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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Flashes and slaves and what not
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 11/29/2005 07:58:20 PM · #1
alright, heres the deal. Ive got three flashes, 2 vivitar 285's and one sigma 500 super. Ive got one radio slave system (one channel purchased through ebay - if anyone has the same one, please contact me as id like to buy it or a reciever for it), the radio slave triggers the first 285 to fire. this is my main light. My sigma 500 has a built in optical slave, which works well in dark and shaded areas, but not too reliably in bright situations. My third flash, the second 285 needs to be triggered as well. Will a dedicated optical trigger work better than the one in my sigma 500 and allow me to trigger it in bright situations or will I need to try and purchase another reciever to work with my radio kit? Also, I was thinking about using a PC Cord splitter to have two cords come out of the same reciever, but this brings wires into the equation and also maybe electrical problems like one flash needing too much juice to be triggered.

so basically im asking if a good optical slave will work in sunlight or if anyone has a one channel radio slave kit that was from ebay a few months ago that I cant find any more.

Thanks.
 11/29/2005 08:24:58 PM · #2
as far as I know, an optical slave will function normally in sunlight...

but i could be wrong
 11/29/2005 08:50:08 PM · #3
the wein peanut slaves (20 bucks) work pretty decently in the 285's. It's hit or miss in bright sunlight, if you manage to put your flash in the shadows, and it's still in the line of sight of the other flash it'll usually fire.

pocket wizards are by far the best solution, but yeah they cost dollars.

My set up is usually a pc cord from camera to one flash, then the other two fired by opticals. PC cords are reliable and not that much of a pain, just get like a 30 ft one.

i saw your name on skateboardphotography.com my advice is to suscribe there and read all the tutorials man, even if its not skating that you're gonna shoot. It'll help you a lot ... but right now the guy that runs the site is kinda MIA, so keep checkin back to suscribe. plus people there will tell you a lot more about what's wrong with your photos. Not that you can't get a decent critique here on dpc, but, the acceptance factor over there is a lot lower...so you have better idea of when you really have a good shot.

Those ebay radios usually start misfiring and actin up after awhile, but they do the trick for the time being.

Message edited by author 2005-11-29 20:52:46.
 11/29/2005 08:52:36 PM · #4
Hurro,

To get 100% reliability under full sunlight you'll need to be all radio...

But.. (There's always one of those) I get pretty good results with my 285's using dedicated optical slaves from Ebay. So long as you've got line of sight to the flash/brolly for the slave it seems fine..

I've also 'shaded' the slave sensor a few times, so it didn't get direct light from overhead sky/sun.

The thing they need is the contrast between ambient & flashlight to trigger.

You could go as far as to run slaves with pc sockets on them (Mine have) on short pc-hotshoe cables and put a cardboard tube around them so they could only 'see' the master flash.

Cheers, Me.
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