Question on Novatron 500

[lawdawg845]

I recently acquired a novatron 500 plus lighting set... first question is what do you think of this? second is... what is the best way to sync it with the canon t1i and the canon 50d? is there a way to sync it with the built in flash units? any help is greatly appreciated...

[Jim M]

I use Novatron lights and I think they are fine. I use an eBay radio trigger to sync mine. You can't sync it using the built in flash because the pre-flash will set off the lights before the shutter opens. Although the particular eBay radio trigger I have happens to be remarkably reliable, other people have not had that experience. If you want guaranteed reliability with a radio trigger, the best buy for the money is probably Paul C. Buff's CyberSync. You will need a CST transmitter to go on your camera and either a CSR or CSRB receiver for the flash power pack. Then you will need an adapter to go from the receiver to the power pack. I made my own out of an old extension cord and Radio Shack parts, but you can buy one from FlashZebra that will save you some effort. You will need an adapter for any radio slave you might be considering. Here are some links:

http://www.alienbees.com/remotes.html

http://www.flashzebra.com/

http://www.flashzebra.com/radiocables/hhradiocoil.shtml

[dave sparks]

I have an older 300/500 watt monolight kit. I just use the included sync chord to the main light. I found the built in slaves to be pretty reliable for my other light. The chord is a pain sometimes but never seen a need to lay out for radio slaves, might one day, just not now.

I'm not to thrilled where the PC sync on my 40D is, but I have an adapter that fits into the hot shoe for sync. It's an old Nikon AS-15 I believe, gets the chord out of the way for me. Haven't used it yet but worked great on my old D30 I just upgraded from.

Dave....

[dave63]

I have a D600 kit I acquired a month or so ago; just used it today on a product shoot. I use the Alien Bees Cybersyncs--had to make a 1/8 mono-to-AC plug adapter last night so I could trigger the pack off the Cybersync--and it's just fine.