I don’t do a lot of flash photography work, but I keep a set of Pixel King E-TTL wireless triggers around just in case I need to cover an event or shoot a few head shots. The Pixel King works great for the price but it doesn’t have TTL ratio control or let you have multiple groups at different power levels. It also uses a transmitter/receiver setup instead of a transceiver, so if for some reason you forget to put the transmitter back in the bag, you’re out of luck. None of these issues are deal breaker but they’re all things I’d like to have.

Yongnuo, maker of the very handy and affordable YN 565EX speedlite flash, basically a $135 knock off of the Canon 580EX II without high speed sync, is now offering a Pixel King E-TTL competitor with everything plus the kitchen sink.

Not only are each of the Yongnuo YN-622C E-TTL units transceivers, but they support ratio control and multiple group power level settings. On top of that, you can connect a flash on top of the transceiver on camera and still get full E-TTL functionality.

A pair Yongnuo YN-622C E-TTL transceivers will set you back about $100, get another set and you basically have a 3 flash setup for $200. Compare that to Pixel King’s $260 3 flash setup and it looks like a pretty good deal.  The major downside I see is that the Pixel King includes a usb port that allows you to update the firmware as new cameras are released, the YN-622c is missing that port.

The Yongnuo YN-622C Transceivers just started showing up on ebay last week and I haven’t seen any test results yet, but if you do a bit of flash photography it would definitely be something to check out. I might have to put my Pixel king setup on ebay and give these a try.

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