Stupid Strobe - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

11/22/2008 12:41:15 AM · #1

ugh, just got a new set of strobes, but they didnt come with instructions. i basically have them figured out, i just dont want to turn them on and blow the whole thing you know? any suggestions?

Sunniee

Canon EOS-40D

11/22/2008 12:42:45 AM · #2

check the manufacturers website for instructions

11/22/2008 12:46:31 AM · #3

ok sounds good, i didnt know they listed instructions online. oh, do you know off the top of your head if when plugging in a strobe you plug in the wall of the strobe first?

11/22/2008 01:23:48 AM · #4

Dammit, i just discovered the box is also missing a lightbulb and the shoe slave adapter i ordered. ugh

oh, and a spider was a complimentary present i guess. it was in one of the boxes

Message edited by author 2008-11-22 01:30:08.

Google Glass Google Glass

11/22/2008 11:05:05 PM · #5

thanks for caring helpful dpcers ***grumpy face***

Message edited by author 2008-11-22 23:05:12.

ambaker

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

11/22/2008 11:12:54 PM · #6

Originally posted by JDubsgirl:

ok sounds good, i didnt know they listed instructions online. oh, do you know off the top of your head if when plugging in a strobe you plug in the wall of the strobe first?

Wall of the strobe? Not sure what you mean...

Kaveran

Canon EOS-50D

11/22/2008 11:25:49 PM · #7

Originally posted by JDubsgirl:

ugh, just got a new set of strobes, but they didnt come with instructions. i basically have them figured out, i just dont want to turn them on and blow the whole thing you know? any suggestions?

lemme guess....ebay?

11/22/2008 11:27:33 PM · #8

Make/model? Did they come with any sort of cables? Do you have any radio triggers? Does it have an optical slave so that if it sees your pop-up flash it fires? Care to post a picture of the back where the controls are? How big/what colour was the spider? Gotta give some stuff to work with here. Where's JDub? Can't he help?

roba

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

11/23/2008 01:58:00 AM · #9

Originally posted by JDubsgirl:

thanks for caring helpful dpcers ***grumpy face***

Really.. we do care! We were all just out trying to shoot something for the multiple Free Studies looming upon us! (hey, it's Saturday)

Anyway... ya, what David said - hard to make suggestions when we don't know what you're working with. More input would be most helpful ;O)

11/23/2008 01:58:38 AM · #10

Originally posted by Kaveran:

Originally posted by JDubsgirl:
ugh, just got a new set of strobes, but they didnt come with instructions. i basically have them figured out, i just dont want to turn them on and blow the whole thing you know? any suggestions?

lemme guess....ebay?

no, b&h actually. but it doesnt surprise me somehow, they have a tendency of messing at least something up per order

11/23/2008 02:03:31 AM · #11

Originally posted by david_c:

LOL! ok ill poszt photos tomorrow, and no, i was worried JDub might blow the whole thing up. my strobes have caution tape on them:) on to the strobes. no i dont think they have optical slaves, but i did order a shoe slave adapter thing(that didnt come with the package, it was forgotten. grawr!). the strobes came with two cords, one to plug into the wall and the other to go to my camera(or so i assume, haven't tried it yet). anything else needed besides the pics? oh, and heres the b&h page for the strobes

roba

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

11/23/2008 05:14:47 AM · #12

okay... much better :O)
That's a pretty good setup. Yes, they do include optical slaves. The sync chord goes from one strobe (normally your main light) into your PC sync port on the camera. The other strobe will fire automatically using the optical slave sensor. Just plug it in... set your power ratios, and have fun. The modeling lights are simply to give you an idea of what the light throw will look like (based on the ratio's that you set).

This deserves a long technical explanation (and I'm sure someone will chime in with one), but the typical setup is to put your camera into manual mode, and set your shutter to 1/125th (but I normally experiment between 1/80th and 1/125th). Play around with your aperture & shutter speed until you get what you're looking for.

Oh... and post lots of pics ;O)

ETA: you'll eventually want to invest in a light meter, but for now... chimping your exposure will do the trick quite nicely. Have fun!
ETA: oh, to help make sure that you don't blow up anything - make sure to turn your camera off before plugging in the synch chord.

ETA: Yikes! Just looked, and found that the 400D does NOT have a sync port, so unfortunately... you're SOL until you get that hotshoe adapter :O(
You could always put both strobes into slave mode, and trigger them with your internal or hotshoe flash, but that's going to give you very unpredicatble results, and likely not give you what you're looking for.

Message edited by author 2008-11-23 06:09:33.

11/23/2008 10:20:13 AM · #13

Everything Rob said, 'specially the ETA part. Your XTi does not have the type of port that the sync cord would work with, so until they send you your missing hotshoe adapter, you will need to set the strobes in slave mode. You'll trigger them with the pop-up flash on your camera, but you will probably need to be shooting in manual mode...if the (E)TTL wants to pre-flash the scene in order to get a meter reading, that pre-flash will cause your strobes to fire early.

As for the "wall" question...maybe you mean the power cord. Plug the cord in to your strobe, and then in to the wall. Unfortunately, my 30-second Google didn't come up with the manufacturer's website. Did they come with user manuals? That's usually a good place to RTFM. ;-)

11/23/2008 12:10:22 PM · #14

hey thanks rob! lots of help that was needed. yeh i couldnt find the website either, kinda scary. and no real manuals, just a tiny booklet that stated what all the buttons do. irritating really. so now im really pissed the auto slave thing didnt come in, god i hate shipping and all that crap. why cant b&h just move out here? ga!

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Canon

11/23/2008 08:53:07 PM · #15

Try this: plug the strobe in to the wall socket. Look for a "slave" mode on the settings of the strobe (on the back panel somewhere, I imagine). Now, take a shot with your pop-up flash on your camera. Did the strobe(s) fire?

boyd2000

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

11/23/2008 09:07:12 PM · #16

Originally posted by ambaker:

Originally posted by JDubsgirl:
ok sounds good, i didnt know they listed instructions online. oh, do you know off the top of your head if when plugging in a strobe you plug in the wall of the strobe first?

Wall of the strobe? Not sure what you mean...

I suspect

JDubsGirl is wondering whether to plug it into the wall outlet or the strobe sync first. I'm not sure but

david_c says to plug it into the strobe first.
As for the sync cord attachment, if you can't get it from the strobe manufacturer you can do like I did for my XTi, I bought one on eBay such as this one that also has another shoe on top that mine doesn't have.

11/23/2008 09:30:20 PM · #17

Originally posted by boyd2000:

As for the sync cord attachment, if you can't get it from the strobe manufacturer you can do like I did for my XTi, I bought one on eBay such as this one that also has another shoe on top that mine doesn't have.

rm -f ebay
ps -ef|grep flashzebra.com

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Canon

11/23/2008 09:57:35 PM · #18

nevermind, stupid question

Message edited by author 2008-11-23 22:33:24.

boyd2000

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

11/23/2008 10:30:24 PM · #19

Originally posted by david_c:

Originally posted by boyd2000:
As for the sync cord attachment, if you can't get it from the strobe manufacturer you can do like I did for my XTi, I bought one on eBay such as this one that also has another shoe on top that mine doesn't have.

rm -f ebay
ps -ef|grep flashzebra.com

Ah, another UNIX geek? OK, that site looks pretty good, so how about: sed -e "s/ebay/flashzebra.com/g"

12/21/2008 10:52:06 PM · #20

hey more questions about the strobes. i am now sitting down and trying to learn the ways of the strobe and am not able to figure out how to get the strobes to fire with my slave adapter. and suggestions?

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

12/21/2008 11:22:50 PM · #21

SOMEONE

PLEASE

HELP

ME

DAMMIT

MattO

Nikon D4

12/21/2008 11:26:12 PM · #22

Originally posted by JDubsgirl:

SOMEONE

PLEASE

HELP

ME

DAMMIT

Perhaps if you quit yelling at people they might. You might also want to tell use what strobes and what optical triggers you have, and what you are trying to trigger them with.

Matt

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

12/21/2008 11:30:08 PM · #23

Originally posted by MattO:

Perhaps if you quit yelling at people they might. You might also want to tell use what strobes and what optical triggers you have, and what you are trying to trigger them with.

Matt

well it got your attention didnt it?

i have a VSD 160 strobe and i have a Popular slave adapter. unfortuantly my camera doesnt have a place to plug in the strobe so i have to use a trigger. and i think my adapter may not be what i need....

MattO

Nikon D4

12/21/2008 11:40:15 PM · #24

The adapter you have is used to fire a hotshoe flash off camera. What you need to fire your strobes is something that puts off light. Or you can have an adapter to put in the hotshoe of your camera that allows you to hook the sync cable to like this.

However by putting your onboard flash into manual mode(hopefully your camera can do that) you can fire the strobes with it.

Matt

Edit to add I think this is what you have. Adapter

Message edited by author 2008-12-21 23:41:11.