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jonathan_sachs4

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  1. My Norman power pack's demise leaves me looking for a new lighting system. I'll use it mostly for small product work with a small digital camera, and since my space is restricted, I want something with smaller and lighter parts and fewer cables. I've been planning to buy two or three radio controlled monolights, but I'm curious about getting some slave speedlites instead. They would be smaller, lighter, and cheaper, and would eliminate the power cords. On the other hand, they wouldn't have modeling lights or interchangeable reflectors (or any reflectors), and they would run on batteries whose life might be short. If you have experience with both types of systems, what can you tell me about them? How big a disadvantage is it to have no modeling lights? No reflectors? How long do the batteries last? The ones I've looked at say they run on alkaline cells. Will they work on Li-ion too? (I have an old digital SLR that uses alkaline batteries and is useless with Li-ion; it can take half a dozen shots on freshly charged batteries, then it shuts down.) I know some reasonably priced slave speedlites support TTL operation. How does that work, and how well? If two or more units are deciding independently how much light to produce, do they make allowances for each other and yield a reasonable exposure? What else can you tell me about how the two types of systems compare?
  2. The solution to my mystery turned out to be surprising. The story is rather long. I took the power pack, trigger, and one head to a repair place that I've relied on for over 20 years. After the technician examined the power pack he called me and told me that it was in perfect shape except that flash head connector #3 wasn't working (which I knew, and didn't mind), but the synch voltage (5 volts) was too low to overcome the trigger's internal resistance. He said I could solve the problem by getting a proper radio controlled trigger. He said that when I picked up my equipment he'd show me several inexpensive Chinese triggers that he considered good enough to rely on. When I went back, the technician attached a transmitter to one of my cameras and its receiver to the power pack, and the flash did just what it did with my "broken" trigger: nothing. Again, it flashed obediently when he pressed the test button or shorted the sync connector. I deal with complex technology in my own job, so I waited patiently while he struggled to correct a hugely embarrassing situation that I've been in myself. After a half hour or so he accepted my suggestion that he work on the problem some more and call me when he figured it out. He called a few days later. The mystery was no longer was why the flash wasn't working correctly, he told me; it was why the flash had ever worked at all. The slide switches that control the individual flash head connectors all were worn out. Three of the four connectors had no copper connecting them to the trigger circuit; they were apparently being triggered by induction, made possible by a rat's nest of wires jammed into the power pack in a space that was barely large enough to hold them. Because of the way the power pack was designed, it would have cost about $300 to repair -- much more than it is worth. I'm going to sell my broken power pack for parts, and the flash heads as working used units. So now I need a new flash system. I've decided to get a couple of monolights instead of another power pack and heads; they're more flexible and easier to move around (it's easier both to move them around, and to move around them). When I bought my old system over 20 years ago, monolights would have have cost me a fortune. Now I can get Chinese ones for less than $100 each. My repair person's opinion was, "They work just as well as professional units, but when one of them breaks, you throw it away and spend $100 to replace it instead of $200 to repair it." I'm probably going to buy Neewer lights. They seem to get the most positive reviews on sites like Amazon, and unlike certain competitors, they come with a warranty that's long enough to cover more than DOA. I'll get either two 300 watt-second units, or one 300 for bounce fill and one 180 as a main light. (I'll use them mostly for small product photography with a digital camera.) In the past I've rarely used more than two lights, but I can always buy more if I want decide I need them.
  3. I have a Norman 808 flash system. I trigger it with a Wein L8 micro slave, which in turn is triggered by an on-camera flash. The 808 has a telephone jack synch connector and the L8 has a two-prong plug, so I connect the two with a home-made adapter. The flash recently stopped working in the middle of a shoot. I didn't touch it; I just took a short break, and when I returned, no flash. I found that I could still trigger the flash with the test button, and also by shorting the two-prong contacts on my home made adapter. The on camera flash was clearly working. That left only one component that could be at fault: the L8 micro slave. I ordered a new one. The new L8 arrived today. I fired everything up -- and still no flash. What is wrong here? The only logical conclusion I see is that my L8 just spontaneously failed after about ten years of use, and the replacement I ordered is defective. That's too farfetched to be plausible, but I don't know what else to think.
  4. <p>I have an Olympus E10 that has been stored on a shelf for several years. I need it again, but the rubberized hand grip on the right side of the body feels as if it got splashed by something sticky. It feels creepy, and it leaves little black smudges on my hands.<br /><br />I thought the rubberized material had picked up some kind of gunk from sitting on the shelf, and I tried to clean it with rubbing alcohol. That made it feel even worse. I examined it closely and saw that it seems to be melting. It now appears to me that the rubberized material has degraded over time; the stickiness is the material itself, not some substance that has accumulated on it. The rubbing alcohol made the degraded material start to dissolve.<br /><br />If you have had a similar experience, what did you learn from it? Is there a way to restore the hand grip covering to its original condition, or failing that, to remove it cleanly?</p>
  5. <p>I'm flattered that my question generated this much interest.</p> <p>For me, the solution was another Sunpak 1600A. I said that I wanted something "reasonably cheap." Actually, money is pretty tight right now, so I chose the cheapest solution that does the job. This cost me about $15, shipping included.</p> <p>I eyed the Wein transmitter covetously, even before it was suggested here. In the end, though, I couldn't justify spending $70 to do a job that I can do for $15.</p> <p>Craig -- I need to respond to you specifically. I too assumed that I could use the on-camera flash if I blocked it from direct line-of-sight to the subject. I was wrong. When the on-camera flash is activated the camera's little brain does something that produces severely underexposed pictures, even on manual with the lens wide open and 500 watt-seconds of studio lights a few feet away from the subject. I haven't figured out just what it does, but the results are useless. Only an external flash can be used this way, at least on my camera.</p>
  6. <p>Thank you; both answers are extremely useful.</p> <p>I asked about this because my old trigger flash (a Sunpak 1600a) died, and while I was looking for a replacement I stumbled across a claim that it uses over 200V. That almost gave me a coronary. I later found another, more authoritative report of 46.6V, but even that seemed alarmingly high. On Jochen's suggestion I downloaded my P5100 user manual (never had one before) and learned that my dinky little camera can handle up to 250V. Problem solved.</p> <p>I never considered buying an old Nikon flash because I don't have old Nikon literature, so I didn't know what models to look for. I'll follow up John's suggestions, which promise a superior flash at a reasonable price.</p>
  7. <p>I have a Nikon P5100. I'm trying to choose an on-camera flash to use as a strobe trigger.<br /><br />My criteria are:</p> <ul> <li>Small and light enough to mount on the hot shoe without making the camera unwieldy or putting too much strain on the shoe.</li> <li>Trigger voltage low enough not to damage the camera's electronics.</li> <li>Head tilts so I can point it at the ceiling to avoid hot spots on reflective subjects.</li> <li>Reasonably cheap.</li> </ul> <p>Modern technology seems to be conspiring to make the choice difficult. If I shop for an older unit I risk damaging my camera with excessive trigger voltage. I understand that some older flashes, even tiny on-camera ones, use more than 100 volts.<br /><br />If I shop for a recent unit the trigger voltage should be safe, but the rock-bottom basic ones generally don't tilt, and most of the others are dedicated. Dedicated flashes for a dinky camera like the P5100 seem to be pretty rare; the only ones I know of are the Nikon SB600 and SB800, which are both pretty expensive (more expensive than the camera!). I just need is something that goes pop when I click the shutter, but will a dedicated flash meant for another camera do even that? I've been searching the Web, and I can't find a yes or a no.<br /><br />Add the fact that it's hard to find the dimensions of an older flash, and almost impossible to find its weight, and this becomes a first class headache.<br /><br />Can anyone help me figure this out? If you don't have a neatly packaged answer, that's fine; any bit of relevant information could be useful.</p>
  8. <p>Thank you for both sets of comments. I'll respond to some of your points. <br /><br />My lighting system uses a Norman 808 powerpack. It has no built-in receiver. It does have a phone jack (not a two-prong socket) on the trigger circuit, but I have an H-prong L8 that I bought for an older pack. I use it with a home-made adapter; thus it is physically possible that the trigger is reversed. It does work fine when driven by a visible-light on-camera flash, though, and I assume that if the polarity were reversed it wouldn't work at all.<br /><br />The literature for the SSR says that the maximum trigger voltage is 12 V, and my Norman puts out 18 V. From that I've concluded that replacing the L8 with an SSR trigger is not an option. I'm not sure how to reconcile that with Ian's statement that "older power packs work well with the Wein Receivers."<br /><br />Rodeo Joe suggested, "why not use a simple reflector over the flash to divert its light away from the subject and towards the strobe?" In fact that's very similar to the solution I devised a couple of days ago. I ordered a lens hood – the old-fashioned kind that's partly conical – and when it comes, I'm going to tape or glue a piece of white cardboard to it to block the on-camera flash from the field of view. I tried this with a handheld card, and it worked pretty well.<br /><br />It's a jury rigged solution, though, and I'd prefer one that uses tools and materials for their intended purpose. In other words, an IR or radio trigger that can withstand my powerpack's 18 V trigger circuit, and can actually trigger it. So far, though, all of the triggers I've found say "maximum trigger voltage 12 V" or less, which leaves me with no products to choose from. And that's before I add the third criterion, "…and doesn't cost a fortune." Right now it looks like I would have to replace my entire flash system to make this work right, which would really cost a fortune!</p>
  9. <p>I just bought a Wein SSR-Jr. infra red transmitter, and it's not working. I need some advice to help me diagnose the problem.<br /><br />I'm want to use the transmitter with a Norman strobe and a Wein L8 trigger which I estimate is 10 to 15 years old. When I press the test button on the transmitter I see a faint red flash, so I infer that the transmitter is operating. It does not make the strobe flash, though, even when I point the transmitter at the trigger from less than a foot away. On the other hand I can trigger the strobe from across the room with a visible-light on-camera flash, so I know the strobe and trigger are working.<br /><br />Wein's web site says that the L8 trigger is sensitive to infra red, but I wonder whether older ones are. I also wonder whether the SSR-Jr. only works with particular types of triggers for some reason that I don't understand.<br /><br />I contacted both the seller and Wein, but haven't heard back from either one. I hope an experienced person here can help me out.</p>
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