hähnel Combi TF Remote Control & Flash Trigger

Hi,

There was a post here earlier about this gizmo:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&thread=35420054

Product page: http://www.hahnel.ie/index.cfm?page=dslrremotecontrols&id=64&pId=64

The Panasonic and Olympus variants are now available as well and I just received mine today for the GH1.

I'm a work and quickly only tested the remote control function so far. Seems to work as promised. Didn't test range, but 20 meters indoors behind a couple corners and around several wlan hotspots it reacted faultlessly.

Quick feature glance:
Remote control

• half-press autofocus, full-press exposure
• bulb mode with lock (2sec press engages lock mode, full press to release and end exposure)
• burst mode with lock (logic as with bulb)
• 4sec internal delay timer
• led lights indicating autofocus and exposure functions
• no intervalometer (there's another (pricier) timer remote, but only Oly supported so far and it doesn't have flash trigger)

Flash trigger

• manual mode only, no TTL

The unit is very light and compact, made in China. Seems well built. 2.4GHz frequency, can change radio signal code, 4 bits. 100m claimed range. Additional receivers and studio light cables available.

I'll get back with results after more testing at home (specifically sensor interference, sync capabilities, range, miss ratio, something else?).

--
-niko-
http://flickriver.com/photos/neekohfi/

Ok, having tested it for this evening, here's a summary so far.

I was testing it with a GH1, Metz 48 AF-1 and also LX3.

The good:

In general, it was fuss-free, logical to use and true to the words on the package. There were no artifacts on the images due to electromagnetic interference, whether used as remote control or flash trigger.

The device was reliable, outside in the clear the 100m range was not a gross overestimate. Actually I counted 130 long strides from where I last saw the flash go off back to the camera. Having said that, as a remote the 2 second lock for bursts (didn't try bulb, but would think it's the same) was impossible to engage beyond about half that distance. Within that "safe distance" it fired in normal single shot operation with 100% reliability both as remote and flash trigger and there were no surprise extra shots fired.

The remote can trigger the flash unit alone when not connected to the camera, there can be some uses to it with long exposures I'll have to try out some time.

And... the flash trigger was also able to fire a flash on an LX3, which was very nice.

In fact so nice it brings us to the still-want-more:

The maximum sync speed was 1/160s on the GH1. When the Metz was seated on the trigger end, manual HSS mode wasn't available any more and GH1 wouldn't allow shutter speeds faster than that. That was probably my biggest disappointment. The LX3, on the other hand, was able to sync to it's max 1/2000s shutter speed with good exposure with the wireless trigger.

Another thing that I would have liked was to be able to use both the remote and and flash function at the same time. Under the receiver end there's a flash shoe mount, but it's plastic and just allows for connecting the unit to the flash shoe on the camera (plus there's a standard mount screw hole). It would have been super nice for the flash shoe pins to be fed through the unit so that if you seat the receiver on top of the camera and the flash on top of it, it would use the camera's normal flash activation. Now, instead, it fires the flash instantly when pressing the button on the transmitter and the camera takes the shot after the shutter lag and even at maximum flash power, none of the light manages to reach in to the exposed images. Using the camera's internal flash works as usual (of course then you just wouldn't use the flash shoe mount for the receiver) with the remote.

Those minor issues aside (and the missing intervalometer) I think the device is everything it claims to be, reliable on the GH1, a nice 2-in-1 solution and good value for money (79EUR in my case).

Some test shots (sorry for the quality of some):

Yours truly, some distance away, realized he can't verify the results very easily this way. Shot at 18mm, cropped a bit.



Close to max flash distance, 18mm, OOC jpeg.



Maximum recorded distance, 140mm.



Then with LX3 at a local skatepark, shot JPEG (wife's fault ), some PP applied. Yours truly finding settings for the shots and discovering extra chins in the process.



And then some pics of the local youth, a bit more what I was going for with the sync speed.







And kids passing by getting funny and posing for the flash (GH1 again).



--
-niko-
http://flickriver.com/photos/neekohfi/

neekoh_dp said:

Ok, having tested it for this evening, here's a summary so far.
I was testing it with a GH1, Metz 48 AF-1 and also LX3.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your report. Very good to hear it works with Metz flashguns. My cheap China solution refuses to trigger the Metz but it works find with a Sunpak in Canon make. Seems like I need to make another investment then, the Sunpak takes far too long to recharge and eats through a pack of rechargeables in no time....

BTW: Can you use this kit to trigger the GH1 with the LX3? That'd be awesome, too. :-D

--
Servus, Daniel

neekoh_dp:

Thank you for the review but please help me understand the following:

On my GH1 with my Sunpak 383 flash - Are you saying that the hähnel Combi TF Remote Control & Flash Trigger WILL NOT simultaneously trip the shutter AND fire the flash? Are you saying it is either one or the other function, not both?

I so appreciate your review but this question remains and that capability is my goal.

Regards,
Alan

Will this do bulb mode for long exposure shots without the flash?
--
Lumix GF1
Lumix G 20mm / F1.7 ASPH
Leica DG MACRO-ELMARIT 45mm / F2.8 ASPH

Vulcanrider said:

On my GH1 with my Sunpak 383 flash - Are you saying that the hähnel Combi TF Remote Control & Flash Trigger WILL NOT simultaneously trip the shutter AND fire the flash? Are you saying it is either one or the other function, not both?

Click to expand...

Alan, I'm sorry for not noticing this earlier. In fact I haven't received notifications for quite some time due to having configured my email to a now defunct address. This may be coming too late, but for the record...

If I understand you right, practically it will do both, but your flash has to be seated on the camera's flash shoe (and the remote receiver be dangling by the remote control cord). Only this way can the camera control the flash (most importantly timing the firing). This may already be what you were looking for. But do note that with this combo alone you can not achieve remote triggering the shutter and an off-camera flash.

Now, you can seat your flash also on the remote trigger receiver. In this case technically it does trip the shutter and fire the flash on your press of the remote button, but it fires the flash immediately via the wireless signal, not by the one sent by the camera's hot shoe. Even with full manual flash I can hardly see light leaking in the picture. The shutter lag is simply greater.

The unit with the flash shoe (the one on which you seat your flash) can be seated on the camera's flash shoe, but there's no electrical connection, only a dead hot shoe mount for fixing the connection. Thus the camera can't command the unit. Flash commands are not carried over via the remote cable.

It was more complicated than I thought, I hope that covered all the angles.

--
-niko-
http://flickriver.com/photos/neekohfi/random/
http://vimeo.com/user2274716/videos

keithwwalker said:

Will this do bulb mode for long exposure shots without the flash?

Click to expand...

Keith, yes. It's just like a long press of the shutter trigger on the camera, with locking. If camera is set to bulb, then it will do a bulb exposure. If on continuous drive then it will shoot continuously. With the button pressed for two seconds (IIRC), it will "lock" the trigger and a new press is needed for unlocking it. It works, but in practice, you need to go check and verify it started and stopped.

The trigger can also be set to a 4 second timer mode, when it will fire the trigger signal after four seconds. For a camera with such feature built-in, I haven't found use for it.

--
-niko-
http://flickriver.com/photos/neekohfi/random/
http://vimeo.com/user2274716/videos