Looking for a small hotshoe flash to trigger slaves

[anesh]

<p>I want to setup a few Nikon SB26's (has in-built slave) and a few Vivitar HV285's (with Wein peanuts) as studio flashes. I will trigger them all with a manual shoe mounted flash on my Canon 50D set at lowest power. I want to use the lightest and smallest flash to do this as it will have no influence on the lighting. Even using a 430ex makes the camera too unwieldy. Any suggestions please. </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Perhaps you'd be happier with a couple of modest radio devices (say, the CyberSyncs), and just allow the receiver/trigger to fire off one of those Vivitars as the optical trigger for the rest of them. You then have the VERY lightweight and small radio transmiiter in the hotshoe, and won't get any specular reflections from a shoe-mounted flash (which <em>will</em> show up, no matter how dialed-down the power).<br /><br />This also has the advantage of allowing a strobe that's buried in a light modifier (and which may not "see" an external optical pulse) to fire without fail. At least ... that's how I'd do it! In fact, that <em>is</em> how I do it, though I happen to use the PW products. But in a smaller studio setting, less expensive triggers are going to work just fine.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>If you're in the studio, why not just run a PC cord to the first flash, then let the that flash trigger the rest? No need for a flash on the camera that way. If you do want something on the shoe, I'm not sure if they are still in business but Morris used to make a very tiny hotshoe flash that put out so little light it had limited uses, but it might do the trick. I would be concerned that a flash that put out so little light it would have no effect on the exposure might also be too weak to trigger the optical slaves, especially as Matt says they might be buried. But the pop from one of your main flashes should be able to trigger the others easily. One thing you can do if you're using Wein peanuts is put them on a short cord that hangs outside the softbox if need be. Umbrellas shouldn't be a problem.</p>

[John Seaman]

<p>An old trick is to cover the flash window with a piece of exposed film, this blocks the visible light but should allow enough infra red through to trigger the slaves.</p>

[vishi_anand]

<p>You can adjust power on your 430ex flash. Use lowest FEC value or better yet, put it in manual mode and go to lowest power setting.</p>

[tommyinca]

<p>Check Nikon SB30. 3.2 oz (no bat), take little space and even has an IR cover built-in. It uses one single 3V burglar alarm battery which weight like one single AA (50% weight saving). Note: battery do cost more then AA. </p>