My first cheap slave...

[Hanging Death]

I'm contemplating tying to take some underground photos that aren't covered in mist from the camera flash and I''ve not got the money to buy a Firefly at the moment.
Will one of these do the job? Anybody know if they would be triggered by infra red, or are they only triggered by visible light?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flash-Wireless-Hot-Shoe-Slave-Trigger-Sync-Adapter-UK_W0QQitemZ370142535570QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraFlashUnits_JN?hash=item370142535570&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1300%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

I guess it'll only work if the camera uses a single flash.
Cheers,
Matt

 

[ttxela]

Nothing except (other peoples) Firefly 3's work with my camera. Try light painting instead perhaps?

 

[Dear Noel Axle]

Hi Matt,  if you can set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds then you could just manually fire your flash. I've had some decent results that way. One disadvantage though is that helmet lights need to be turned off.

Alexander

 

[rsch]

Will one of these do the job? Anybody know if they would be triggered by infra red, or are they only triggered by visible light?

Having many better things to do this evening, I've just been experimenting instead 

You should note that it is designed to slide onto the flash hotshoe mount from the front, and with the sensor at the front, so for maximum chances of setting off the flash from any distance, both the sensor and the flash should probably be pointing directly back towards the camera, unless you have a flashgun with a swivelling head.

Across the vast expanse of my living room I can get it to fire off both naked and infra-red filtered flash.

I have tried it underground, but my experience is that it is less than effective. My advice would be that if there is absolutely no chance of you buying a Firefly3 in the next six months, you might as well take a chance and see what you can get out of it, but if you can save a tenner a month, make up the price of that ebay one to your tenner for the first month, and your patience and cash will be better spent.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Hi Matt,   if you can set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds then you could just manually fire your flash. I've had some decent results that way. One disadvantage though is that helmet lights need to be turned off.

Alexander

I was thinking much the same thing. I haven't tried it yet though.

 

[ttxela]

Hi Matt,   if you can set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds then you could just manually fire your flash. I've had some decent results that way. One disadvantage though is that helmet lights need to be turned off.

Alexander

I was thinking much the same thing. I haven't tried it yet though.

If you had two flashguns you could do this and with the first and set the cheap slave off on the second  :-\

 

[Peter Burgess]

Hi Matt,   if you can set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds then you could just manually fire your flash. I've had some decent results that way. One disadvantage though is that helmet lights need to be turned off.

Alexander

I was thinking much the same thing. I haven't tried it yet though.

If you had two flashguns you could do this and with the first and set the cheap slave off on the second  :-\

Fancy a trip down Bedlams to test it out?

 

[ian.p]

i have two cheap slave units one of which is the same model as that on ebay.
i have generaly found them to be prety unreliable underground the flash from the camera is usualy insuficiant to trigger the slave underground for some reason they seem to be less reliable underground then above dont know why. a secound flash gun will usualy do the trick though. They will not fire on infra red light.

i have found seting a long exposure and firing the flashes manualy works prety well though i think you want at least a 3-4 secound exposure inorder to relaibly be able set of the flashes in time especialy if youre geting somone else to fire them. the only problems with this technique are that 1. you neeed to turn all the lights out and 2. if you are seting of multiple flashes you need to make sure that your subject/s does not move between flashes as otherwise you get a sort of ghosting effect form the two sperate exposures.

 

[ttxela]

Hi Matt,   if you can set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds then you could just manually fire your flash. I've had some decent results that way. One disadvantage though is that helmet lights need to be turned off.

Alexander

I was thinking much the same thing. I haven't tried it yet though.

If you had two flashguns you could do this and with the first and set the cheap slave off on the second  :-\

Fancy a trip down Bedlams to test it out?

I do    It's far too long since my last trip 

 

[Steve_T]

Haven't found this a problem really and just use cheap slaves. I have the slave on the end of a lead which connects to a hot shoe adaptor on the flash. set up as many as you want in a sequence. You can mount the flashes on mini tripods if you like. Make sure the slave for each flash points back towards another flash. Mount the camera on a tripod, put it on Bulb setting or if you dont have bulb to 20 or 30 secs. Fire off a hand held flash somewhere off to the side of the camera in the general direction of the first slave and they should all fire off.
Occasionaly you get a miss fire, just re-arrange and try again.

 

[Hatstand]

ahhh my first cheap slave... ...she was a pretty little thing, got her on sale because she had managed to kill her previous owner's cat, which not liking cats I thought was a bit of a bonus... ...sadly she met a rich city guy, they fell in love and I had to let her go when he bought her freedom - but oh how I laugh now that his fortune has been lost in the collapse of the banks... 

 

[footleg]

Haven't found this a problem really and just use cheap slaves.

I've found it largely depends on the nature of the location. In very large rooms or long straight passages I find even the Firefly slaves occasionally fail to trigger. In that case I simple make sure a flash is positioned somewhere between the camera and the distant flash which failed to trigger, and this solves the problem. The advantage of a highly sensitive slave like the firefly is that you can generally position flashes out of sight (round corners or behind boulders) and rely on them to fire in most cases. Cheaper slaves need to be positioned with much more care, closer together and within sight of each other. Like most things you generally get what you pay for.

 

[graham]

ahhh my first cheap slave... ...she was a pretty little thing, got her on sale because she had managed to kill her previous owner's cat, which not liking cats I thought was a bit of a bonus... ...sadly she met a rich city guy, they fell in love and I had to let her go when he bought her freedom - but oh how I laugh now that his fortune has been lost in the collapse of the banks... 

Amazing how long it takes for someone to bite & make the obvious joke. When is the "trained bat" one going to come along?

 

[shotlighter]

ahhh my first cheap slave... ...she was a pretty little thing, got her on sale because she had managed to kill her previous owner's cat, which not liking cats I thought was a bit of a bonus... ...sadly she met a rich city guy, they fell in love and I had to let her go when he bought her freedom - but oh how I laugh now that his fortune has been lost in the collapse of the banks... 

Amazing how long it takes for someone to bite & make the obvious joke. When is the "trained bat" one going to come along?

I've denied myself so far but it's been difficult :ang:

 

[graham]

ahhh my first cheap slave... ...she was a pretty little thing, got her on sale because she had managed to kill her previous owner's cat, which not liking cats I thought was a bit of a bonus... ...sadly she met a rich city guy, they fell in love and I had to let her go when he bought her freedom - but oh how I laugh now that his fortune has been lost in the collapse of the banks... 

Amazing how long it takes for someone to bite & make the obvious joke. When is the "trained bat" one going to come along?

I've denied myself so far but it's been difficult :ang:

Aye, but don't you just know that somebody'd get really really pompous if you did.

 

[Hanging Death]

Thanks for the replies and glad that someone potted the obvious joke

 

[Lurker]

if you can set your exposure to 1 or 2 seconds then you could just manually fire your flash. I've had some decent results that way

This sounds like a great idea!  Can anybody recommend a very small and cheap flash gun that would be suitable for this for a photographic numpty like me (I only have a point and shoot camera so am keen to keep the size down)?  I guess it needs to be one that you can just set of manually by pushing a button on it, but I can't tell from the ones online that I've found whether they have that capability.
Cheers
Lurker

 

[Peter Burgess]

Today I took my ancient digital camera, new tripod, and legacy of my pre-digital photography kit (two flash guns and slave) down Barons' Cave to play. Here is one result, using the "long shutter" which gives about 2 seconds in which to fire off one flash, triggering the second using the old slave unit.

There are several more to be seen at:

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/personalalbum/personal-album-1561/

I'll keep them here for some time, but if you are reading this some weeks after posting, they might have been removed.

 

[ttxela]

Set the delay timer too and you can also be in the shot, the camera flash was left on, 10 second delay and 2 second exposure, manually fired the second flash after the camera flash.... should work underground too  :-\

 

[Peter Burgess]

I didn't use the camara flash. Mainly because the batteries I have for the camera are not holding much charge these days. More money to be spent, I suppose.