I hate PC sync cables and the interface. How do you feel?

I've gotten to the point where I'm ready to make some kind of move to a wireless studio. I've been using standard sync cables to interface between my camera, light meter and strobes and one by one the cables fail and give me headaches.

I've been doing wiring and building audio and video interfaces of all kinds most of my life and I've seen some bad connectors and lousy interfaces but the PC sync connector is the worst... worse then RCA audio and video, which is frowned upon in pro audio/video circles.
There are the locking PC connectors but that really does no good in a multi device setup because so few manufacturers use it. Almost all the accessories that have a PC sync jack on them do not use the locking connector.

I have 3 Alien Bees B800 strobes and each one came with a generic $8 cable. So far, all 3 of mine have either failed or become intermittent. Yeah, I know I can recondition them, and that works great for another day until it loosens again, but repeated cable maintenance of this type will quickly turn a few hours of fun in the studio into 3 1/2 hours of "which cable will fail next and when?" and that hurts my head.

The thing about this that is also so troubling is that I 'baby' my gear, I’m careful with plugs and jacks, I properly wind and store cables that are not in use, and my cables have never suffered the abuse of taking them out of the studio. To use the same comparison as before... if I got a new CD player that came with a cheap, generic set of RCA cables and I set it up, decided to move it to another shelf, unplugged it, plugged it back in, then moved my system to another room, unplugged and plugged in...you get the idea....those cables would still be fine.

A simple 2 conductor interface such as the sync we send and receive in our cameras, meters, strobes and accessories should be a much better one, considering that is it like the veins that carry blood and it's crucial that it work right. For the interface to not use a universal locking or snap connector is silly.

For this reason and more venting that I won't get into here, I can see myself moving in the direction of a wireless studio in the near future. The one cable I find the most annoying to have in a wired room is the cable going from the light meter to the first strobe. Since the camera and strobes do not float around the room as the meter does I find that one cable to be the one that I potentially trip on or gets tangled in something, and when that cable fails I go nuts.

The cable from the camera to the strobe does not bother me as much and the PC jack in the Hama hot shoe adapter I use does not seem to allow the play that is in the sync jack on the Sekonic L-358. As many or most of you already know, if you're not going to take the jump to Pocket Wizard then you are looking at one of the systems sold on ebay or the Alien Bees, and I believe Impact and some others make and sell the same hardware. Some of them are excellent solutions for the rest of the studio but unless you want one of those transmitters dangling (don't forget, you're still using you're sync jack for this) from your meter you must use Pocket Wizards (they know they've got you).

I don't want this thread to be a debate over wireless solutions but just wanted to point out that this is the flow of logic. If you want wireless you're always led down one of two paths...Pocket Wizards or ebay (or similar) systems.

Is it just me or has anyone else really grown to dislike the sync cables and want wireless, not to be cool or to have a new toy but because it is the solution that makes sense and removes a horrible interface?

EDIT: Choice #3 and # 4 look very similar. I apologize. #4 was meant to imply that you were in a large studio or outdoors and the distances required for cables are unreasonable, causing you to truly NEED wireless, as opposed to needing it because of cable failure.

One "near trip" during a location shoot convinced me how I rely on the freedom. The irony was at this particular shoot I somehow was missing my sync cable that connects my PW to my stobe pack and was forced to go back to a tethered sync cable. I haven't forgot it since, and have actually purchased a backup to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Screamer wrote in post #2718921
One "near trip" during a location shoot convinced me how I rely on the freedom. The irony was at this particular shoot I somehow was missing my sync cable that connects my PW to my stobe pack and was forced to go back to a tethered sync cable. I haven't forgot it since, and have actually purchased a backup to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Hi Phil,

I can imagine all of this is really compounded when you're taking your gear on location. There is so much potential for things to go wrong and for people to trip on a cable. Whichever system is in use I would think that wireless is a must for location shooting. Of course it makes great sense to have cables as a backup should anything go wrong with the wireless system.

Where's the pick for "I use wireless most of the time but will use the PC cord for quickies"?

PacAce wrote in post #2720069
Where's the pick for "I use wireless most of the time but will use the PC cord for quickies"?

Darn Leo. I knew I would leave someone out.

I had to deal with ebay slaves for a little while and they would be even more unreliable than the sync cords. Pocketwizards are definately the way to go.