Hasselblad 500C/CM - Nikon Flash SB-28

[abintraphoto]

I've just acquired the HB flash accessory shoe that slides onto the

camera body slide rail .... Looks great ....However, my Nikon SB-28

will not slide into this accessory. Does this HB part have a

unique "foot print" which only certain flash units will slide

into ....UGH.

 

Ken,

[barry schmetter]

Ken,

 

I think putting your SB-28 in that side shoe is a recipe for disaster. The SB-28 is pretty hefty and I wouldn't be surprised if the weight of the flash and a little bounce would crack the foot right off, sending the flash, camera or both crashing to the floor. The conventional wisdom is to buy a bracket for the flash.

[abintraphoto]

Appologies may be in order .... maybe it's the Nikon flash shoe foot print which is "unique" ....

 

Ken,

[russell_britt]

Ken, if your flash has a (hot shoe) and the Hassey bracket has just a shoe then you will short out your flash and could damage it.Its a good thing that it won`t fit if this is the case.Look at the bottom of your flash and see how many electricial connecters are on the bottom. Then check to see if you have the same number or any on the Hasselblad shoe? If they are not the same you can`t use them together.

[art_haykin]

Not only the same number of contact points, but in the same pattern and position.

[andrew l. booth]

The bracket is completely metal, with no contacts - so it will never trigger your flash.

 

If you wanted to hang a flash off the side of your camera, you first need to put an adapter in this 'coldshoe' - with a single contact and a flying lead to connect to the PC socket on your lens. I think this would be unstable for a heavy flash though.

 

The flash bracket solution is one way to go - or you could buy a flash like the Vivitar 253, which can be used in a cold shoe when the PC cord is connected.

[mikolaip]

I could see (Ken directed me to a picture on e-bay) that the shoe was not "hot", it did not have the central connector to fire the flash via its central pin. It was only a simple "physical" holder.

 

So Ken, your Nikon strobe would have to have a separate PC socket on its side to connect it to the lens, and it probably doesn't have one since it's a modern flash designed to communicate with the Nikon cameras via their hotshoes or TTL cords.

 

One can possibly use and fire a modern super-duper flash in its manual mode through the simple one-connector hotshoe dangling on a sync cord - BUT (at least my Canon Speedlite) the strobe obviously cannot be "fully" activated to show the distance scale on the LCD display, there's no working f-stop communicated to the flash, etc. You know, all these things that come to life when you press the shutter release half way on a compatible camera. This communication is done via all these connector pins. A compatible Nikon body has all the connectors in the right number and pattern, and the simple PC cord hotshoe has just one central connector to fire the flash.

 

Without this dedicated camera-flash communication, I can still switch my Speedlite to manual and adjust power (1/2......1/128) but have to use a flashmeter to determine exposure since the aperture-distance scale is inactive (doesn't display on the Speedlite's LCD). That's why I have an older Sunpak strobe which has analog calculators on the back (plus thyristor semi-auto modes) to be used with the Hassy. With the analog calculator strobe, you can easily use it in its manual mode without the meter, just based on the distance-aperture scale which is always there.

 

I don't mount my flash onto my Hassy. I connect it via a sync cord that has a plastic cube with a true "hotshoe" on one end, and a plug to plug into the lens' PC socket on the other end. I usually hold the flash in my hand (camera on tripod). The cube has two grooves on the side opposite to the hotshoe so it could be easily physically mounted onto this device Ken's talking about. But still, firing the flash would still have to be done via a hotshoe.

 

Piotr

[scott_laughlin]

It sounds like it's been decided that the bracket doesn't have a "hot shoe" but a physical one so the short issue is not a problem. You can still use the SB-28 via PC cord (it does have a PC connector just next to the one for Nikon cords). You'll have to set it on manual and set the shutter speed/ISO/F-stop manually, but the distance scale will still work if that's any help. I generally ignore it anyway. I guess I'm not totally familiar with this bracket, but on most I've used the shoe is removable so most any can screw in. If the SB-28 doesn't fit, perhaps a general shoe will allow it.

[abintraphoto]

Thank all of you ......... Yes the shoe from HB (Hasselblad #43125)

is definitely 'cold'. I knew that when I bought it. The plan was to use a PC cord from the Nikon flash to the sync post on the Hassie 80mm lens. It seemed like a nice way to occasionally mount a flash to the camera which does not have allowance for this otherwise.

It is strictly a physical fit issue .... the part of the flash shoe shaped like a 'square coin' seems to fit fine. It's the throat area above the 'square coin' which is too tight for both of my Nikon flash units (SB-28 & SB-22s)..... I'll measure the dimensions in question - last time I saw my Micrometer, my daughters were using it to clamp the cats together - cat walks funny now. .....

 

Ken,

[martin_jiang1]

what a coincidence, I just tried the same thing with my SB15 and a Hasselblad flash bracket, ( the old one with cable release ). the flash shoe of the bracket is complete metal, so my SB 15 will not fire with pc sync, it will fire if I pull it off the flash shoe, I guess the metal on the shoe short the flash.

 

Now I have another SB26 and none of the Nikon flash can be used on the hassy bracket, i dug out an old soligor MK-6a and it works on the hassy, I just need a manual.....

[ted_ylauan]

I sometimes use an SB-28 on my 503cw but I can't mount it in the cold shoe on the prism a PME45, because the heavy spring on the inside edge of the prism finder's shoe prevents the SB-28's shoe from sliding in easily and I don't want to force it.

 

For now I just mount the SB-28 on a bracket, a Stroboframe Q66 model because it came with an adapter that allows a shoe mount flash to be mounted on the flash bracket. The adapter has a channel in the middle that allows for the hot shoe pins so they don't get shorted out. I then connect a Nikon SC-11 PC cord the to flash and sync post on the lens.

 

I then either use the SB-28 in manual mode or in auto via the SB-28's external sensor. Of course with this setup the flash is directly over the lens and prevents side shadows from the flash.

[abintraphoto]

Nikon USA says both my SB-28 and SB-22s will indeed short out due to all the pins contacting a common metal surface .... so it is a physical fit AND an electrical issue .... Nikon says they have no accessory to allow the use of my Nikon flash units on any other camera.

I thanked them for that and asked if that if they had SUNPAK's phone # .... well, I didn't but was tempted to .... Guess the next thread is - "What kind of flash are you using with your HB" .... I'll look into the SC11 part # mentioned above.

As for the HB accessory shoe #43125 .... I'm open to suggestion - tiny boat anchor, key chain ornament, maybe the Christmas tree ...

 

Thanks guys ........... Ken

[yongfei]

Ken:

 

I use the SB-28 with my 501CM all the time. I bought a $15 shoe-pc cord from a local Ritz store. The shoe is slided into the prism finder. Works fine in auto mode. I usually set F/11 on SB-28 for F/8 on lens.