Phottix has unveiled its new Laso transmitter and receiver. The units work the the Canon RT system.
While that’s nothing new for a third-party transmitter, the receiver unit is a no-brainer for someone who has a bag full of 580EX Speedlites and is starting to integrate 600EX RT units into their kit. Just add the receiver onto your 580EX, pair it with the Laso transmitter (or the Canon ST-E3-RT or 600EX RT) and you have a flash that works with the Canon RT system, which you can now mix with newer 600EX RT Speedlites.
Check out the video below for a demo.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rugYKKnAzmo&w=700]Basically, a $100 Laso receiver upgrades your older, Canon TTL non-RT flashes to the new RT system.
It makes me wonder why Canon didn’t release this kind of accessory when it launched the RT system instead of waiting around for someone to reverse-engineer the system and show them up. Of course, that doesn’t really surprise me…
The Laso Transmitter can control and trigger 5 groups (15 units) of Canon radio-enabled flashes and supports multiple flash modes, including E-TTL II/E-TTL, Manual, MULTI, Ext.A and Linked Shooting.
The Laso Receiver works with Canon’s non-radio ETTL flashes. Users can control and trigger these flashes from different radio devices, including the Phottix Laso Transmitter, Canon ST-E3-RT flash transmitter, and Canon radio-enabled flashes.
The Laso transmitter runs $159.95. Check it out here at B&H Photo.
The Laso receiver runs $99.95. Check it out here at B&H Photo.
Very cool! I’ll have to check this out. Hopefully the focus assist beam looks more like Canon’s and less like Yongnuo’s.
Is it just me, or does B&H not list what kind of batteries the receiver takes? I could see that the transmitter uses 2 AA batteries, but nothing on the receiver.
I recently picked up a Yongnuo YN600EX-RT, which is a basic knockoff of the Canon flash. It seems everything is identical to Canon, EXCEPT it won’t work with my PocketWizard Flex system. I confirmed this with Yongnuo.
The PocketWizard Flex system was an awesome option for me, because I could control the power of both my Einstein strobes and Speedlites from the camera (as well as hypersync ability on the Einsteins, allowing me to shoot at 1/1000 shutter speeds). The Yongnuo Speedlite was a great option compared to the Canon Speedlite, which costs almost 5 times more!
But since my new $125 Yongnuo doesn’t fire with the PocketWizard Flex, I need to look at other solutions, like using the Yongnuo’s built-in RT radio; so this might be worth looking into for adding my older Canon Speedlites to the RT system. It won’t help me with full control of my Einsteins, but I guess you can’t have everything!