frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

Ya’ll heard about that slow boat to China. Well it’s even slower coming this way. After waiting a little more than a month it finally arrived. It, so far works great and I can control my speed lights off my D5100 for about a 3rd of the price for the Nikon version. Enough said about this (it just works).
Ok so a while back I decided to buy a flash bracket that put my flash off to the side of my camera instead of on the hot shoe. I did this to gain a little more depth to my pictures and get away from the flatness of an image when the flash is mounted on the hot shoe. I was kinda thinkin bout my old Kako spark flash mounted on the side of my old Minolta SRT 101 with my Roker f 1.4 lens. I took some great pictures with that set up. Back in the day seems like that was the trend for most of the pros shooting with those giant Nikon Speed Lights mounted on a side bracket. Anyways, I figured with today’s tilltie swiviley heads I could do some real creative damage while adding control to my lighting. This is actually working pretty well for me.
So wait…. I says to myself (SELF) your only controlling one side. What if I had a flash mounted on each side of the camera with all the tiltie swively things. I could double the amount of creative damage and control the lights with my Nikon Creative Lighting system with a commander. Hey, no guts no glory, right? Anyways, that’s where I am with this. So far the preliminary results are promising.
Oh heads up… for those of you without a sense of fun and adventure. Try to control yourselves. It ain’t good for your blood pressure :)

flash attack

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

So did you find the Debao SU-800 pretty intuitive to use?
I have the Nikon unit, but it is a bit expensive. Does it use AA batteries or CR. 123?

frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

YES... very intuitive to use and takes 2 AA bateries. It kinda has to be intuitive cause the manual is only in Chinese :) hope this helps.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Ni hao.
Thanks for the report.
My Mandarin isn't what is used to be...

I understand that besides using AA batteries, it's a bit more powerful and also swivels- horizontally only, but that could be a help.

frankie c Loc: Lake Havasu CIty, AZ

Yes it swivels. That was a feature I liked when I was doing my homework on this transmitter. I also found some evaluations on You Tube. One review showed it working well at up to 30ft. I never use my off camera flash at that distance. I did do a query on the HOG when I was investigating the SU800 and took a lot of flack for not just buying the Nikon unit. My choice was to go for the SU800. I think it will meet my needs just fine. It cost was 100 dollars against the Nikon being 3 times the cost. So far so good.
Your doing better than me. I thought it was Cantonese :(

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

My Nikon unit works fine (they are both named SU-800) but if mine ever bites the dust, I would consider the Debao.
I generally don't like buying clones, but at half the price (Nikon $222 at B&H, Debao $110ish through Amazon), it has me interested.
Mostly don't like needing a different battery like the CR 123a.
Not as easy to find on location if my spare winds up missing.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Never heard of Debao, are they in line with Yongnuo? I've used Meike's with fairly good luck, until the last one. Died after 4 months. Having no luck at all finding out if anyone will stand behind it. I currently use Nikon, but have the Meike's for back ups, or to let second shooters borrow if needed. Just want to know where you heard of this brand, and if there is any info on how they hold up?

I am a little afraid of only 2AA I can't imagine the guide number is very high, and recycle time has to suffer.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

The Debao SU-800 is an infrared triggering device that acts as a commander for Nikon speedlights, not a flash.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Thanks. I was thinking it was supposed to be a knock off for the SB 800, not SU 800. Well, I guess reading is another thing in a long list that I'm quickly losing

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Easy to confuse with similar numbers/letters.
I do it more often lately myself!

Nikon's SU-800 works well for me, even in full sun.
You just have to make sure the receiver can see the IR signal.
Joe McNally sometimes uses his on a cord to make sure that happens.
Debao specs say theirs is more powerful and the head rotates horizontally.

Radio has no line of sight issues, however.
I use the Phottix Odin as well, usually in manual.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I have a Wein infrared trigger that I just never use any more, now I use the Yongnuo 622N TX and YN 622 N combo.... still in manual. What they don't tell you is that while the trigger system works in iTTL, it doesn't play nice with the SB 800. Works fine in manual, but iTTL, it just doesn't flash at all. So much for spending extra money to get a nice easy to use iTTL trigger. I could have done the same thing with cowboy studio dummy triggers.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

I had the Yongnou for a while.
I think you mentioned the issue in another thread.
It worked for me, but I was not using TTL.
I found it and the manual hard to understand.
The Phottix just works.
I haven't read the manual yet.