compatibility question about flash setup

[nickisonfire]

before I being i'm a noob at this flash connectivity stuff so bare with me :er:

okay so i'm trying to get an off camera flash setup going so this is what I am thinking about so far.

Vivitar 285HV

mounted on something like this:

SKY4 Optical Slave Trigger for Hot Shoe Flash PC Sync - eBay (item 260343758638 end time Jan-14-09 21:12:13 PST)


then activate it with the on board camera flash.. Will this work? or do i need to attach the flash and slave with a PC cable or something like that?



thanks in advance

 

[Big Mike]

In theory, that will allow you to trigger the 285 remotely with the camera's built in flash. However, most built in flashes use a pre-flash for metering purposes...the pre-flash will trigger the remote flash and then the when the camera's flash fires again for the actual exposure, the remote flash will not have had enough time to recycle. Sometimes you can set your built-in flash to manual mode (no pre-flash) which would work but I don't think that many cameras have that ability.

You could get a more expensive optical trigger like THIS, which can ignore the pre-f lash.

Personally, I'd recommend a cheap radio trigger over a cheap optical trigger. Something like THIS.

 

[nickisonfire]

okay thanks i would of never thought of that pre-flash stuff i'll probably end up buying a set of those cactus triggers then