This is an amazing set that I believe that all landscape photographers should have in their bag. With this, you are not going to deal with that annoying cable being pulled accidentally and sending you and your gear to the sea or a cliff! Not only that, but you can actually activate this from a further distance than what a 1.5 meter could offer you. You will also not miss the tangled cables since this set can be stored neatly inside your pocket.
The box contains both the receiver and radio remote (WRT-10), along with a pouch and documentation. It also comes with two strings that you can attach to each of the
setup so that you can hang it somewhere secure, making sure that you will never lose any of them.
The receiver itself comes in two parts, the receiver part which you attach to Nikon's entry level or prosumer cameras like the D3000, D5000 & D7000 series. It can then be attached to a connector so that it can be used with the standard 10-pin connector for Nikon's advanced bodies series like the D800 & D4 series of cameras. It is the standard screw type affair that everybody hates, why can't they modernize it? Canon's is so much easier but not as weather proof as Nikon's implementation, I am sure that the engineers at Nikon can think of something in between. I think that it's time to update that decades-old 10-pin technology!
Both the radio remote and the receiver have a switch that will enable you to choose which of the three channels you want to assign them to. This will allow multiple photographers to shoot at the same venue without interfering with each other's frequency. You can also do some fancy multiple camera setups with of this.
If you purchase extra receivers, you can trigger multiple cameras with just one radio remote! I have no idea about the maximum number of cameras you can trigger but I am sure that you can trigger as many as you can within the distance that the radio signal will allow you to.
The remote has the same form factor and feel as Nikon's old all-time favorite ML-L3 infrared remote trigger with the exception that this has a switch for you to select radio channels with. I really like the whole setup, except that the remote does not have a toggle switch that you can turn on or off for bulb exposure. It is really annoying since you have to press on the button for the duration of your exposure. I have tried pressing it for 2 minutes at most and it is certainly stupid that Nikon will have you do that instead of implementing an elegant solution for this. Even my cheap cable release from a Chinese company has it, so why can't we have it from Nikon!? Makes no sense.
It has a button marked with the letters "Fn", which coincides with your camera's function button. This is handy, as you it potentially gives you another level of control over your setup. You can assign it to AF-ON or something else which suits your workflow better. Be aware that this "Fn" will only work with certain camera bodies like the D800/E. Please check the documentation first to check if this will work with the camera that you intend to use this with.
Another button in the remote will allow you to check your connection to your receiver just like a "test" button, Nikon calls it the "pairing button". I am not sure as to what this exactly does but this has something to do with the connection between the remote and receiver.
One advantage of this system over the other off-brand radio remotes is that the receiver has no batteries, it takes it's power from the camera itself. I was using a third party solution before and when my receiver died because the batteries ran out of power, I had to fall back to my old cable release. This is very annoying, so the receiver getting all it's power from the camera is a very good thing!
The remote uses a common battery that you can find over the counter, I believe it is the same as what the ML-L3 uses. So far, the batteries are still working on my unit, but it would be wise to buy a spare "just in case".
I have been using this for more than a year now and I have nothing much to complain about. The only thing that I would want to point out to is that you should be careful not to lose any of the components since they all work together as a system. What I do is I put them all together inside the pouch that came with it so I will not misplace any of them. This is pretty handy when shooting in cold weather since you can just put this thing inside a warm jacket. During hot days you can just go to the comfort of a shade and operate your camera from a distance.
One minor issue that I have with this setup is that the receiver blinks from time to time just to indicate that it is receiving signals, the LED is kind of bright as well and it will attract some attention to you. You can tape over the LED if you like and this is something that I am seriously considering since I want to work without attracting attention to myself.
Pros:
+ smart and clean implementation
+ responsive
+ gives you control with the "Fn" button
+ small, light and discrete
+ no more cables!
+ no batteries on the receiver
+ uses cheap and available battery
+ expandable
+ you can choose your channel
+ the best that Nikon has
+ brand-wide compatibility (J-1?)
Cons:
- expensive, a bit overpriced
- annoying blinking LED
- no toggle switch for the trigger
- can easily be misplaced
- annoying 10-pin screw
Overall, I love this system and I highly recommend this to anybody who shoots landscapes and studio. This is one of the few things that you will only buy once and use for the rest of your career until something better comes along. Very modern and very smart. Rick.