card (the Rogue flash-bender for instance) wobbles precariously on the mount. I'm not convinced as to the durability of the this design I'm afraid.

In use I've found little to fault the flash triggers when triggering flashes. The receiver unit also acts nicely as a wireless remote which is nifty for when you want images via a camera trap setup. In terms of the flash triggering I was happy to see that the units 'wake up' from their sleep modes without any problems. Also fantastic is the fact that the units support rear-sync flash (second curtain to any Canonites reading this). Most of my event photography is done with rear sync locked in, so this is fairly important to me. The niggle, and it's quite a big one is that you can't seem to sync camera release and flash triggering together when the camera is triggered via one of the receiver units (i.e. wireless remote). This is frustrating. I figured this out during a portrait setup and thought I could use myself to check the lights. No way sadly. No matter what I did I could not get the camera and lights to sync...even dropping the shutter speed to 1/30th of a sec didn't get me sync. Maybe there's something I'm missing and a reader will enlighten me (please). The reason it's frustrating, apart from not being able to self-portraits for light testing, is that I was hoping to do some wireless animal traps with flash. To do this I'm going to have to rely on the Stratos for the camera trigger, but use the flashes via an old-fashioned TTL cord and infra-red triggering. Not perfect, but at least it's workable.

Then there's hte price, which I've mentioned, but needs to be emphasized. A lot! No, the Stratos IIs aren't perfect, but they are pretty close to exactly what I need in a flash trigger...and they don't cost a bomb either. Since I've got them I find myself doing more flash work than before, not because I didn't want to previously, but because it used to be a headache and it's now wonderfully simple...and reliable (unlike marque TTL cords and marque infrared triggering). I wholeheartedly recommend the Stratos. If you are shooting Canon and have the extra cash, investing in a set of Odin's might be a better bet (yay...wireless power control), but if you are on a budget and need a reliable flash trigger, this seems to be it...bar a few minor but livable caveats.