A few weeks ago at AfterDark St. Louis, we unleashed the new RadioPopper Nano on our long time friend, Bob Davis. Bob was teaching a class on OCF; he wanted to check out the Nanos and put them to the test.
Using 2 Canon Speedlites on Nano Receivers, Bob had his main light in a portable softbox. No cables or hotshoe breakouts were needed, as the Speedlites connect directly to the Nano Receiver’s integrated hotshoe. We shot around St. Louis Union Station.
We started out with some easy stuff, some basic set-ups with Bob shooting only about 5-10 feet from the flash. This wasn’t exactly pushing the Nano to the limit.
Then Bob decided to heat things up. He set our model up on a concrete pillar at the top of a flight of stairs. He had his main light on a second pillar to the left. His second light was sitting behind a concrete stair railing at the top of a second flight of stairs. Bob was going to shoot from street level so his Nano Transmitter was going to have to blast through not only distance, but tons of concrete in order to trigger his second light. This is a situation where the Nano shines. It is the most powerful radio trigger out there, so it was easily able to handle this setup and Bob was able to get his shot.
For a final test, we moved inside Union Station into the Grand Hall. The Grand Hall is an absolutely beautiful historic masterpiece. At either end of the Grand Hall, there are second and third floor balconies. Bob wanted to shoot across the entire hall from one balcony to the other. He used a single flash against the back wall of the far balcony to illuminate our model who was standing in front of the railing at the edge. Once he had his light set up, he made the trek with the rest of the class to the other balcony. I hung out on the model’s side just in case Bob needed the light moved.
It was at that point that my heart sank! Bob was situated and in position to start shooting, but nothing was happening. We were so far away from each other that I had no idea what was going on. Then I heard the dreaded words being echoed in the entire Grand Hall which might as well have been the entire world, "MATT, IT IS NOT FIRING!!" There was no question as to what Bob said, yet I still replied, "WHAT?" And I heard yet again, "IT’S NOT FIRING." After a brief moment of being frozen, I decided that it might be a good idea to check the flash setup. /FACEPALM, the flash was not turned on! I turned on the flash and we were in business. I calmed down a few days later 😉
The Nano proved to be exceptionally reliable in relatively extreme conditions. The ultra powerful radio didn’t let distance and solid concrete get in its way. Combined with how easy it is to use, we are confident these triggers will not disappoint.
Huge thanks to Bob Davis for always being a friend of RadioPopper and also to AfterDark for providing such a great educational experience!
