The Bite In The Lighting Bag - Hähnel Viper

I admire people who can coordinate multiple lighting setups in the field. And there's a lot of gear on the market with which they can do this these days - many flash makers have TTL and manual wireless triggers and controllers that talk to each other over various distances. The ultimate goal of a control inside the camera to do this - matched to multiple flash units - is not as common. Most makers seem to devolve this duty to a separate box on the hot shoe.

This unit - the Viper - is available for Nikon, Sony, and Canon right now. The unit will do a number of channels and three groups at over 100 Mtr range. It will accommodate and pass through a flash on the hot shoe of the transmitting unit - an important help when you have several outboard flashes but want a central fill.

It will also connect to many studio lights so you can make multiple use of it in your system. And hurray!...it runs on regular old AA batteries.

Now stop reading this post right now. ' Cause I am going to write things I shouldn't...

This unit works well. I saw it going and it did exactly what it should do. And I have had some very good results with other Hähnel Captur units - indeed I use them regularly for dance shows.

But the use of TTL and three groups of lights...and remember that you can put multiple lights into a group - may lead to results that seem to be out of the control of the shooter. If every flash unit out there is going to decide what to do based upon an ebb and flow of signals, I can predict that some will be reacting to factors other the ones you think. Or to put it another way, with three groups to manage, can you manage any of them?

The possibility of standing there desperately dialling up and down while the models start to fade is a real one. I've never found multiple adjustments of more than two lights helpful.

Ah, but you may be a better mathematician, memory whiz, and artistic light expert than I. Good luck.

* Remember to take a pocket full of flash bulbs and the calculator table cut from the end of the cardboard packet...