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Solution for NEX FLASH and Long MF lenses
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:32 am    Post subject: Solution for NEX FLASH and Long MF lenses Reply with quote
This is a continuation of my theme of doing things on the cheep with older (good) 35mm camera equipment.....

One of the fustrating things with a Sony nex-5 and its tiny flash is that any LENS longer than the kit 18-55mm lens causes lens shadow.

So I wanted to play with a lovely Helios 135mm/2.8 for portrait lens but are then limited to outdoors and in london with little or no sun and loads of rain.....well you get the picture.

So to bump up to a bigger flash and having the nex with no hotshoe/ no wireless / nothing but a dinky flash, left only one option....an Optical flash.

Just to complicate maters...the nex also has preflash so existing optical flashes that dont ignore preflash.....also don't work.

I settled on the SYK-5 based on an artical on the net, it only cost £7.....(ps there are more expensive and maybe better options)..

Ok....trigger sorted...what about the flash....well I managed to pick up 4 old flashs with my scrounging. (Im guessing I paid about £5 each)

2x Miranda
2x Sunpak (do not use on digital)

The sunpak were a no go as the trigger voltage on the hotshoe were +200V so will potentially fry the SYK-5

The Mirandas (700CD and 630CD) looked good with only 10V so I plugged it onto the SYK-5 with a very disapointing, not working.

So recheck everything and noticed that the Mirindas hotshoe with its many pins reverses the polarity of the side + and centre pin -. ??? can only guess this is so it works with the many other systems out there.

Out with the soldering Iron.....reverse the polarity and bingo...new toy to play with.....and more playing options availible.

All in all a slave for £12..not bad...never going to be as good as a +£200 but hey...

Hope this post proves usefull. I'm also going to try this flash with a softbox and this portrait lens.....so watch this space.

Let me know what you think.....and better still let me know any tips on optical slaves use, as really I don't know much about the timings.






playing with a green filter that came with the Miranders.




PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
SMC - Pentax-A 50mm 1.7

and Flash




PostPosted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Are you saying that the SKY-5 isn't sensitive enough to trigger from the pre-flash? What voltage limit to the SKY-5? I've used that sort of trigger over the years and never had to be concerned with the voltage. Of course, the camera is a different story. I've had an interest in the NEX, but remote, or handle flash has been an unresolved issue since the NEX does not have a sync socket. My A200 does not have one either, but does have a hot shoe from which I attach an adapter with a sync socket and voltage protection.


PostPosted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
woodrim wrote:
Are you saying that the SKY-5 isn't sensitive enough to trigger from the pre-flash?


Hi Woodrim

No I'm saying that other simple triggers that have been around for ages like the Syk-3 trigger don't work because they DO fire on the preflash of the nex and not when you want it to a few ms later. The Syk-5 is the model that can delay firing on the preflash and fire on the real flash.


woodrim wrote:
What voltage limit to the SKY-5? I've used that sort of trigger over the years and never had to be concerned with the voltage.


There in ZERO documentation on the net for the Syk-5 so you may be correct on the voltage limit...but this will be your call.
The one I bought was avertise to work with the Canon flashes with their low voltage, so just applied a little logic that this is what it is designed for.

As the Syk-5 has a few more electronic componants in it to contol the delayed fire...I'm guessing it is more sensitive to voltage....than perhaps the simple models


PostPosted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I had the same experience with a Miranda flash (inverse polarity), that I wanted to document here in some post, but never did it. Found one for very few money, and now is the second flash (Yongnuo on wireless trigger, Miranda on optical trigger).


PostPosted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thank you, safersteve, this is good information. I have wanted to have a NEX for both MF lens use and back up for my primary camera, however, I am also using a very old professional flash; Metz 402, and need that to be triggered by the camera. I found a solution for my A200; a hot shoe adapter with PC trigger and voltage protection for the camera, but there seemed to be no solution for the NEX until now.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Great choice for posting! Cool

Very important issue, even though nearly all manual focus lenses are stops faster than AF zooms commonly marketed for low cost!

I have a rake of Metz equipment and many affordable flashes besides. The lack of a pc synchro is a big no-no for every camera!!! EP-1 has a hotshoe and converters to pc socket are available for a few $. The optical triggers are the cheapest but HK radio triggers are getting quite affordable now. Laughing

It is often possibly to cancel preflash in the camera settings? Shocked Surely Sony allows that? Olympus certainly do!

Pro m4/3 and MILC offerings will deal with this issue but in the meantime, you seems to have a very affordable work around! Don't forget a narrowing of the flash by using a snoot of aluminium foil, to extend range? This will enable a smaller flash =to provide good lighting.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
pat donnelly wrote:

It is often possibly to cancel preflash in the camera settings? Shocked Surely Sony allows that? Olympus certainly do!


Nope ...no such luck.....and really the only point I can fail the NEX-5 on.

I've been hope for some time that sony creates a proper wireless dongle....but doesn't look hopefull.

Perhaps a sellling feature on the future NEX-5 replacement.

But for now its a good-e-nuff solution


PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
saffersteve wrote:
pat donnelly wrote:

It is often possibly to cancel preflash in the camera settings? Shocked Surely Sony allows that? Olympus certainly do!


Nope ...no such luck.....and really the only point I can fail the NEX-5 on.

I've been hope for some time that sony creates a proper wireless dongle....but doesn't look hopefull.

Perhaps a sellling feature on the future NEX-5 replacement.

But for now its a good-e-nuff solution

Try the "rear sync" flash option. Works like a charm on my NEX3 with DIY flash sync Smile

[edit]whoops, did some testing, turns out that my custom optical slave can do two flashes within 1/10s, so it does work, but only with shutter times of 1/10s or longer. I swear that it worked perfect some days ago with 1/60...[/edit]


PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Anyway, this is my setup:



With this optical trigger:



PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very nice creation Pixelbart. Was thinking about creating my own but the components would have worked out more than the £7.00 I paid.

For info Im getting 1/160 with the syk-5.

This is the max shutter with the flash popped up.
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