TP: Cheap secondary wireless flash?

The first is the Sonia. It allows you to remove the sensor and still have a cord syncable hotshoe. I have tried the second ones one time and they worked just fine except can't remove sensor.

BTW X-R-M, YOU'RE VERY WELCOME!!!!! LOL


Aaron

Thanks a lot!!!

You are very kind!

Happy light writing to you!

Many thanks again Aaron,

I just ordered an optical trigger and it should be here next week. I'll report back after testing it out.

Darren

georgiaboy wrote: chych, Cost: 2 light stands-8 ft tall with bags........46.00 with shipping        4 optical hotshoe sensors from India......49.00 with shipping        4 flashshoe/umbrella holders..............60.00 with shipping        1 Sunpak 433d used ebay...................28.55 with shipping        1 Metz 32 Z-1 used ebay...................18.00 with shipping        1 Backgroung light stand double mount.....22.99 with shipping        5 umbrellas 2 white, 2 silver, 1 gold.....38.65 with shipping        2 Nikon SB-20 from KEH ugly...............40.52 with shipping        1 Shepard (Polaris)flash meter(used)......41.57 with shipping TOTAL COST:.....................................345.28

Hi, Aaron, and great post!

Could you please post here the links to the places where you bought these things?

Hi Dumont,

I will try and give you the best descripton I can:   

FLASH SETUP:

1. On a light stand or tripod attach a regular hotshoe adaptor (oem type).

1a.If you buy the type that has a optical sensor built in (cheap Ebay type) they typically have the screw mount already on the bottom. It looks as though from the above spaghetti mix that you have mounts that will accept these already and you will not need to go direct to the light stand.

1B. If you have hot shoes that do not have optical sensors then they must have sync ports so a optical sensor can be attached to it. I prefer this type because you can remove the sensor if you want to and then you have sync ports if you want to go wired. But you already have those as indicated above in the #2 picture.


2. Then slide your FS-1200 into the hot shoe/sensor combo.

3. Then slide the Minolta mount flash into the FS-1200.

3a. It is at this point I want to discuss the taping of the pins on the bottom of the FS-1200. The typical oem plain hot shoe only has connections to 2 locations The center pin, and the ground to the flash. With the standard oem feet the ground connection is actually on the sides and is not always a pin. With my Minolta mount Sunpak and Vivitar I found it necessary to tape over the pin directly behind the center pin in your picture # 1. Thus leaving the other two that are there, ie center pin and one slightly to left and behind it as oriented in the picture. Honestly I don't know if this will be necessary with the 5400's. Not much trial and error however with just 2 pins. First try it without any tape, it may work.

4. At this point you will need to set your flash up the way you want it. It will have to be manual and then you pick the power setting you desire. More on this later!

ON-CAMERA FLASH:

If you have been following this thread you already know that sooten, chych, mojo, and others have been seeking a way to use Minolta/Sony wireless control for our main flash. To date this is elusive. So given that fact, we are simply religated to manual control. The optical sensors fire too early with ttl preflash or ADI. Given this is a controlled atmosphere setup its not the end of the world, just desirable! We are all working on it.

so.....

5. Set your camera to M and put your main flash on the camera in a bounce position (this eliminates the preflash). I use a OmniQuest 80/20 bounce system with a full white bounce insert. Any bounce could be used.

5a. Initally turn on all the flashes and make sure they all flash when you take a picture. If not go back to 3a. and adjust the pin taping, I'm sure you will easily figure this out. Once they are all flashing in sync...

METERING:

6. The absolute best metering situtation here is with a handheld flash meter. Because you are in manual mode the ttl and adi are not functioning properly and it will mean a lot of trial and error with the in camera metering. If you don't have a meter don't buy a high dollar one. I got a Polaris flash/ambiant meter for about 45.00us on Ebay. Works great, nine volt battery lasts a year.

6a. This said, you can however, do a regular metering with the camera using histogram as your set up guide, I always start about iso 100/f5.6/at sync speed. and adjust from there. Also use the on camera flash in bounce mode by itself as a reference point and add one flash at a time and make adjustments to what you see. Once all flashes are working then use the histogram and your screen to determine the setting changes for both the camera and each flash for the desired effect.

Let me say at this point, that it may be possible since I am not familar with the flashes you have, to meter in A or P mode without the main flash being in manual mode. Just try it. Keep in mind you can only send one burst of light and the opticals will fire. Actually I think its two but one is not strong enought to fire them.

Dumont I think this will work just fine for you. I'm basically doing the same thing except my add-on flashes are auto thyrsitors (Sunpak 433D's, Nikon SB-20's, and two old Metz's. I'm using as many as 6 flashes in this manner. All are in manual with selected power set except my Sigma is the trigger for all with the bounce head on it and I use it in FL TTL mode and as a powerful fill/trigger on camera. The Minolta wireless codes also will set off the sensors so it must be on camera or wired. But as I said, have heart we are all looking for solutions to overcome this last hurtle. I really hope this helps!!!

Aaron

Edited by georgiaboy - 29 March 2007 at 08:40

Hmm that's unfortunate, I guess the delay isn't correct for the Rolf unit. Should be solvable with a different PIC program, but that's not easy to replace. Haven't had much time lately but I'll get around to my custom circuit eventually, we'll see how that goes.

MojoRick wrote: chych wrote: Hey guys, I got my Vivitar 35-D flash recently, which is an auto-thyristor type, and I didn't get an instruction manual with it. Can anyone help me figuring out what the settings do, i.e. the top and bottom? I have a photo here: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~csp/flash.jpg It looks like the bottom has to do with the auto circuit, not sure what the colors mean on the bottom switch. Anyways it looks like the flash fires when I short two of the pins on the bottom, so now I'm about ready to build my time sensing optical circuit, just have to finalize that and order parts! I was just sitting here figuring out how to use 'auto-thyristor' mode with my Sunpak 120J. I have the following auto-thyristor settings available: f/2.8, f/5.6, and f/8. I figured out you just set the camera to the corresponding f/stop (Note: you put the camera in Aperture-Exposure mode). The thyristor takes over to turn off the flash. If needed, set the camera 1/3 stop higher or lower to fine tune. I hope I figured it right. In any case it works super with no compensation with the 5D and 120J.

Looks like mojo got it. Don't forget to set the iso value first, that will determine which f stops you wind up with for auto use. BTW you call also shoot full manual too. Set to flash sync, set iso, pick one of your A colored selections, read min/max feet of coverage, shoot away. Aaron