Slave triggers for digital cameras

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eganders@yahoo.com - 07 Aug 2005 13:53 GMT

A couple years ago I bought a digital slave flash trigger to use one of
my old flash units for my small digital camera. I hoped it would allow
me to get decent pictures during things like wedding receptions where
people were 30 ft away. The flash unit on my small digital camera does
not have near the penitration for these types of pictures.

The slave I bought was not sensitive enough and would usually only work
in limited cases where it was able to see the bounce flash of the small
camera. If you took photos in a large space or out of doors, it did
not go off.

I have been looking at the Digi-slave Deluxe 3000 Slave Flash for
Digital Cameras (Guide No. 110') from B & H for $130 and Metz 28 CS-2
Digital Slave Flash for Digital Cameras also for $130 from B & H. Does
anyone have experience with these and other solutions and comments
about these flashes as far as flash power relative to the old flash
units like my Minolta Auto 280?

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JPS@no.komm - 07 Aug 2005 14:23 GMT

>I have been looking at the Digi-slave Deluxe 3000 Slave Flash for
>Digital Cameras (Guide No. 110') from B & H for $130 and Metz 28 CS-2
>Digital Slave Flash for Digital Cameras also for $130 from B & H. Does
>anyone have experience with these and other solutions and comments
>about these flashes as far as flash power relative to the old flash
>units like my Minolta Auto 280?

I don't know these specific units, but make sure they work with your
camera; many cameras use a "pre-flash" flash to estimate flash exposure,
and many slaves will go off during the preflash, and will be recycling
when the shutter is actually open. I have a couple of Morris
battery-powered slaves, and they only work with manual flash power on my
550EX, or with second curtain sync and a very long shutter speed when
pre-flash is used.

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Alan Browne - 07 Aug 2005 17:21 GMT

> A couple years ago I bought a digital slave flash trigger to use one of
> my old flash units for my small digital camera. I hoped it would allow
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> camera. If you took photos in a large space or out of doors, it did
> not go off.

A bit of tin foil ( 2 - 4 in^2) or white paper placed near the slave to
capture and reflect more light onto the slave sensor is enough to solve
the problem in most cases.

If you're so far that it is really a problem then radio slaves such as
PocketWizards will do the trick, albeit at pretty high price.

Cheers,
Alan.

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Gisle Hannemyr - 09 Aug 2005 13:24 GMT

> If you're so far that it is really a problem then radio slaves such
> as PocketWizards will do the trick, albeit at pretty high price.

There are cheaper alternatives. So far, I'm happy with the radio
slaves I bought off eBay for $19 a piece:
http://folk.uio.no/gisle/photo/gt301b.html

They can be daisy-chained for extended range.

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Jeremy Nixon - 07 Aug 2005 21:05 GMT

> I have been looking at the Digi-slave Deluxe 3000 Slave Flash for
> Digital Cameras (Guide No. 110') from B & H for $130 and Metz 28 CS-2
> Digital Slave Flash for Digital Cameras also for $130 from B & H. Does
> anyone have experience with these and other solutions and comments
> about these flashes as far as flash power relative to the old flash
> units like my Minolta Auto 280?

If you're going to look at spending $130 for optical slaves, start
looking at Pocket Wizards instead. That's an absurd amount of money
for optical slaves.

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