Pentax adapter F, FG and F5P cable questions.

<p>I'm exploring additional (non-radio trigger) off camera flash options and have a few questions about the F5P cables and hotshoe adapters. Please correct me if I have any thing wrong. </p>

<p>Seems that most people opt for the hotshot adapter F which sits on the hotshoe, adds a side mounted F5P cable connection and provides a pass though hotshoe to attach an on camera second flash. This one blocks the pop-up flash just as an accessory flash unit would. I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but in addition to the f5p connection any chance this thing also has an x-sync socket?</p>

<p>The rarer adapter FG is "L" shapped, attaches to the hotshoe and provides a vertically, straight up F5P connection, with no hotshoe pass through. I think this one allows the pop-up flash to used? Again, is there an X-sync socket in addition to the F5P connection?</p>

<p>Then there is off camera shoe adapter F which looks pretty much identical to the adapter F other than it's 3X the price (why?) and has a tripod mount on the bottom. This would be to add a F5p cable connection to a flash that does not have one like the FG-360 or third party unit. Wouldn't the hotshoe adapter F provide the same connection, just without the tripod mount?</p>

<p>Are the f5p cables male on one end / female on the other or is each end the same? The longest seems to a 9.5' extension cable; which I assume is male / female. So I guess I'd need a standard 3' cable to use the 9.5' extension cable. Or will the 9.5' cable work between an adapter f / fg and the AF-540 alone?</p>

<p>No. Yes. No. No idea. Yes. The two ends are the same. Both the F5P and F5PL are male at both ends (if you look at the enlarged pictures on B&H you can see that). It looks like it should work with just one adapter at the camera end, since the 540 has a built-in connection socket.</p>

<p>Instead of getting a Pentax hotshoe adapter, and a pentax off-camera shoe adapter, and a Pentax extension cord, you can just get <a href="http://www.adorama.com/FAOCSCPX.html">this</a> instead.</p>

<p>Thanks Leo, Actually I have one of those and use it with my L bracket.<br /> <br /> Really my main interest in the F5P cables is is getting HSS working off camera to sync higher than 1/180 and I'm looking for between 10' to 16' or so of cable. So the question is still out there. If the regular F5P cable and the F5P "extension" cable are the same on both ends how do you get a longer cable? Is there some kind of union that I'm missing to connect two cables? Usually with the word extension in the description that means male / female to "extend" a second cable. hummm guess this may be a question for the big Pentax forumn. This whole F5P connector cable thing is a bit too obscure.</p>

<p>I have never heard of a female-to-female adapter to let you string two F5P(L) cables together. Presumably you could kludge one together by mounting one F (or FG) adapter in the hotshoe of another F adapter, although all the adapters would be getting kind of pricy. Are you using a body that allows the pop-up flash to be used as a wireless remote commander? Does HSS work with wireless? (I've never messed around with using the wireless flash options on the later cameras, so I pretty much have no idea, but it seems like that would be the first and cheapest place to start looking.)</p>

<p> Hi Jerry, The idea of kludging a connector together to hook two f5p cables does not excite me. I mostly use my k20d these days and have a couple of 540's and a 360, but the built in optical wireless trigger only supports P-TTL and does not support HSS. Typically I'd use radio triggers and manual, or if I'm the only shooter maybe radio triggers with remote optical triggers in manual for multi flash. I want control of the light ratio rather than leaving it to the camera and variations in P-TTL from exposure to exposure. But the biggest issues to me with P-TTL is some people are just fast blinkers and by the time the five or six preflashes for P-TTL wireless finish communicating exposure details some people have their eye lids closed about 1/4 and just look drunk. </p>

<p>I think the F5P cables would make a good back-up option in case of a radio trigger failure. And it seems to be the only way to get a higher than 1/180 sync with an off camera flash. It's not something I'd use often, but for portraits that have to be done in bright sun, it has value to control the background contrast.<br>

<br /> </p>

<p>It may sound radical, but have you considered cutting a (short) F5P cable and soldering in a piece of wire of desired length (color, waterproofness, coiled etc.)? <br>

I've found myself doing a similar job when the battery charger that came with K10D from Hongkong turned out to have a plug that doesn't fit north american receptable.</p>

<p>Why not call Paramount and have them make you what you want?</p>

<p>http://www.paramountcords.com/</p>

<p>Bruce, that is an interesting link; thanks, I'll save it. On their custom cable menu with the 100 or so pull down options the Pentax F5P connection is not one of them. </p>

<p>I have not researched the f5P pin out, but would assume the cable has one straight through wire for each of the five pins on the hotshoe. One probably could cut a smaller 3' cable and splice in some CAT5 wire to extend it without too much fuss. This just does not seem like something that should have to be hacked to me.</p>

<p>For now I'll just order a hotshoe adapter F and the 9.5' F5P cable. The more I think about it that really should be long enough for most of what I'd want to do. I just like having slack in cables to help avoid accidentally pulling over stands; especially outdoors with lite weight speedlights.</p>

<p>Hi Roger --<br>

Sorry to weigh in late on this (been traveling), but I have had the same issue regarding the F5P cables not being long enough. I have actually mated them together by using two Adapter F's at the junction (I keep spares in case of failure). It's kudgy for sure, but it works well. For HSS connections outside of the flash bracket I use, I have found that the 9.5' cable is long enough for 90% of the shots.</p>

<p>If you are careful about peeling back insulation and meticulous with your labeling, you can document your own pin-out on the cable and splice two together permanently. Be careful, though, because once you forget to label a wire or can't remember the sequence, it's a lost cause. But a couple of broken eggs might be worth the omelet... ;-></p>

<p>If you just need one flash to trigger via P-TTL, you can go with £25 PTTL 5 meter PTTL cables from eBay. You can even daisy chain them.<br>

But if you need to fire two flashes in P-TTL mode???<br>

Well thats the question I'm trying to figure out... I'm currently thinking about using one 5 meter ebay cable and a F5P adapter (Male to Female hotshoe with pass through F5P female socket) attached and an F5P cable to another adapter with a hotshoe...</p>

<p>Have anyone got an idea if it would work if I just spliced 2 eBay P-TTL extension cords together?<br>

Would it matter where on the cable or hotshoe the splice was made?<br>

If this was possible it could be done for £20</p>