Lighting setup question

Christie Photo · Jun 27, 2006

Holly said:
Hope you dont mind me asking.. What is hotshoe adapter, since you don't have a pc port used for?

YEARS ago, many cameras were equipted with a "shoe" for mounting a flash unit... either bulbs or strobe. To synchronize the flash with the shutter, a cord from the unit was plugged into the camera by means of a PC port.

Right around 1970, many cameras were made with a "hot shoe," allowing the unit to sync with the camera without the cord. The connection in the shoe was wired, or "hot." Most cameras were built with both PC port and hotshoe.

As time passed, the PC port began to disappear from the more modest models of cameras. SOOOOOOO..... if you have a camera without a PC port, you can buy an adapter that will slide into a hot shoe and accepts a PC plug.

(Where's Hertz? I can't remember where the "PC" comes from.)

guitarkid · Jun 28, 2006

thanks for the info but after reading that i'm still lost. i never heard of a PC port before. i guess it is something i don't need anyway. when i think PC i think computer. what does a PC port look like and why would you need it if you are shooting with a Canon 20D for example? i'm thinking i would not. thanks!

Digital Matt · Jun 28, 2006

A pc port is the port you would plug a sync cord into if you were using monolight strobes in a studio setting. It sends a signal to the flashes to fire when you press the shutter button. On a 20D, it is next to the port for the remote shutter release.

guitarkid · Jun 28, 2006

hey thanks. i have a little reading to do on that since i'm new to portrait photos and such.

Christie Photo · Jul 12, 2006

Digital Matt said:
Hey Pete, have you used that particular trigger? It seems awful cheap, but I'm badly wanting to go wireless.

OK... I bought one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Multi-...ryZ30086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It seems to work fine. I actually modified it right away. All of my strobe require "household" plugs, so I cut off the phone pulg and replaced it a household.

Right this minute, I'm VERY happy.

Pete

Digital Matt · Jul 12, 2006

Christie Photo said:
OK... I bought one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Multi-...ryZ30086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It seems to work fine. I actually modified it right away. All of my strobe require "household" plugs, so I cut off the phone pulg and replaced it a household.

Right this minute, I'm VERY happy.

Pete

Nice

Thanks for remembering this thread Pete. I'm going to look into getting one of those.

Ihaveaquestion · Jul 14, 2006

So I can make this work with my D50?

Ihaveaquestion · Jul 14, 2006

????

Is this it?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=429816&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Christie Photo · Jul 14, 2006

OK... I spent a couple of minutes with the radio slave today. It appears that it will not sync at speeds greater than 1/60 of a second. I'm a bit disappointed. But, I did pay only $20 plus $10 shipping. There are no docs included and the website is in Chinese. There are two switches on both the receiver and transmitter. I THINK these are merely different frequency switches. I'll play with it a bit more and report back, but I don't expect anything more.

Pete

JodieO · Jul 15, 2006

Definitely go for an 800. I have three, I seldom use more than one. Sometimes I use a reflector, sometimes I don't. The good thing about the 800 is you can always turn it down, the 400, you can't turn up as high as the 800, make sense?