Holga & Monolight Flash Sync WTF

[EASmithV]

Hello all,

I have a wedding this weekend, and I was gonna shoot that other technology and 35mm, with maybe a holga thrown into the mix for weight & creative reasons, but i was just testing my holga with both monolights and my on-camera flashes.

It fires the On-Camera flashes 50/50 times, but fires the monolights with wireless trigger maybe 1/25 times, while my F6, F, and Digital all fire them fairly reliably 49/50 times.

Also, my monolights won't fire at all with a regular 3.5" audio jack to PC while they used to fire, but still fire fine with the original supplied cheap radio trigger. The Straight cable checks out to be perfectly conductive with an ohmmeter.

What's going on?!

 

[EASmithV]

OH!!!!!! And here's the kicker. My Wein safe syncs (x2) that fire my vivitar strobes perfectly, they don't fire my monolights with the straight PC-Audio cord, but the straight cord fires with my Sekonic L508 sometimes, and TOTALLY SPAZZES OUT when connected to my hasselblad, and when connected to my Nikon F, fires 100% reliably.

WHAT'S HAPPENING I DONT UNDERSTAND

 

[EASmithV]

I'm not sure if a mod should move this to 35mm, MF, or lighting... And frankly i don't care as long as I learn something... Preferably about what';s happening here...

 

[thommac]

Where did you get the sync cable. Cheap cables can be very loose in the PC socket, causing sporadic faults and failures.
Some cameras have a threaded PC sync socket to overcome this. If your cameras do I would suggest a threaded PC sync cable.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[EASmithV]

the sync cable is a genuine paramont, and is totally reliable in some cameras biut not others, while these same cameras are totally reliable with some flashes... but 100% reliable cameras and 100% flashes and 100% reliable cords are like 20% reliable when used in certain combinations!

 

[thommac]

If the cable is reliable with a certain camera then it must be the cable-camera connection that is causing the problem.
Pc connections are unreliable at best. The camera pc port may be worn, leaving the cable loose.

You say your hassy sends the mono's ballistic. That could be a short in the camera connector creating a constant circuit.

In relation to the holga, could the problem be the firing voltage of the radio trigger. The contacts in the shutter would not be the most refined. The voltage in the flash guns may be enough to transfer through the resistance of a bad switch.

 

[thommac]

Plug the cable into the hassy and check the circuit with a multimeter. If you get an closed circuit its the cameras connectio n

 

[Two23]

I would check to see if the sync is actually synced on the Holga. Or, are you saying the flash just isn't firing at all? Try the flash with a direct sync cord between the camera and the flash. If still not working, it sounds like the sync inside the camera shutter isn't connecting.

Kent in SD