There are a lot of situations where I “need” RadioPoppers. It’s not for shooting people five feet away who are making me point my camera directly at the sun. You can do that without Poppers. What I do want them for is shooting around corners, where I might have a flash in the next room or in an alley that wouldn’t fire if I was just using the regular i-ttl capabilities of my gear.
Or I may be 50 yards away, trying to shoot a nice portrait at dusk under ambient conditions that change by the moment where I have to balance the flash differently as the twilight fades. Poppers let me do that Even more frequently, I might have strobes set up on stands to shoot a wedding party, and to loosen everyone up I will move in very close to shoot right in their faces (this always cracks up bridesmaids, for some reason) and once you get outside that 30-degree visibility window with normal i-ttl you’re not able to rely on the system to give you good exposures. For some of those situations I can use my Pocket Wizards, and believe me I still will rely very heavily on those in my pantheon of lighting tools.
