Help! I need flash help...

[kvt]

I am sharing a job with another photographer and he set-up the studio lights. There are two external strobes. I put the hot shoe adapter on my Canon (XTi, 400D) and attached the PC cord, but couldn't get the strobes to fire with the camera. I tried everything I could think of to no avail and we finally went outside to shoot. Any thoughts or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you and cheers!

 

[Village Idiot]

I am sharing a job with another photographer and he set-up the studio lights. There are two external strobes. I put the hot shoe adapter on my Canon (XTi, 400D) and attached the PC cord, but couldn't get the strobes to fire with the camera. I tried everything I could think of to no avail and we finally went outside to shoot. Any thoughts or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you and cheers!

Need to know the type of gear and how it's setup? PC cables are often unreliable and have to be connected just right to fire.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, the cord (specifically the connection points) would be the first place I'd look (assuming that everything is turned on and has power). Those PC connections can be infuriating.

 

[Mike_E]

I'd start with checking the batteries/battery connections.

 

[kvt]

The test button on my hot shoe worked fine with the flashes , so is it an issue between the camera and the PC cable? Later on I tried putting a basic flash on top of the hot shoe adapter to test the adapter and it worked fine in "normal" mode, but wouldn't do anything in "slave" mode. Ugh! I'll try to get more info about the equipment. The flashes connect into a Novatron 1000, the PC cable goes from there to the adapter on my hot shoe. Any thoughts?

 

[Village Idiot]

The test button on my hot shoe worked fine with the flashes , so is it an issue between the camera and the PC cable? Later on I tried putting a basic flash on top of the hot shoe adapter to test the adapter and it worked fine in "normal" mode, but wouldn't do anything in "slave" mode. Ugh! I'll try to get more info about the equipment. The flashes connect into a Novatron 1000, the PC cable goes from there to the adapter on my hot shoe. Any thoughts?

"Normal flash"? Canon propreitary? Slave mode is for being controlled by another Canon flash. I would understand if it didn't work on your hot shoe in that mode.

It sounds like the cable. They make conditioners that will kind of reform the cable to get a good connection. Do you have pictures of your setup? That would be much easier to tell where the weak link is at.

I'm understanding it's a hot shoe adapter on your camera with a plug for a pc cable that runs to a Novatron 1000 with it's proprietary connector? I'm assuming the Novatron 1000 does not use a standard pc connector on it's end.

I have a Canon 580EX II that I hook up to a pocket wizard radio slave via a pc connection on the 580EX II and I'm forever playing around with the positioning of the PC cable just to get it to connect correctly so it will fire.

 

[kvt]

I'll get some pictures. Thank you for your ideas and suggestions!! I am feeling hopeful, again!!

I'll post the pix in the next day.

Thanks, again...