X sync terminal malfunction on Pentax 645N

[don_harris1]

First, thanks to those who responded to my 800 fugi exposed at 250

question. I took your advice and had a beer- processing normally. The

film's latitude worked fine with no problems! Now I must ask if

anyone has had a 645N x sync terminal go bad on them. I discovered

that the flash was not firing during a shoot. I thought it was the

cord so I plugged up a new Photogenic cord into the camera with the

same results. It fires the flash about two thirds of the time no

matter what cord is plugged in. It is definitely not a cord problem

that I can tell but I have never heard of the terminal going bad! I

have two weddings to do this weekend! Any help would be greatly

appreciated!

 

Don

[raymond_valois]

Hi, Don ...

 

I have a 645N and never had a problem with the x-sync.

 

The only problem that surfaced in one particular studio was a problem with the polarity of the connecting cable. The studio owner advised me and two other photographers that he had a cable that connected to the camera and the "long" cable to the strobe that made the polarity the way it was supposed to be.

 

Something to check out. Hope this helps.

 

Ray

[michael_meyer]

two quick thoughts, first pick up a pc conditioner to make sure that both the cord and the pc socket are tight. second, i once worked with a nikon fm2n which had a bad pc socket. we used a safe-sync in the hotshoe as a work-around. that might get you through the weekend. i think wein makes one. it basically is a hotshoe to pc-socket adapter which regulates the voltage. the flash may have shorted your pc socket if its voltage was beyond what the socket could handle.

 

hope you get it worked out.

 

mnm

[jim_sanders]

How old is your flash tube?

 

I had a similar problem with a Lumedyne strobe. Would fire sometimes sometimes not. I thought it was old and/or shorting in the PC cord so I bought a new Paramount sync cord. Thought the problem went away, but not. I had recently had the strobe in for repair and they had replaced the back panel on the flash head where the sync cord connects, so I called them to see if there might be problems with the replacement panel.

 

During our conversation, they asked me to read them the code on the flash tube. We discovered that the tube was about 10 years old (I bought it used). They said that this was a symptom of the tube starting to go out. Bought a replacement tube and installed it and have not had a problem since (even with the older sync cords).

 

Just a thought.

 

Jim