Any body use one of these?

[OviV]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/items/50050.jpg

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=112595&is=REG

I ordered one to use with umbrella for some portrait work.

Are they any good? Will the slave pickup the flash even if the butt is pointed away from the flash (i.e. the slave is pointed into umbrella which is reflecting onto subject and master flash is mounted on camera)

Thanks,
Ovi

[DaveG]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/items/50050.jpg

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=112595&is=REG

I ordered one to use with umbrella for some portrait work.

Are they any good? Will the slave pickup the flash even if the butt is pointed away from the flash (i.e. the slave is pointed into umbrella which is reflecting onto subject and master flash is mounted on camera)

Thanks,
Ovi

I got one of those a few years ago as a throw in when I bought a "darkroom" at a yard sale. It's kind of neat in so far that there's very little that can go wrong, and it is powered up by a regular lightbulb plug in. It's not particularly powerful but it'll give you something, for almost nothing. You'll just have to experiment to see how sensitive the slave sensor is as well.

If there is going to be a concern - other than its modest power - it's about how you trigger it. It does have a slave built in but if you use an E-TTL enabled flash like a 550EX, 420EX or even the flash built into the 10D; then this flash won't work right. What happens is that on E-TTL there is a tiny "informational" flash pulse just before the real lighting pulse. That first pulse will trigger the slave which will pop before your shutter is open. It'll be in the middle of recycling when your real flash pops and its light won't be recorded by the camera.

Of those flashes above only the 550 on a manual setting would successfully trigger that flash. A cheap Vivitar 283/285 would be a better choice for the MASTER flash since you'd retain at least some Automatic performance.

Now I've got to go look and see if I can find mine ...

[OviV]

Thanks DageG.

When you say that its not particularly powerful, what are you comparing it to? They claim a guide number of 72 which compared to the 550EX, which I believe is 55, is higher. Or do I have that stuff all screwed up? As far as triggering it, I figure I have two options. 1) I have a Sigma 500 DG Super that I can set to manual (and the camera) so no pre-flash. 2) I also have an old Vivitar that I have tested the voltage for and found to be save on my DRebel which I can use, again on manual. This would allow me to use my 500 as a second slave as well.

Thanks again for your input.

Ovi

[slin100]

The 550EX's guide number, 55, is in meters. The slave's guide number, 72, is in feet.

[OviV]

Ahh! I thought that may be the case.

[DaveG]

Thanks DageG.

When you say that its not particularly powerful, what are you comparing it to? They claim a guide number of 72 which compared to the 550EX, which I believe is 55, is higher. Or do I have that stuff all screwed up? As far as triggering it, I figure I have two options. 1) I have a Sigma 500 DG Super that I can set to manual (and the camera) so no pre-flash. 2) I also have an old Vivitar that I have tested the voltage for and found to be save on my DRebel which I can use, again on manual. This would allow me to use my 500 as a second slave as well.

Thanks again for your input.

Ovi

I think that the post above clarifies the power. I haven't used mine in such a long time that I couldn't have told you. I remember that it didn't strike me as being particularly poweful and in any case I was comparing it to a monolight.

[evilenglishman]

I believe this is an identical item:
http://www.jessops.com/search/viewproduct.cfm?PRODUCT=POR220&BRAND=&CONTINUE=fal se&FEATS=&FIRSTPRICE=&KEYWORD=&LEVEL=&MODELNUMBER= &NEWQUERY=True&NODE=263&ORD=ASC&ORDERBY=&QUANTITY= 40&RECENT=0&REFINE=&SEARCH_FOR=&SEARCHNODE=0&SEARC HURL=dointellisearch.cfm&SECONDPRICE=&SHOWCASEID=& STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=N&

it has a guide number of 20 in meters.

My god the B&H one only works out at £14

[OviV]

ee,

You guys pay through the nose for this stuff. Why is that?

Ovi

[Harry Settle]

I got the Smith Victor kit that has two of the slave flashes, gn92 I think, stands and umbrellas. Work pretty good for singles and doubles. Set up at approx 6-8feet. Sometimes I use one, both, or one with my camera flash. I figure that I'll be able to use them for background and general fill when I get a set of real lights.

[evilenglishman]

ee,

You guys pay through the nose for this stuff. Why is that?

Ovi

because we are stupid, we like to moan but don't actually do anything about the problem. That is why we have a tit in charge of the country, and the man making up laws about photography/nudity and acceptible levels is blind!

[OviV]

But what specifically is the higher price attributed to? Is it tariffs?

[evilenglishman]

But what specifically is the higher price attributed to? Is it tariffs?

not sure personally. That link I posted is for Portaflash brand - which is the cheapest, nastiest brand you can buy over here so it wont get any cheaper than that for us :cry: