©John Parmley
When I first migrated to the Canon 600EX-RT flashes, I
purchased 2 ST-E3-RT transmitters. (as a wedding photographer, you need back
ups!).
This simple and light weight transmitter gave me everything
I needed (so I thought) at a premium cost.
The build quality is as expected with Canon and works flawlessly unless
you are standing under or very near a Wi-Fi hot spot. The bigger problem I had was the lack of the
infrared focus assist that you find in your flashes. In shooting weddings, you often find your
self in dark locations. With out the
assist beam, getting focus in these situations was a challenge.
I happened to participate in a seminar put on by Bob Davis,
international wedding photographer, and learned about the Yongnuo YN-E3-RT. It is a knock off of the Canon design, it is
less expensive and has built in infrared focus assist.
But would I trust it in the middle of a wedding? The bottom line is I do now. I started off in the studio making sure it
worked as the Canon, and it does. While
the build quality is a little less than the Canon, especially in the thumb wheel,
it has worked just as I need. You can see
from the picture that I have one of each......just in case a firmware upgrade
goes south on one of them. I can also use
a second shooter connected to all the 600EX-RT flashes.
If you are on a budget and not shooting professionally, get
the Yongnuo, If you are pro and need multiple transmitters, mix it up. This way you can save some expense and have
one that has the assist beam for those darker locations. As of 9/26/2015 the Canon version is $263 and the Yongnuo is $84.
