Synch an optical slave to a compact P&S?

[steve_robb1]

<p>Good afternoon everyone,<br>

I have had a bit of a look around the forums here (and online in general) but couldn't seem to find what I was after. I've recently been on the hunt for a compact P&S as a pocketable companion to my medium format hiking kit. I ended up getting a Panasonic LZ10 and am pretty happy with it so far (it came in the mail last night, and I've been experimenting with it three shots at a time, since i don't have any sort of SD cards to use with it yet).<br>

One feature I was keen on, which I know I wouldn't have gotten without going for a high end Canon or Ricoh, was to be able to synch with off-camera flash. I've got a couple of those little passive optical triggers (the type you see on ebay) lying around, so I thought that could be a possible option, and just trigger the off camera flash with the little, not overly powerful onboard one.<br>

HOWEVER, that doesn't seem to work, it appears that my strobes are being triggered a fraction before the shutter is being fired. Before the obvious suggestions come in, "Yes", red-eye is turned off :P. Is it the nature of the beast that perhaps compact cameras have a longer flash duration than hotshoe strobes? Is this the sort of situation where (if you had the function) you would use the 'second curtain' feature in your strobe? (which, using 283's, I don't have).<br>

Any suggestions on how to be able to get my strobes firing in time with my new little toy would be most appreciated.</p>

<p>Cheers,<br>

Steve</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Steve, your Panasonic LZ10 might be emmiting a pre-flash to determine proper exposure causing your slave to fire prematurely. My Sony p/s does this as well, even in full manual mode, and the only way around this is to mount an old auto-flash on the hotshoe (and adjust f-stop manually) to get a single pop to trigger the slave.</p>

<p>I don't know how you'd do this otherwise, although your camera <em>might</em> disable pre-flash in full manual mode including manual ISO selection (if the camera allows).</p>

<p> </p>

[jcuknz]

<p>A good while ago I covered the flash output of my Nikon 5700 with some card which permited a small amount of the flash to escape and trigger my slave, probably similar type to what you have. I have no idea if the 5700 emits a focusing / exposure pre-flash but since it worked I'm guessing that if it does emit the pre-flash then when covered with the card it is too weak to trigger the slave and only the proper exposure flash though reduced did have enough power to trigger. I worked in Manual mode and found exposure by trial and error.</p><div></div>

[jcuknz]

<p>I organised a snoot out of cardboard for the flash and then cut a port-flap in the side so that some light spilled onto the background. Photo shows a second snoot for another flash which didn't have the side-port but also shows part of my home-made boom and tripod [not shown] made out of aluminium RHS and bits of angle.</p><div></div>

[catrike]

<p>Check this out. It is adjustable for the preflash. See <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sunpak-Digital-Camera-Flash-Adapter/dp/B0002A0C92/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top">http://www.amazon.com/Sunpak-Digital-Camera-Flash-Adapter/dp/B0002A0C92/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top</a></p>

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[steve_robb1]

<p>G'day guys, thanks for the comments.</p>

<p>Just to clarify, the LZ10 does emit a focus/exposure preflash, but I've dissabled that. I actually managed to get a good sync earlier by setting the flash mode to Slow Sync... the downside of this, it is Slow Sync AND red eye... ahh geeze... but I put my finger over the flash tube for the 'red eye' flash, then let it fly with its main one, and viola, a nicely synched shot. Now I just need to find out if it's possible to have slow sync WITHOUT the red eye preflash. Also, that flash option is available in Program mode, but not in the full manual modes, dangit!<br>

Well, I guess I'll just have to live with the finger-cover option for now, unless anyone has any better ideas?<br>

Cheers.</p>

<p>(Oh, and Michael, I mught need to perform some creative surgery to be able to get a hot shoe flash on to the LZ10 :P)</p>