3 Reasons Why I Love the Miops Camera Trigger (Capturing Lightning Over Savannah City Hall)

by Sean Setters

I've been very interested in lightning photography for past several years. My original lightning trigger – the Vello FreeWave Stryker Lightning & Motion Trigger – was destroyed by a set of AAs that ruptured and corroded the battery compartment. While the Vello FreeWave Stryker worked as advertised in very dark conditions, dialing in the correct sensitivity was difficult and you couldn't use it effectively in even dimly lit overcast conditions. With my first lightning trigger irreparable (at least by me), I began looking for a more full featured trigger.

Not long after the Vello trigger bit the dust, I picked up the Miops Camera Trigger. After more than a year with the device, I've come to realize just how awesome this little trigger is. Following are three reasons why I love the Miops Camera Trigger.

Of course, this benefit is true of all lightning camera triggers to a certain degree, but I find the Miops' sensitivity settings to be very easy to dial into a "perfect" setting for whatever situation presents itself in front of my camera, whether I'm photographing in very dark conditions or comparatively bright ones. The ability to finely tune the trigger means that the camera only triggers when lightning occurs. Contrast this with the technique of triggering your camera via an intervalometer where your camera fires endlessly whether there is lightning or not, and you'll quickly realize that a 1-hour storm translates into a lot of wear and tear on your shutter mechanism. Not only does the lightning trigger significantly reduce the wear on your camera, but it also saves you considerable amount of time in post processing as you don't have to wade through a mountain of images to find the candidates where lightning occurred.

Even though I purchased the Miops trigger primarily for photographing lightning, I love the fact that it features multiple kinds of triggering. In addition to lightning, the device can trigger your camera based on sound or laser catalysts. And on top of that, the Miops trigger can even serve as an intervalometer or a Bluetooth/smartphone remote trigger. In fact, I used the device to photograph a cannon firing demonstration (seen above) by remotely triggering my EOS 5D Mark III in continuous burst mode from a vantage point where spectators were not allowed (with prior permission, of course).

To be perfectly frank, I wasn't sure I'd like the internal, rechargeable battery feature of the Miops trigger. I envisioned the battery running out at exactly the wrong time with no way to quickly replace the battery (or batteries) for uninterrupted operation. However, I've only charged the device twice in the year that I've had it and its battery indicator has never dropped below full power (after the initial charge, I recharged it once around the 6 month point just as a precaution). The device uses so little power that its relatively large internal battery seems to last forever. Of course, given enough time or enough usage, the battery will be exhausted, but... considering its performance, I'm happy to throw it on the charger once or twice a year. And if you're really concerned, you can purchase an additional rechargeable lithium-ion battery from Miops and keep a separately charged one in your bag or, alternately, use an USB battery pack to power the device while in-use.

Ever since creating the composite image of a lightning storm over River Street, I envisioned a tighter framed depiction of Savannah City Hall's gold dome with lightning in the frame. However, the biggest problem with the tighter framing is that the lightning would have to occur within a much smaller portion of sky in order to fall within the required field of view. While the perfect placement of a lightning bolt seemed unlikely, I thought it was worth an effort.

With a lightning storm forecast for the evening of April 5, I headed across the Savannah River to International Trade and Convention Center, the same spot I photographed the lightning composite of River Street. The great thing about this location is that it has a canopy covered side which has a great view of River Street on the opposite bank. This time around I used an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM affixed to a 5D Mark III, the Miops trigger and an OP/TECH USA 8" Small Rain Sleeve and pointed the tripod-mounted rig at Savannah City Hall on the other side of the river. Using a focal length of 140mm allowed for the City Hall gold dome to be the prominent feature in the frame while [hopefully] giving me enough buffer around it to capture a lightning bolt.

After setting my exposure values (f/5, 1 sec, ISO 200), I sat down in a spot shielded by a canopy and alternated between watching the storm and reading articles on my smartphone. One of the great things about this type of photography is the automation; once everything was in place, it just became a waiting game.

While waiting for a fortuitous bolt, a riverboat which tours the Savannah River, the Georgia Queen, parked just under the City Hall dome right along River Street. The bright lights of the riverboat helped balance out the frame by adding some interest to the otherwise dimly lit River Street below City Hall.

After about an hour (and only 4 minutes after the Georgia Queen settled into place), I had the shot I was looking for. As it turns out, I was reading articles on my smartphone when this particular strike took place and I had no idea I had captured the image I set out to get. I packed up about 30 minutes later a bit disappointed thinking I was going home empty handed. It wasn't until I was reviewing the images later that evening that I realized I had been successful in achieving my goal of a photographing a lightning strike near the golden-capped landmark.