During the last weekend i was able to get my grubby hands on a Phottix Atals trigger to test with my existing Pocket Wizard trigger system.  Thanks to the special someone who gave me one in replacement of a pocket wizard 🙂

First off i have been using Pocket Wizards Plus 2 (CE version – legal in AUS) since i did strobist work.  I quickly progressed from Cactus / poverty wizards after i got about 40% success rate of flash fire.  Yes, 4 in 10 shots actually worked with the cactus hence my reason to get pocket wizards.  As much as these are the bee’s knees of wireless triggers in my eyes, god damn they are expensive!  However if you need 100% success rate, Pocket Wizards (still to this day) are the triggers of choice.

Well thats atleast what i had thought upto the weekend.  The Phottix Atlas are just as good!? how so – they cost 1/2 as much! The skyports that i have as part of my Elinchrom Ranger RX kit arent as successful as these triggers? How so!

During the weekends shoots, i have had the PW Plus 2 on my ranger pack triggered by the Atlas and then the other way around.  Any configuration i put them in, they just kept on working!  This is great news for anyone wanting to get into off camera flash.

I didnt test these as hard as what i would have tested the pocket wizards but for everything i did “general shooting setup” with the pack being no more than 10 meters away etc, they were flawless.  When testing my pocket wizards i was able to fire them from over 100meters away (why anyone would want to do this is beyond me but they still worked), I dont know if the Atlas do as well as this, however for how i shoot 99.9999% of the time, they performed without issue.

Considering they have a hot shoe connection and are able to be screwed into a lightstand for strobist users this is a massive advantage.  I like that they have double A batteries in the device instead of the custom funky battery of Skyports, this just makes those moments when you need a battery so much more at ease.

Below is the video from Phottix on the triggers, id absolutely recommend them without issue and unless i can get pocket wizards for the same price or cheaper than the Atlas, i will find it very hard to purchase pocket wizards.

Phottix Atlas from Phottix Europe Ltd. on Vimeo.