Multi flash cable adapter - is one available?

[John Fryatt]

Can anyone advise me on setting up two flash lighting arrangements in the
same room?

The obvious problem when using slaves to fire the flash heads, is that one
setup will trigger the other.
We have considered turning off the slaves and using cable sync, but haven't
been able to find a multi-way sync cable adapter yet. Do you know of one?
Such an adapter would have one input, from the camera, and at least two, and
ideally four, PC sockets for connecting all the flash heads to.

As a follow on, if we were to attempt to make such a thing, would simple
parallel wiring of the output sockets be ok, or would there be any problems?
Would some kind of electronics be needed, a relay maybe to isolate the
camera from the outputs?

All advice gratefully recieved.

If you recommend suppliers, bear mind I am in the UK. Thanks.


Regards, John

[John Fryatt]

Well, I had a private e-mail telling me that Porter's (a US camera shop)
sell such things.
That would be great except that they won't supply outside the US unless I
pay with a cheque or bank draft in US$. This is too much hassle and involves
quite high bank fees. Sheeesh! Is this the 21st century or what? I've bought
lots of things from the US with a credit card, why can't Porters do that?



"John Fryatt" > wrote in message
news:81Vhc.22173$4N3.20961@newsfe1-win...
> Can anyone advise me on setting up two flash lighting arrangements in the
> same room?
>
> The obvious problem when using slaves to fire the flash heads, is that one
> setup will trigger the other.
> We have considered turning off the slaves and using cable sync, but
haven't
> been able to find a multi-way sync cable adapter yet. Do you know of one?
> Such an adapter would have one input, from the camera, and at least two,
and
> ideally four, PC sockets for connecting all the flash heads to.
>
> As a follow on, if we were to attempt to make such a thing, would simple
> parallel wiring of the output sockets be ok, or would there be any
problems?
> Would some kind of electronics be needed, a relay maybe to isolate the
> camera from the outputs?
>
> All advice gratefully recieved.
>
> If you recommend suppliers, bear mind I am in the UK. Thanks.
>
>
> Regards, John
>
>

[John Fryatt]

Found somewhere in the UK that sell them. Thanks anyway, and for anyone else
who's interested....

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewproduct.cfm?Product=JESFLC3W&CFID=2315653&CFTOKEN=1a6f098-21751bfa-947a-41f1-8ac8-acd2a86052e9

Cheers, John


"John Fryatt" > wrote in message
...
> Well, I had a private e-mail telling me that Porter's (a US camera shop)
> sell such things.
> That would be great except that they won't supply outside the US unless I
> pay with a cheque or bank draft in US$. This is too much hassle and
involves
> quite high bank fees. Sheeesh! Is this the 21st century or what? I've
bought
> lots of things from the US with a credit card, why can't Porters do that?
>
>
>
> "John Fryatt" > wrote in message
> news:81Vhc.22173$4N3.20961@newsfe1-win...
> > Can anyone advise me on setting up two flash lighting arrangements in
the
> > same room?
> >
> > The obvious problem when using slaves to fire the flash heads, is that
one
> > setup will trigger the other.
> > We have considered turning off the slaves and using cable sync, but
> haven't
> > been able to find a multi-way sync cable adapter yet. Do you know of
one?
> > Such an adapter would have one input, from the camera, and at least two,
> and
> > ideally four, PC sockets for connecting all the flash heads to.
> >
> > As a follow on, if we were to attempt to make such a thing, would simple
> > parallel wiring of the output sockets be ok, or would there be any
> problems?
> > Would some kind of electronics be needed, a relay maybe to isolate the
> > camera from the outputs?
> >
> > All advice gratefully recieved.
> >
> > If you recommend suppliers, bear mind I am in the UK. Thanks.
> >
> >
> > Regards, John
> >
> >
>
>

[zeitgeist]

"John Fryatt" > wrote in message
news:81Vhc.22173$4N3.20961@newsfe1-win...
> Can anyone advise me on setting up two flash lighting arrangements in the
> same room?
>
> The obvious problem when using slaves to fire the flash heads, is that one
> setup will trigger the other.
> We have considered turning off the slaves and using cable sync, but
haven't
> been able to find a multi-way sync cable adapter yet. Do you know of one?
> Such an adapter would have one input, from the camera, and at least two,
and
> ideally four, PC sockets for connecting all the flash heads to.
>
> As a follow on, if we were to attempt to make such a thing, would simple
> parallel wiring of the output sockets be ok, or would there be any
problems?
> Would some kind of electronics be needed, a relay maybe to isolate the
> camera from the outputs?
>
> All advice gratefully recieved.
>
> If you recommend suppliers, bear mind I am in the UK. Thanks.
>
>
> Regards, John
>
>

[zeitgeist]

> Can anyone advise me on setting up two flash lighting arrangements in the
> same room?
>
> The obvious problem when using slaves to fire the flash heads, is that one
> setup will trigger the other.
> We have considered turning off the slaves and using cable sync, but
haven't
> been able to find a multi-way sync cable adapter yet. Do you know of one?
> Such an adapter would have one input, from the camera, and at least two,
and
> ideally four, PC sockets for connecting all the flash heads to.
>
> As a follow on, if we were to attempt to make such a thing, would simple
> parallel wiring of the output sockets be ok, or would there be any
problems?
> Would some kind of electronics be needed, a relay maybe to isolate the
> camera from the outputs?
>
> All advice gratefully recieved.
>
> If you recommend suppliers, bear mind I am in the UK. Thanks.
>

I believe Paramount will custom make a cable with multiple syncs, for
different species of plugs (IE: sunpak or vivitar or other proprietary sync
plug, and say a household HH male so you can plug a long extention cord to
the monolight, or maybe you need one of those microphone type jacks for it.)
you can do a search for them or go to the z-prophoto mailing list at
yahoogroups.com where there are hundreds of handy links to vendors and
professional suppliers.

However I see those little adapters in many camera shops, even consumer
stores in the malls, often on a rack. they tend to be a pain cause you
have so many things to come loose. I even have one of those 4 way pc
things you are asking about.

Are you trying to fire off a bunch of small shoe flash? Most monolights
will take a household type plug so you can use a hardware extention cord and
one pc to HH cord. There are HH male to PC you can then plug your shoe
flash into the extention cord. then you have polarity issues, use some
marker or nail polish to put a dot on each side so you can replicate which
way the plug is supposed to be or you will have problems with rapid fire or
no fire.