Using adapters to fire a remote hot shoe only flash

Wanting to use my three hot shoe only electronic flashes while not attached to a camera's hot shoe I thought a hot shoe adapter would be the trick, so I acquired a used Hama Hot Shoe Adapter from Ebay, and when that didn't work, a new Medalight Hot Shoe to PC Adapter from B&H. These adapters do not work either way: when mounted to a hot shoe to fire a separately mounted flash (not really what I wanted) or when mounted on a remote flash to receive a flash signal from the camera, either via hot shoe by way of a Nikon AS-15 adapter or PC synch cord. My flash units all work when not using the Hama or Medalight adapters. The Nikon AS-15 works when not using the adapters. It's difficult to believe I received two broken adpaters. My flashes are a Sunpak 544 (no hot shoe), a Promaster FTD 5700 with a Canon base, an Automatic 17-A, and a Diana flash. Am I missing something? Rick Edited April 16, 2017 by ricklb55

I suspect that using a wired cable to effectively parallel up all those different flashes is the issue. The flashes will almost certainly all have different trigger voltages and impedances and one of them may well discharge the trigger circuitry of the others.

 

Get a set of radio triggers and forget adapters and cables. Maximum off-camera length is probably limited to a couple of metres anyway with a cable.

 

Radio trigger kits start at around $15 a pair, and you can add extra receivers at a low cost. They'll provide individual synchronisation and isolation for each of those random flashes and work up to 50 ft or so away from the camera with no dangerously trailing wires.

 

Edit: If you shop around you might be able to pick up some optical slave triggers a bit cheaper than radio triggers. These are a bit less reliable than radio triggers and have a limited range. They'll do the same job though.

Edited April 16, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1

Thanks rodeo_joe, that makes sense. However, what I didn't mention is, even if I am firing only one flash having either adapter any where in the curcuit causes the flash to not fire. This is also important because I recently acquired some old cameras that have a PC synch port and a cold shoe and I would like my hot shoe flashes to work on these cameras. These old cameras will successfully fire the Sunpak 544 which does not require the adapter. But not the other flashes if the adapters are used, in any configuration.

Almost all of the old flashes I've come across have had a 2.5mm jack or similar to take an external P-C synch cable. Look for a small hole somewhere near the base of the flash.

 

The Diana repro-retro may be an exception.

 

A hotshoe to P-C adapter sometimes only connects its foot to a female P-C socket and doesn't feed through to a top hotshoe. They're designed like that so that you can't parallel wire a hotshoe flash with a P-C connected one. Although you may just have been unlucky and got 2 faulty adapters. Buzz 'em out with a multimeter if you have one to check continuity.

 

Also look at the P-C cable you're using. They're unreliable things IME and should be treated with suspicion and contempt!

 

I suggest you look for a few same make and model flashes with suitable connectors for what you want to do. Old flashes sell for as little as £2 ($3 US) here in the UK. Cheaper than an adapter! And less trouble than messing about with a motley collection of different flashes.

Edited April 17, 2017 by rodeo_joe|1