Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

I have had my set for about three years now. I have used Pocket Wizard in the past. I bought these based on the better price and the low profile design. I like these guys about 90% of the time. That is because they fire about 90% of the time. I have had a couple shoots where I fight with them the whole time. To their credit, I have shot well over 100,000 images with them. Now I am at the point where I am trying to decide to buy a couple more to expand my system or go with a new system all together. Kind of leaning toward the later.

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

I own 3 of thesse Bowens. When in use they worked well most of the time. There are occasions when they will fire off the flashes when not triggered.
On a recent photo event they stopped working altogeher. I replaced the batteries in them and they still would not trigger the flashes. When I got home I tested them and of course they worked .

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

I have three of them.
They were very unreliable from the beggining, lot of misfiring, regardless of channels or settings. And the performance even degraded lately?!!.
Only used them in my studio, at about 5-6 meters distance, still they were not able to sync, misfired a lot.
Higly disapointed

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

When I first bought this kit I was so happy with it. It came with all the cables and mounting piece I need to get started right away. For a few months I used it with a small flash and was very happy with the results. Then I bought large studio flash’s and the system did not work. I wrote the company and they informed me that “…a large flash as you say [you own] may need a higher trigger voltage than the Pulsar uses. Sometimes older units may not work with some triggers due to the higher voltage trigger required compared to newer units.” The company is well aware of the fact that the pulsar does not always work with large studio flashes but keeps it’s a secret.
You should be aware of this problem before investing in the unit.

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

I find these wireless triggers very useful and I prefer them over the more popular pocket wizards. I use them with my flash heads and flash gun. The great thing about them is they have a standard sync socket in addition to the 1/4in syncs. I find this really useful. I also find it useful that any one of the units can transmit or receive. They also look better on camera as they have a low profile.

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

great price, and very well designed love the flat design, not like bulky pocket wizard

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

I have considered the Pocket Wizard and this item a choose this in part due to it's design as well as better price. These are more well known and used in Europe. I have been testing it with the Quantum QFlash and all works fine. I did read a review where photographer complained about pc cord but all items seem just fine to me in all my tests. I do also plan to use with my Canon Speedlite flashes but since they do not have pc plugs I need to buy a special hot shoe adapter

Comments about Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit - includes: PC Cords, Mounting Plates, Jack Adapters, Batteries:

I bought 4 of these remotes to use on location shoots. Iwas hoping for top quality remotes that would eliminate misfires while working with clients. Well needless to say, on the first shoot, they left me hanging. I tried every thing, no luck. I readjusted my clients for ambient light and finished the shoot. Very disappointing, but I was not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I have some electronics experience and am not afraid to trouble shoot anything so I went home and got to work. It turns out the PC terminal was the culprit and was a problem on all 4 units. The barrel of the terminal appears to be press fit into the threaded part that is used to mount the PC terminal to the housing. This would be fine if they had a soldered contact directly to the barrel but they don't. The solder connection is to the Nut that screws on to the threaded sleeve that the barrel is pressed into. What that means is that the signal has to jump 2 cold joints to get to your sync cord. The first cold connection between the nut and the threaded sleeve seems OK as there is positive pressure holding these together but the nut could work loose over time. The second cold joint is between the barrel and the threaded sleeve, this one is not OK. It is tight at first but very quickly becomes loose by connecting and removing a PC cord just a couple of times. You can actually feel that the terminal is loose and sloppy. I think this is an oversight on Bowens part and one they should correct immediately. There is no sense in putting cheap components in pro/expensive equipment. Better terminals may cost a nickel more, who cares, it would not have stopped me from buying the remotes. I would however have been happier with them and would be much more likely to try other bowens equipment in the future. I did find a quick fix, if you just wrap the coil cord around the remote one time causing some side pressure on the terminal, it will close the connection and allow the signal to pass properly a rubberband also works great. There is one other small problem with these remotes, if you have a flash with a really fast recycle time, these remotes will cause them to double flash. For some reason they send out a double pulse. This is not a huge problem and only occurs on the lowest settings of my Sunpak 544s. I have not seen any sign of the double flash with my Photogenic Studiomax lights. I do believe that these are good remotes and have great potential but they do need some work. Here's the good news. They are dependable in every other way. The 1/8 jacks work fine as does the 3/32 jack and the hot shoe terminal. They come with tons of cables, connectors, and mounting hardware, but don't bother with the double sided tape that comes in the box it won't hold long. Go for the 3M Acrylic Foam Tape found at any automotive supply store. It is used to hold body molding on cars (it is gray with red backing). The channels and studios options are great, and the units are well constructed overall with the previously noted exceptions.

Expertise: Pro

Problems Encountered: PC terminal is very poorly built.Units create a double pulse that will cause a double flash in strobes that have fast recycle times. (wastes battery)One other pet peeve is that they dont have a power saver mode so if you are the type who forgets to turn your remotes off, plan to have plenty of AAA's handy.

Previous Equivalent Item Owned: White Lightning Studio One, YH Remotes

Items I Recommend: Rubberband, 3M Acrylic Foam Tape