optical slave + old flash

divamum

I want to get an optical slave for the older "Miranda" brand flash I used to use with my film camera.

While it's not much use as a metered flash, it would be helpful to use it to blast a high key background, but I need an optical slave for it. I seem to remember that optical slaves are NOT universal, so... what do I need to get to make this thing fire? Generic ebay $5 special? Anything more reliable/appropriate/better?

Thanks in advance!

ETA: NO pc/synch socket on the flash, so I guess it will have to be a hotshoe model or do I need to get a synch adapter and then plug an OS into that? :scratch

Art Scott

optical flash triggers off ebay a whole list .............any of them should work fine.............

This one has a light stand / Tripod mount + the optical slave ..........

ziggy53

There are 2 primary factors relating to old flashes and an optical slave:

Polarity. While polarity didn't much matter when electronic flashes were triggered with mechanical contacts, it does matter with electronic switches used in an optical slave unit. There is no good way to test for this except to try it. (There probably should be a good and easy way to test, maybe using a VOM, but I haven't come across it myself.)

Conventional optical slave versus "digital" slave. In a conventional slave unit it fires the flash on the first sensed pulse of light from another flash. With modern dSLRs there is generally a "preflash" that will trigger the slaved flash before the primary flash used for exposure. Digital slaves exist and either count and ignore the preliminary flash pulses, or they count and delay after the first pulse, then activate the slave for the primary flash.

The following Sunpak unit has worked so far with every hot shoe flash I have tested, and it can be set for both conventional slave and digital slave compatibility, with a multi-selector switch to change modes. It is cheaply made of plastic but so far has held up to my use.

My primary use for the unit is to add flash to a P&S camera that lacks any sort of external flash capability. I also use it for triggering a background illumination flash and I just add a 1/4" wingnut to the top of the slave mount and then attach the unit plus slaved flash onto a short tripod.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/396592-REG/Sunpak_DIGIADAPT_Digital_Camera_Flash_Adapter.html

divamum

Thanks Ziggy and Art!