Recent Posts | Share a Tip | Back to Basics | Reader Photos | Forum | Subscribe
Home Studio | Tutorials | Readers Projects
Studio Lighting - Cactus Slave Flash Cable Hack
As you may know, I am a great fan of off camera flash
I've owned a Nikon SB-28 since my analog days and added a Nikon SB800 when going digital. Advised by Strobist, I added a third flash - a Nikon SB26.
To get all those flashes going off camera, I bought some cheapo Cactus (AKA Gadget Infinity) flash radio triggers - those can be found at eBay for just a few dollars. I initially bought two receivers and when I added the Nikon SB26 to my collection, I bought the third one.
I really like those cheapo triggers and up until now they were lots of fun (see this shot, I just can't miss a shot at showing my son off). Of course, if you need high reliability, you should consider the big brother: Pocket Wizards.
Each of the receivers has a male phone jack connected, so it can be attached to high power studio flash. The full eBay kit also comes with a connector cable that has a phone jack on one side and a pc-sync (or x-sync) connector on the other.
So for the first flash unit, I used a headphone splitter. This was nice, but way to clumsy. I wanted something a bit more elegant for my next unit. (Besides, the third receive did not come with a connector cable).
So... I went to my local camera store and bought an ancient pc-sync cable. The jack on this one was a weird jack that did not fit any flash I know. I also got a female headset jack from my local electronics store. The next few paragraphs are an illustrated tutorial of how I made the oldie sync-cord into a female jack to pc-sync cord. (Click an image to make it larger).
Materials:
- Cheapo eBay Remote
- Female headset jack
- Oldie but goody Vivitar pc-sync cable
Instructions:
First cut the oldie jack from the oldie pc-sync cable and expose the wiring.
Then open the female jack and slide the plasticy part on the pc-cord. (This step has to be done now. After you connect the wired the plastic will not slide).
Next connect the sync cable exposed wires to the metal part of the jack. In the jack I used I connected one wire to the "right" connector of the jack, and one wire to the "left" connector of the jack. I left the "front" connector untouched.
Now slide the plastic and screw it back.
Last step is to connect the cable to the remote flash trigger.
The entire thing should take about 5 minutes.
Make sure you don't miss out on the next article - Register to the RSS feed or the newsletter.
More Flash Hacks:
- Flash Mounted homemade DIY Softbox
- 4 ways to bounce a flash
- Homemade Speedlite "Snoot"
- Pocket Wizard Mounting Device II
- The CD Spindle Ringflash
Bookmark this post with:
Comments
SB-26 Hack
Why didn't you just use the slave mode built into the SB-26 - (the little switch on the front - move it to S) - Never fails. Interesting though - I use the GI kit as well and the receivers look totally different.
re: SB-26 Hack
Thanks Arne,
I did use the SB26 and SB800 built in slave options, and it was good in some conditions and not so goon in others.
In outdoor shooting I'd get really low firing rate and the optical slave caught about 1/4 of the shots made. Thats' when I decided that I need and extra receiver.
For indoor shooting, I sometimes still use the slave mode.
- udi
Re: SB-26 Hack
The radio triggers in the pics are the 16 channel version for studio lights. The 4 channel version you probably (as well as I do) looks different and the flashlight is mounted straight to the receiver unlike the 16 channel version (it is connected with the flash via cable).
The slave mode on SB-26 is useful indoors and sometimes outdoors, but there are at least two minuses:
1) the flash needs to see the "master flash" fired from the camera body, so that it can't be placed anywhere
2) the "master flash" can affect the photo, which is usually not what we want.
Pre-made version.
There is a website called www.flashzebra.com run by a guy named Lon. He manufactures these same cables and a whole lot more stuff along these lines and does it very professionally. I've ordered from him several times and he is amazingly fast and inexpensive.
you might want to give him a try if your not very handy and want some of these cables.
Tom
Further FlashZebra savings...
Lon at FlashZebra is awesome, he got me my cables super-quick to Australia, and for a great price too!!
And for this particular mod, you can sort of cheat and save even more dollars if you are happy wielding a soldering iron - I purchased the 5m/16' version that has a screwlock pc-sync on both ends... This meant I could cut the cable about 1' in at each end, add a 1/8" phone jack to each and I now have 2x sync cables with screw connectors!! And with the 14' of cable left over, I added a 1/8" plug and socket to each end, and now I have a great extension cable as well!! All for a great price!!
Chat to Lon, FlashZebra is excellent!!
Did your Cactii not come with the sync plug in the rear?
I bought a handful of the 16 channel Cactus units on eBay and then scooted over to B&H to order a set of short sync cables. Cheap and effective without any self wiring.
I use the 12" variety, B&H # GBPCPCS1 - but PC male to PC male cords are available in a pretty decent variety of lengths.
Just curious since my Cactus units came with the sync plug on them.
it did
but I could not find any male to male plugs in the local photo store.
Sadly B&H is a 12 hours flight for me ;) I get to go about once a year.
- udi
NovaTron Strobes
Any chance these receivers can be rigged to fire Novatron heads?
B&H
B&H has a website, you know...they might even ship the stuff out to you so you don't have to go pick it up. :)
Of course, catching them when they're open (apparently they're only open from 3:47 to 4:03 on alternate Tuesdays that aren't holidays celebrated by anyone anywhere in the world) can be a pain. That's where Adorama comes in handy; better hours, and usually better prices as well - $6.95 for their 5' coiled PC sync cord.
yea, I know............
However, you'll be amazed with the shipping rates to Israel. Even with today's crappy dollar it takes the punch from most remote purchases.
Post new comment