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Hands On: Impact Powersync16 DC Radio Triggers

Chris Gampat
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04/27/2011
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Impact Powersync16 DV unit review (1 of 3)

The Impact Powersync16s are a reliable, well built, and powerful wireless trigger set for those that want wireless flash control at a decent price. I’ve been testing them for a short period and though I do not feel like I’ve given them a full run-through yet, they are definitely something worth talking about again.

Tech Specs

Build Quality and Ergonomics

The Impact Powersync16s are built tough. I’ve admittedly dropped them once or twice and they keep working and firing. Like the Pearstone Wireless Shutter Release, you can squeeze these things as much as you want and it will feel like you’re applying pressure to a small rock.

The durability means that they will be a great item for photographers who: are working on locations, have clumsy assistants that may drop stuff, have extra curious kids, and need something that will be able to take punishment in their camera bag when traveling.

Nothing on these units feels shaky, loose, or flimsy. The only exception to this is the receiver, which uses Double A batteries. The batteries seem to be a bit too big and bulge out a very tiny bit when the cover goes on. Granted, it’s never popped off for me, but this is an issue to consider if you don’t want anything getting into the units.

The receiver comes with a little stylus that allows you to change the channels on the unit when a flash is attached.

Ease of Use

I’ve only used the units with one flash unit off-camera, so all I’ve needed to do was ensure that all the channels were matching up accordingly, set up my flash in the right location, adjust the output, focus my camera and shoot.

And it’s really that simple.

Reliability

The units have never failed on me so far. I’ve only been using them within a 50 foot by 50 foot studio space and haven’t encountered any problems yet.

Results

I’ve used these triggers with the Olympus XZ-1 and couldn’t be any happier with how they performed. The trick here is this: the units only sync to 1/250th shutter speeds for DSLRs. But since point and shoots have different shutter types, it can do high speed flash sync with no problem.

Using the high speed sync, I was able to kill nearly all the ambient lighting in the studio and achieve the effects in the photos above. Once again, I was using my hacked beauty dish for this project and a very small aperture of F/8 at ISO 100 and at a very fast shutter speed.

I couldn’t have been more pleased with the way that the triggers worked though. So far in the testing, my favorite usage by far has been with professional point and shoot cameras.

A full review will be coming, but in the meantime, we’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

The Impact Powersync16s are available only at B&H Photo.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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