MIOPS Smart+ Smartphone Controllable Camera and Flash Trigger for High Speed Photography & Timelapse with S2 Cable for Sony Cameras

Ordered this as an "easy" method of capturing lightning and fireworks - living in the Niagara Region, we have fireworks every night from May to October, and a few weeks over the winter holidays, so hoping this would make capturing both the very rare lightning but frequent fireworks easier. Though easy to understand, better to get the gizmo first before creating your MIOPS account at the website first, as I did, then had email address problems. Be sure to DL the app, because with the app, it all makes everything so easy, while before I had the app, it was not too easier, plus it was hit and miss. I have an emergency light kit for the car, and used it to test the MIOPS Smart+. My light kit has a fast & slow flashing light mode, and while it wasn't easy to set the Smart+ parameters, BUT once I DLed the app, and paired both app with the Smart+, it was all easy sailing. YOU can actually control everything from the app, and quickly adjust the parameters so it "sees" the lightning/fireworks to trigger the camera, in this case my sony a7cii. I picked up a different cable other than what was provided with the Smart+, after reading a reddit post of MY same camera but the smart+ cable provided not working, recommending this one [Seadream USB C to 2.5mm Audio Cable Double Angled USB Type C to 2.5mm Male AUX Headphone Jack Cable Gold Plated,30cm], which works perfectly. If you buy this Smart+, get the app too BUT first!! I did it all ass-backwards not knowing, but it's working well too. The app makes it all so visual and easy! We were going out to test the smart+ tonight but it poured, so will update with the results of a real test tomorrow!

So... You may have noticed that in my picture is a Nikon D7500 and not a Sony. Here's why, the Nikon packages where back ordered. I already had the cable for my Nikon. So... I bought the package that would arrive the fastest regardless of DSLR brand. This is because I knew the unit was DSLR agnostic and it is only the cable provided that associates the package to a specific form factor. It also turned out it was cheaper than the Nikon package to go with an alternative form factor and just switch the cable. Win win! Well this thing is great. The app is intuitive. I very happy with this. This fits perfectly in my Nikon D7500 hot shoe without being any additional hardware! So fantastic! The miops website leaves something to be desired considering the links on the site don't work. But I was able to find the PDF manual after a big of Google searching.

The MIOPS Smart+ is a great sensor packed with many features. I tried it with my a7R III on a stormy night to photograph lightning and it didn’t meet my expectations. I know every lightning sensor isn’t 100% accurate, but this one just seemed to miss more than I was expected it to be. I wanted to give this sensor a chance over the leading lighting sensor brand, but after seeing the other brand in action, I was sold and decided to return this one. Beside the lightning feature, the other capabilities of the MIOPS Smart+ are worth the purchase if you use them (timelapse, motion, sound, and laser triggering).

The MIOPS trigger works very well for some things. I have done the balloon, ice, and fruit drops into water shots. The laser trigger works incredibly well. I just dialed in my delay after a few attempts and got some great shots. The sound was a bit harder to get dialed in, especially with water balloons. I ended up having to either turn the sensitivity all the way up, or leave air in the ballon to make a louder pop. With the sensitivity up, it was setoff too easily. I tried lightning during a small storm I had during the day. As I understand, the original Lightning trigger is very expensive and only does one thing, and for good reason. The MIOPS had a lot of trouble during the day. I used a flash to test it, and unless I had the sensitivity turned all the way up, the flash would not trigger it. but with the sensitivity all the way up, I got a lot of false positives. I did test it at night as well and although I had no good close flashes that were clean, it did a pretty good job picking up when lightning went off in the area. All in all, it is a good device for a multitude of situations such as Time lapse or using as a cable release. The sound works well in a controlled environment and the laser trigger is excellent. I recommend it.

The miops seemed to be what I needed, but, using the lightening mode in hopes of finally capturing strikes, I only received images of leaves in trees. The miops triggered only when wind moved leaves.

Great little tool. Used it for fireworks New Years eve and I was impressed with the range and performance. I will use it mainly for summer lighting, so no review of that yet. App works with ease. Very little learning curve to this trigger. It is very well thought out to operate with simplicity. So far so good.

I absolutely love shooting photography, especially lighting, I have tried several different strategies to taking lighting photos, and the through those trials, the best one is this device, and all I have to do is set up what I want to do on my phone and turn it on and off. The performance is great

Sound activation was tested, very promising. Didn’t have a chance to test out the lightning triggering yet, instead, I test it with a flash, worked nice. I believe there should be some sensitive adjustments needed in real situation. Laser pointer functionality is great, no complaint so far. I am using a7r2 camera.