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blinztree · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:57 am

I have strobes with two different power ratings; 400w and 600w and I currently use individual triggers to fire them. I want to use sync cables instead of triggers.

I found a Hana sync adapter with 1 Male and 4 Female PC ports and have these questions;

1. Is it safe for both camera and strobes to connect 400w and 600w units together on a sync adapter?
2. If it is safe, will this setup draw more juice from the camera's battery?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:19 am

Without knowing just what kind of system you are using this question may not be accurate. Do your lights have a slave function where you do not have to hook up a trigger or sync cable?

I can use 20 lights and if they have a slave function all I need is one sync cable or two triggers such as Pocket Wizards. The light from the main light will set off the others.

jeffbanke · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:17 pm

Where you can get into trouble with the system you are proposing is if the flash units have different sync voltages, one could blow the other up.
I have some METZ 45's one has a sync voltage of 17v and another older unit of 173v, tying these together would be ugly.

You are better off using a cheap optical coupler on one of the flash units, it will be triggered by the light from the first.

On sync trigger voltages, make sure your camera can handle it, you don't want to fry your camera either.

blinztree · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:58 pm

Dave, the system layout is:-

Camera 1 via hot-shoe adapter > M-F PC sync cables > Hana adapter 1M + 4F PC ports> F-M PC sync cables> 2 @ 400w strobes + 2 @ 600w strobes

Camera 2 via PC port > M-F PC sync cables > Hana adapter 1M + 4F PC ports> F-M PC sync cables> 2 @ 400w strobes + 2 @ 600w strobes

blinztree · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:02 pm

Jeff, if given that the 400w sync voltage is 4.5v and 600w sync voltage is 5 volts, would it be safe to tie them together?

Or must they both be have the same sync voltage?

I can always take the precautionary measure to use a in-house voltage regulator to prevent the strobes from frying the camera.

markrhiggins · Joined: 28 Jan 2008 Posts: 1996 Location: Australia

use one on a trigger or cable and use the other as an optical slave. Why cables to both?

hhltdave5 · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:47 am

blinztree · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:21 pm

Okay, Guys... I have tried the config out yesterday and it works reliable. Thanks :-)

jeffbanke · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 12:56 am

blinztree · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:05 pm

Camera > Sync cable > 1 unit of 400w strobe to fire the rest of the strobes/ flash via optic slaves.

I reckon this will work well for indoor work but working outdoors might be a bit dingy if ambient light is too bright.

An upgrade of triggers is also in order.

jeffbanke · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:45 pm

blinztree · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:33 pm

Thanks, Jeff, Dave and Mark for your inputs. Cheers

blinztree · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:16 am

jeffbanke · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:46 pm

blinztree · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:26 pm

Big Thanks again, Jeff. Cheers