Three months ago I had my small-flash kit together and was just around the corner from making it work. It was a corner that kept receeding. When using old flashes you have to worry about the voltage the flash puts out. Digital cameras, as well as electronic film cameras, only like to see about 6 volts. Anything more can fry their brains. My old Vivitar 283s apparently can put out up to 300 volts. The solution is a safe sync that will cut the voltage down. I was using a Wein safe sync which fit on the hot shoe also providing a PC sync connection. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fire the strobe. B&H Photo was kind enough to replace it. I installed it on the hot shoe of my digital Pentax SLR and it didn't work. Then, when I pulled out the PC sync cord the pin on the cord pulled out and stayed in Wein safe sync. It was at that point I decided to stop screwing around with PC connectors. I then ordered a cheap Chinese radio contolled flash trigger for $25 plus shipping. (Ones that really work are almost $200 each.) It worked at first and then stopped. In searching some forums I found these flash triggers didn't work too well with the Vivitar 285HV and that there was a new model that did. I contacted the eBay seller and he would replace it but I would have to find my receipt and return it. I decided to go to Plan C.

I went off to the Paramount Cord web site and ordered a 18" hot shoe to household male cord and a 12" Vivitar connector to a household female cord. I should have done this from the beginning. They are nice and heavy duty.

By using household electrical connectors you can use any extension cord to connect them. (These are U.S. electrical connectors.) The hot shoe end will usually be on my digital Pentax SLR but it turns out my 1958 Ricoh Diacord has a hot shoe. It's a very sturdy connection. That's a ten foot orange 16 gauge extension cord. I have two of them and if I need more length I can grab one of the extension cords I use for my weed eater. I had 70 feet of cord hooked up and it fired every time. I'm using heavier cord than you probably need to but the heavier gauge will result in less coltage drop and the orange cords are easier to see. I also now have a Lumedyne safe sync that is a little box with female houshold on one side and male household on the other and acts as a voltage regulator. I will just plug it in between the cord on the camera and the extension cord. I was then reading the discussion threads at Strobist and came across Jacobs Photo/Graphics and his power packs for small strobes. I will be getting one of these. He really likes Vivitar 285s and 283s and has a page on using them that gives me a lot of ideas. He also has a page on using Metz 45s as off camera strobes.

Which is cool because I have one of those, too. I hadn't thought of using it off camera, partially because it's a CL-1 that only has one manual setting. No partial manual settings. I did a quick comparison with my flash meter and the Metz puts out a little over 1 1/2 stops of light compared to the Vivitar 285HV. I don't have a Metz to household cord (yet) but it fires fine with the Sonia optical slave.

These little devices sense a spike in light from the strobe connected to the camera and fire the second strobe, or third, or fourth... I originally had a Wein Peanut Slave but it wouldn't fire all the time. I found these made in India Sonia slaves at naive-buyer on eBay. A good man to deal with. These have worked 100% of the time. I might try to get a cheap Metz 45 CT-3 or CT-4. They have 1/2 and 1/4 power settings and are an earlier model with higher voltage but the safe sync will take care of that. Now to start using them. Learning will ensue.