Alien Bees and Hotshoe PC Sync

[cjbryant]

I am looking into buying an Alien Bees flash unit to use at

weddings, however my camera does not have the PC Sync plug. I was

wondering if anyone has any experience with the Hotshoe adapters

with the PC Sync plug on them and how well they work. Any

information would be greatly appreciated. Thank.

[fotografz]

Look into radio senders like Pocket Wizards or Quantums. No need to buy new BTW. No cords

for kids to trip over and pull over your camera and/or lights.

 

There are adapters that slide into the hot shoe with PC plugs, but if you are using a digital

camera I'd advise radio senders.

[david_schilling___chicago_]

Use the Safe synch http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t&shs=safe+synch&image.x=6&image.y=5 by Wein $49.

[prinosphotography]

if you don't go wireless (a good suggestion)bany hot shoe w/pc sync will work. You don't

need the expensive safe sync with the AB strobes, they don't put out that much trigger

voltage.

[johnmarkpainter]

What Chris said.

 

I use both Pocket Wizards and Hotshoe adapters.

[patrick_lockwood]

Before I acquired a camera with a PC Sync, I shot with the Alien Bees on a Canon Elan with an adapter, and i tried several that did not work, until I got a Nikon adapter, and it worked. The Nikon was just the brand name, it wasn't intended only for Nikon cameras, but it was the best of the several I tried.

 

So, you gotta try the thing in the store to make sure it works. Cart your AB to the store, that's my advice.

 

 

Patrick

[patrick_lockwood]

By the way, invest in a transciever system. Much more expensive, but so worth it. I use Calumet lightlink transcievers. When I'm metering the lights, I have two of them each on different channels, so I can pop one flash (via the test button on the transciever on my camera's hot shoe) on channel one, take a reading, and then pop the other on channel two, without having to worry about reaching over to the light, and switching cords, etc. When I'm ready to shoot, I put the camera's transciever to the "ALL" mode, which fires both units (when the trancievers are hooked up to the ABs, it disables the light sensors, which is great since I don't want people with their cameras firing my flash units with their flashes).

 

 

Patrick

[jennifer valencia]

hi Curtiss,

I have Alien Bees (love them) and I use a hotshoe adaptor with a sync cord on my Nikon D70s. The brand I use is hama; I bought it from the Alien Bee people for ~ $14. It works just fine. It *does* matter which way you slide it into the shoe, but if you put it in correctly, it fires the strobes every time.

 

It's NOT a "safe" sync adaptor like the Wien (~$50+), but the AB's use a trigger voltage of <6V and you therefore do not need the "safe" adaptor. Most people suggest going wireless, but since that is usually a costly investment, starting with a hotshoe adaptor sounds like a good start!

 

Jennifer

[john_phamvan]

I use alien bees with my backup DRebel sometimes with a hotshoe adapter that costed less than $10 with no problems at all. Just have to be careful about the watching the flash sync since there's no TTL.

[stevejmu]

Why doesn't anyone recommend the remote controls that Alien Bees has to offer? I'm getting ready to go wireless and this is the system I am planning to get. Please let me know if I must reconsider. Why wouldn't you want a system that will allow you to remotely adjust your light output as well as fire the lights from the camera (via PC sync from transmitter to sync adapter)??? Dummy plugs for the Alien Bees' terminals come with this system so no one else can fire your lights at your events.

 

It just seems crazy to me to invest in a transceiver system that only fires your lights. Why not add the ability to control your lights whilst being able to fire them on a 900 MHz radio system?

[eric merrill]

Stephen:

 

If you go with different lights, will the Alien Bees remote outfit work with them? Or is it brand-specific to Bees/White Lightning?

 

The other point is that some of the other transmitters simply fit in your hot shoe. You don't have to wear it on your belt.

 

 

Eric

[stevejmu]

Eric,

The Alien Bees remote control system only works with their brand of lights, which is one drawback to this system. However, I consider the added benefit of remote control over the light output to far outweigh the bit of "financial security" you get with a universal system such as Pocket Wizards that will work with all lights.

 

As a side note, I did some research to find out how I could get a speedlight to work with the Alien Bees remote control system. The reason being, that if you used a Pocket Wizard in your hotshoe, you would not have any light hitting the front of your subject since the hotshoe is used instead of a speedlight. Since I don't want the guests triggering the optical slaves of my Alien Bees with their little flashes, a remote control system was the way to go. Now that you see my dilemma, here's what I found to fix it (for Nikons anyway)... the SB-800 Speedlight has a PC sync port where you can attach the PC cord from the remote control system from the Alien Bees. This will give you the front lighting you need as well as fire the Alien Bees from the remote control, thus hindering the guests from firing my flashes (provided you plug the terminals with "dummy" plugs).

 

If anyone else has an answer to contribute to my "dilemma" I'd love to hear how you rig it up!