Wireless Flash triggering?

[matthew_h]

I really want to add some proper slave flash to my mountain bike shooting but I'm not sure of the best solution.

At the moment I've got a Canon 550EX flash unit and an old cheapy flash and I have tried running an optical slave trigger on the cheapy but in order to get enough flash from the 550 to trigger the optical unit the slave is totally out gunned and the effect is lost.

The ideal is too have no flash firing from on the camera at all and the only light coming from the slave unit up near the rider. Often that means it being a good number of metres up the trail.

I've looked at Pocket Wizards and also the Canon Wireless Trigger for purely wireless set ups but wonder whether getting a second proper Canon Flash would not be a more economical and versatile solution.

The other option seems to be these (very) cheap wireless triggers that are available on ebay but they seem to be really rather inconsistent and I'm not sure I'd like to rely on them on a shoot. They do have a huge economic advantage though.

Has anyone got any experience of these things, any knowledge to share or any recommendations for me?

[stigmundfreud]

getting a 430ex as your slave is a good option as the 550 should control it

or you can use the canon trigger and use both as a slave to the trigger to give you complete control. 2 units should be more than enough for what you need for now