Before I write anything else, I would like to boast that I have been setting off my flashes wirelessly at a range of over 150m, without any misfiring so far

This is a review of the latest wireless trigger/receiver set and flash from YONGNUO, a company hailing from Shenzhen in China. All I can say is WOW. Probably the best bang for your buck trigger set ever made so far. I bought the trigger and 2x receivers for 60 bucks and the YN462 flash for 40 on ebay - with free delivery to Adelaide from HK.

PROs

1. The receivers lie flat on the tripod/light stand screw thread and does not have the flimsy pivot mount like the Cactus products which is prone to breaking or bending over with heavy flashes
2. build quality is excellent! feels solid and well made, not cheap like other budget triggers
3. receivers use AAA batteries and trigger is CR2, with their own battery compartments and hatch
4. VERY LONG range - I have been able to set mine off at 150M away, and some have claimed up to nearly 200m, and I have shot through buildings, and a few stories up too
5. By mounting the receiver with flash onto the camera hotshoe - the trigger acts as a remote control and can be used to take photos - pressing it half way will auto focus the camera, and further will take the picture - amazing!
6. operating at 2.4gigahertz instead of the usual 300-433MHZ for other triggers, means that it suffers from less intereferences from electronics devices, and more legal to use internationally without getting into trouble

CONs

1. no lock for hotshoe mount when mounting the trigger or receiver on flash - but the chance of falling out is slim as its very stable and tight


YN642 FLASH

PROs

1. well built and very cheap
2. decent light output
3. very simple to use with only manual mode
4. full tilt and swivel head

CONs

1. flimsy battery door
2. no power rating on back, operated by a circular dial and u guess the power output, full power is full lock of the dial to the right obviously
3. average power ouput of GN23, apparently its the truth although they stated its GN33

SUMMARY

What can I say, but Pocketwizards, Skyports, Cactus, Radio Poppers eat your heart out for range and price! The Yongnuo RF602 is undoubtedly the best budget trigger set I have ever used and floors the oppositions like Cactus even their newer V4 designs. And will outrange the more expensive professional products - albeit at the cost of manual only settings and no TTL. But the icing on the cake is the ability to use my camera wirelessly with the trigger - I will be using it in a sports shoot coming up, setting up a camera right behind the goal keeper and sit in the stands to take shots with the remote trigger

The flash on the other hand represents a very good value for money light option, 2-3 of them will light up any room at a fraction of the costs of say, a single Canon 580EXII. It will be very handy for wedding photographers such as I am to mount 3-4 of them around a large hall or church, and shoot in the centre - for a better ambient lighting/flash feel. The drawback is the recycle time at full power, so dont expect to buy these and pop off shots at 1/1 every second!

Here are photos of the products, and samples of a shoot I did using them outdoors













In order to use your camera wirelessly to take photos with AF, it must be connected like this

]