Should I connect my strobe flash direct to the camera?

londuck wrote in post #2967349
I use ebay radio slaves, I have threes set and I really like their utility. But getting this utility is not without bumps in the road for many.

They are not without very significant issues, and these issues are not congealed into just one issue, the length of the antenna.

I have personally ordered over 35 sets of these devices (for my camera club members) and the biggest issue is that they just do not work at all as received. About 20% of the units I received were non functional as received. Some had non functional transmitters other had non functional receivers.

The dealer happily replaced them, but the replacement units also were about 20% defective.

So, this leads me to believe that about 20% of these units are defective "as received".

If you get a good one "as received" then they seem to work pretty well. But, my sampling indicates that about 2 out of 10 will be out of luck.

But, because of the high possibility of problems (20% is an enormous defective rate) I avoid suggesting them to anyone that is new and already confused about off camera flash. They do not need another layer of problems added to their admitted initial confusion.

Get them going with a cord, and a stable working setup. Them let them meander on their own to a inexpensive ebay radio slaves when issues surround the radio slaves will be the only issue (not general confusion about the whole process).

The OP in this post needed exactly what Wilt suggested in the first post, a simple camera hotshoe to PC adapter. And Curtis so kindly illuminated this suggestion.

The solution need not be any more complicated.

Enjoy! Lon

Is this with the 4 channel or the 16 channel. I have been looking to grab a pair or two, and what I am seeing on the various forums is that the 16 channel seem to have fewer issues than the 4 channel. Has this been your experience as well?

th3r0m wrote in post #2975701
Is this with the 4 channel or the 16 channel. I have been looking to grab a pair or two, and what I am seeing on the various forums is that the 16 channel seem to have fewer issues than the 4 channel. Has this been your experience as well?

The 30 units I purchased were mostly single channel, and a few 4 channel.

But, the problems I cite are dead out of the box issues that typically goes to manufacturing workmanship issues or gross design errors.

I have inspected single channel, 4 channel, and 16 channel units. They are all basically the same device with regard to manufacturing. The circuit boards look almost identical.

If these factories are having workmanship issues with single channel units, it is very likely they are having the same issues with 16 channel units.

Realize that I have not undertaken any sort of rigorous study, just extrapolation in a reasonable manner from the hard data I had about the 35 sets I purchased.

This data is tempered with the antidotal info from web postings.

Buying these devices is sort of a dice roll.

But, please realize the three units I personally have in general work nicely. I do have some issues with the hotshoe fit on the transmitters. Some transmitters will work on only certain hotshoes, others only on other hotshoes. The issue seems to be just dimensional issues with the very small center ball contact on the shoe. The screw to tighten the transmitter on the hotshoe actually pulls this ball way from the center contact.

The design of these devices is in general precarious, not robust. An example is if the center ball contact was just about twice the diameter of the one that is used, there would likely be no issues with flash foot contact, even if the foot was molded a bit misshapen. But now, if the foot is not absolutely perfect, issues occur.

In my opinion, the rest of the design of these devices is similar. The design works when everything is perfect, but the inherent design does not accommodate variation that can be reasonably expected. In short, the design is not robust to accommodate the expected and reasonable manufacturing variation.

It is my opinion that even if you purchase a 16 channel unit, it will still be a dice roll. But they are inexpensive and your are far more likely than not to be lucky.

Proper function with Canon EX flash units is another issue entirely. It seems that Canon EX units may be emitting something that interferes with the normal communication of these devices. With this regard the 16 channel units may have increased reliability as you have more opportunity to tune the receiver to a frequency that is less problematic.

These devices have a whole new layer of significant issues when used with Canon EX flash units, that are not issues with most other flash devices (hotshoe or studio flash gear).

Enjoy! Lon