For most general purpose photography you probably won’t ever need a remote control. However, if you are doing product shots, macro shots, and especially long exposure shots, using a remote control can help avoid the camera shake of pressing the shutter on the camera. There are both cheap and pricey wired remotes but Phottix decided to go one better and make their remote wireless. Continue reading to find out all the details.

Summary
The Phottix Wireless Remote Control (C3 model) is designed for use on Canon DSLR cameras. The receiver plugs into the remote controller port on the camera and there is a transmitter model you use to operate the remote. The wireless system supports all of the shutter modes such as pressing half-way to set the focus/exposure, single shot, continuous shot, and bulb mode.

Features
There isn’t much to say about a remote control that performs basic shutter functions, the system has a single task and that’s all it does.

Usage
Using the remote is a pretty simple process. You should turn off the camera, plug the receiver cable into the remote control port, press the button on the receiver to turn it on, then turn the camera on. To use bulb mode, put the camera into bulb mode and then hold down the button on the transmitter to set it to bulb mode.

To test it, we used the remote control in a variety of conditions. The first setup was in the studio to do some simple product shots, this is absolutely the best time to use a remote as often you want to use a longer shutter speed and the vibration of pressing and releasing the shutter can cause camera shake. Being wireless, you don’t even have to worry about vibration from accidentally pulling on the remote control wire.

But what about range? The specs claim 320 feet without obstacles, and since I figured that would also be without any other type of radio interference I decided to come up with a simple distance test. As you can see from the photo, I put the camera on a tripod on the sidewalk and paced off 350 feet. I slowly started walking back towards the camera pressing the shutter button every few feet. After reviewing the images to see the first shot that was captured, I could then go back and check the distance. While there was a direct line of sight, there were trees and cars on both sides of me and I ended up four houses down the street, this actually measured out to about 250 feet. Considering the possible sources of interference along the way, the houses, trees, cars, light poles, mailboxes, etc., this is a very respectable distance. For setting up a remote camera at most sports events, a wedding, or similar event, this range is quite usable. The Phottix wireless camera remote has earned a spot in our standard studio equipment bag and will be used quite often.

Website: http://phottix.com

Author: Kerry Garrison

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