Looking for a flash handle / bracket

perkeleellinen · Sep 15, 2020

Hello All,

I bought a Kaiser flash handle to mount my SB25 off to the side of the camera but it doesn't work. I think think the issue is that the cold shoe on the bracket is metal and when I mount my flash it must short the connection pins as the flash fires as soon as it slides into the shoe and then it won't fire at all. I think what I need is a plastic mount but all the flash brackets I see on ebay have metal cold shoes.

Can anyone recommend a handle / bracket to get the flash off to the side that hasn't got a metal cold shoe?

Thanks!

R.Gould · Sep 15, 2020

I had the same problem with a camera a while ago now, solvwd the problem with someelectrical insulting tape cut to cover the cold shoe, I used 2 layers and needed to renew it from time to time, assuming your camera is hot shoe only, if it has a PC socket then Kaiser do an adaptor, hot shoe to pc lead, simply slip the adaptor onto the cold shoe, then mount the flash onto the hot shoe and plug the cable into the pc socket

AgX · Sep 15, 2020

Glue a thin sheet of plastic (PS, ABS) with epoxy glue onto that shoe. A immediate solution would be adhesive tape, best textile tape.

BradS · Sep 15, 2020

The issue is not that the accessory shoe is made of metal but rather that your flash does not disconnect / disable its hot shoe when the PC synch cord is plugged into the flash unit.

I'm not familiar with the Nikon (?) SB25 but, I assume it has extra pins on the hot shoe...does it have a synch cable? Try using something simple like a Vivitar 285 with a synch cable.

EDIT:
Just looked at the Nikon SB-25 at:
https://mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf4/flash/SB25/index.htm

Looks like you need something like a Nikon SC17 TTL synch cord.

AgX · Sep 15, 2020

BradS said:
The issue is not that the accessory shoe is made of metal but rather that your flash does not disconnect / disable its hot shoe when the PC synch cord is plugged into the flash unit.

But how many flashes do so?

BradS · Sep 15, 2020

AgX said:
But how many flashes do so?

Every Vivitar electronic flash that I've ever owned ...202, 273, 283, 285 and the SunPack 383 as well. It seems necessary. Look at the accessory shoe on any camera that came out prior to the hot shoe... the Minolta SRT-101, Leicas, Pentax Spotmatic, Nikkormat FTN, etc...they're all made of solid metal. How's the flash supposed to work if plugging in the PC cord does not disable the hot shoe contentions on the flash?

R.Gould · Sep 15, 2020

I have used many flash's over the years, , Vivatar,Panasonic,sunpak, some mertz shoe mounted, and many more, and in all of them the hotshoe became disconnected when the pc lead was plugged in, or some had a switch that could switch the hot shoe on or off as needed, it was the common thing before the advent of dedicated flashes, and most if not all can still be found used and working perfectly, My favorite's, and ones that I would suggest would be later Vivitar 283's as the later models had a lower trigger voltage, I have 3 of them for my older cameras such as my Leica 3f canon 7 and retina's ect and they have yet to let me down, and should have enough power for most work, they were once known in Fleet Street as the light machine

AgX · Sep 15, 2020

Well, Vivitar and Sunpak flashes are a rarity over here. And I do not think such switch was common at other flashes, but to be sure I woud have to check at my collection. (The question did not come up at me so far...)

The flashes in times of cold shoes of course did not have hot shoes either...

R.Gould · Sep 15, 2020

I've only had a couple with switch's, it was many years ago and I really can't remember the models, but in the UK Vivitar and sunpak are still easily available,I have a couple that I use for some of my older cameras, but I mainly use either a Metz 4cl1 or cl4, with my Tlr's and folders, but I very rarely use flasf at all these days,even down to 1/2 second I can hand hold, and I am using more Minolta cynax for 35mm with Minolta dedicated flash, which I mainly used for fill flash, last year, plus my Bronica and Mamiya 645's the Vivitar's are easier for a bit of fillm flash, but in fact this year, with everything changed due to Covid, I have not used either flash or slow speeds at all as the places I would use this sort of thing is closed,sadly,but these older flash's are around and plentiful, at least in the UK,

wiltw · Sep 16, 2020

I see OP is from Europe. Here in the US, there is the 3M brand of 'Magic Mending' adhesive tape, which uses thin Mylar plastic film...so it is a terrific insulator. You could put the tape on the hotfoot or on the hotshoe without a significant increase in thickness.

AgX · Sep 16, 2020

I advised textile tape, as some flashes have rather sharp contacts, that might tear some tape at repeated taking on/off. The thick 3M PET tape I got only has a low tack and is too thick to be bednt over the leading edge. Thus one should look at what one got in house and choose the best apt. But my advise on plastic sheets remains.

BrianShaw · Sep 16, 2020

While tape or other insulation can sometimes be made to work, a more permanent and foolproof solution I found is the Stroboframe flash holder. It grips the hot shoe of the flash by the edge without shorting the contacts.

https://tiffen.com/pages/stroboframe

perkeleellinen · Sep 16, 2020

Thanks for all the comments.

I re-tried the flash today, mounting it both when on and off. Also I tried attaching the sync cable before and after mounting / turning on. Made no difference, it won't fire at all but it works fine unmounted with the sync cable.

@wiltw thanks for the tip on Magic Tape, we have it here in the UK and we might have some around here at home too. I'll try this first to try and get the flash firing.

miha · Sep 16, 2020

You might need something like this: http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/en/produkte/2_1_produktanzeige.asp?nr=1301

Looking for a flash handle / bracket

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