iISO Optical Trigger Review

Minolta hot shoe optical triggers- available on ebay

These are small optical triggers that have a hot shoe mount (iISO or ISO depending on the version). The bottom is slotted with a standard ISO shoe and a brass standard thread so that it may be mounted onto either a light stand or umbrella stand. The optical receiver takes a flash signal that triggers the flash to fire.



Total Cost/ Availability:
12.99 USD including Shipping.   The units are made in and shipped from China and can only be purchased from ebay. The unit I ordered only took approximately two weeks to arrive.

PROS:
Inexpensive
Allows for use of off camera flash
Will work with any body
A standard ISO mount is also available
Relatively reliable
No batteries required
Small and portable
Solid Build Quality

CONS:
Doesn’t ignore pre-flash
Limited range
No Built in PC port
HSS Doesn’t Function
Any flash will trigger the system
Ships from China
No Warranty
Line of sight only

Ease of Setup:
The total setup time for these is just seconds. Affix the trigger to the stand via either the standard ISO foot or the threads at the bottom. Slide the flash into the foot and turn it on. Set the flash however you desire and you are ready to go. The iISO shoe that I tested fit my Minolta 3200I, 5200I, 5400xi, and 5600hsd securely.   The fit wasn’t too tight or too loose.

Compatability Issues:
The design tested is not an intelligent design. This means that the sensor does not ignore a pre-flash. As a result, if your camera’s shoe mounted or on board flash sends a preflash, the flash mounted on the slave unit will fire before the shutter opens.   This means that any flash can be used to trigger the flash so long as it does not preflash. On the down side, HSS can’t be used since the Minolta/Sony cameras must send a pre-flash when using this function. Additionally, any flash (yours or someone else’s) will trigger the receiver.

Sony/Minolta bodies on board flashes can not be used to trigger the receiver since they all preflash with the following exceptions. Both the 7D and A700 have the capability to fire an on board flash manually which eliminates the preflash and the a900 doesn’t have an on board flash. Users of all other bodies should not despair, as there is a work around for all other bodies. If one of the older Minolta units is mounted to the body and set to manual, that unit will not preflash, and will trigger the off camera flash. Any flash mounted with an FS-1100 adapter will also disable preflash. The flash mounted to the unit will fire up the x-synch speed of the body.
Non-manual flashes such as 3200I, 3500xi, and 3600hs, HVL-F36AM will all fire at full power when used with this slave adapter. (Yes, I know that the 3200I has a hi/lo setting, but it lacks much flexibility.)

Useable Distance:
The useable distance for these depends greatly on the lighting conditions coupled with the power of the triggering flash. In a darkened room (metered at 1/10 sec at f5.6, ISO400) the onboard flash (GN12) set to full power could trigger the receiver at a distance of over 30 feet (I ran out of room at 30’). At 1/16th power, it was only able to trigger the receiver at only a distance of 18 feet under the same light conditions. I also tested the unit out doors where conditions were metered at 1/500 sec at f5.6 ISO 400. With the on board flash set to full power, the range dropped to only 12 feet. For reference, there was a 5 2/3 stop difference between indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. As expected, in brighter out door conditions, the distance was significantly reduced. Since it is overcast, I didn’t get to try the receiver in direct sunlight.
One other note, this is line of sight system. If the receiver doesn’t see the light, it won’t trigger.

Conclusion:
Depending on your needs this is a good option for those that want to use older flashes on a Sony/Minolta dSLR that does not have built in wireless capabilities, but can be configured manually. The price is very inexpensive to pick one of these up. However, for the money, there are certainly other trigger options that are more attractive and may suit one’s needs better.
The main place I can see myself using one of these with pocket wizards in an umbrella or softbox. Using this adapter will allow a second flash in the same modifier to be fired at the same time without additional adapters and cables. They also make it an easy way to trigger a hair light or other background light, so long as the trigger can see one of the other flashes in the setup.


Edited by ffrolvaag - 26 January 2009 at 02:20

ffrolvaag wrote: Minolta hot shoe optical triggers- available on ebay

Actually, they seem to be manufactured by Seagull (who have a very long history with Minolta), at least you can find this servo flash receiver SYK-6 on their web-site as well:

http://www.camerachina.com/productxx.asp?id=1614

BTW. You can also find the Seagull SC-5 and SC-6 there:

The Seagull SC-5 can be seen as a clone of the original Minolta FS-1100 hotshoe adapter. Just like the FS-1100 it supports all Minolta-specific TTL signals "F1", "F2" and "F3" and "GND", and it can be used as a 100% substitute for the FS-1100. Additionally, it provides a PC terminal, something the original FS-1100 did not. One could, however, always order a custom variant of the FS-1100 directly from Minolta's service department, which featured a PC sync port as well. This custom part was nick-named FS-PC in Minolta's documentation, but it never appeared in product flyers or such. I have read reports, that a variant of the SC-5 exist, which only supports "F1" and "GND", but I have not seen it myself yet and don't know its offical name.

While at first glance the Seagull SC-6 seems to similarly resemble a Minolta FS-1200 hotshoe adapter, it is actually a rather different beast. Similar to the real FS-1100 the real FS-1200 supports all TTL signals "F1", "F2", "F3" and "GND". In contrast to this, the SC-6 only supports "F1" and "GND". While this may be enough to trigger a Minolta iISO flash via a 3rd party flash servo, we should really be specific about it and not call the SC-6 a "FS-1200 clone", as it happens all over the place. It serves a different purpose, and I think, not calling it by its true name creates alot of confusion among newbies, who actually think, they bought a FS-1200, while they didn't.

Greetings,

Matthias

I'm just starting to browse this section again, thanks for the share Franz :)

TallPaul,
   I did get one off ebay with no problems. I got one from Seagull with no issues and it works well. It took roughly 2 weeks to arrive to the states shipped from China.

Edited by ffrolvaag - 05 February 2009 at 01:27