Lighting 101: PC Cords and Pocket Wizards

One of the biggest (and economically variable) decisions you'll make is choosing how to trigger your flash off-camera. Your method of choice will probably evolve with your pocket book.

There are a few ways to trigger an off-camera flash. Some are cheap, some are expensive. Some are very reliable, some aren't.

Basically, they fall into two categories: Wired and wireless. The wireless category can either be radio-frequency based, or infrared.

The good news is that you may already have the capability and not know it, depending on your camera and flash model. Nikon and Canon both have proprietary, infrared triggering systems that also make use of the auto, do-everything TTL flash systems.

But (a) those TTL systems don't always make your photos look the way you want, and (b) infrared systems need close quarters, line-of-sight and specifica angles to work.

That said, save the money and experiment with your Canon E-TTL or Nikon CLS systems if you already own them. You can learn much more about these systems by searching (here) or asking on the Flickr Strobist group discussion boards.

The next option is a "PC Cord." It is the wired version of the off-camera flash world, and it is a reasonably cheap, reasonably effective method. The main consideration is what connections your camera and flash have that you can wire together.

Your camera will have either a hot shoe (up top, where you attach your flash) or a PC jack (little 1/4" round concentric-circle-looking jack) or both. Higher-end cameras usually have both. Lower-end camera have hot shoes. Point and shoot cameras frequently have neither, so thay are not well-suited for off-camera flash.

Your flash will have a male hot shoe (that's how and where it connects to you camera) but it may also have an external sync jack, such as a female PC connection just like many cameras.

If your camera and your flash both have a PC jack, just get a male-to-male PC cord and you in like Flynn. If either or both of them only have a hot shoe, you'll need an apapter or two.

Any hot shoe flash can be adapted to have what is called a "household sync" (like an American power cord) with something called a Wein HSH adapter. Any hot-shoe-based camera can be made to have a PC jack with a PC adapter, such as the Nikon AS-15. (The latter is not restricted to use on Nikon cameras, either.)

This probably sounds a little confusing to a newb, but fortunately this (and many of the other decisions in the gear portion of the Lighting 101 section) have been solved by a guy named Moishe Appelbaum at Midwest Photo Exchange. He has put together reasonably priced off-camera flash kits (stands, umbrellas, sync, Ni-MH batts, etc.) that can be shipped anywhere in the world.

The prices are reasonable, the gear choices are sound and it is a great way to save the time and headache of trying to figure this all out for yourself. The only thing you will need to know is (a) if your camera has a PC jack or only a hot shoe, and (b) if you want to spring for pair of the high-end-Pocket Wizards, which we will get to in a minute.

The various kits are detailed here.

If you have specific hook-up/gear questions, I am setting up a discussion thread here, just to preserve everyone's sanity.

Now, if you are just a student or hobbyist, this next part is going to sound needlessly expensive to you. And it may very well be. But if you are a pro, you will eventually wind up at the doorstep of the Pocket Wizard. We all do, pretty much.

They are $375 a pair, and they are pretty much the Gold Standard of off-camera synching.

Why? Insane range (1600 feet) and rock-solid reliability. They just work. Every time. Period. Try to find someone who uses them and does not like them. You won't.

But if you are just sticking your toe in the the of-camera flash world, there is no need to break the bank yet. For those just taking shots of their kids or playing around at table-top studio stuff, you are probably fine to start out with PC cords or your camera's infrared systems.

But be careful before you go out and buy a $300 flash, so you can use the "cheap" infrared Nikon/Canon system. It may make sense to go with the cheaper, manual flashes and the more expensive Pocket Wizards. (That's what I do, BTW.)



(Click the play button for a tutorial on the newest base Pocket Wizard model.)

There is another alternative that won't break the bank while you experiment. There is a Hong Kong-based company called Gadget Infinity, which makes very inexpensive radio remotes for flashes. And they are all hot-shoe based, too. This solves a lot of connection issues for newbs.

Best yet, the set is $29.95 at the time of this writing, and you can get extra receivers for a nominal fee. These are not suitable for pros, IMO. They are not nearly as reliable as the Pocket Wizards.

Strobist reader David James demo's the Gadget Infinity remotes here:



But the PW's cost about 15 times as much. So hey, there's that. There is always a discussion going on about them here, in the discussion threads.

Finally, you could choose the option of a DIY Pro PC Cord, which I have detailed in two posts that begin here. If you want to read through that, it'll keep you in the Lighting 101 series when you exit.

Or you can just skip ahead to leaning about umbrellas, by clicking below.

If you are confused, take heart. This is far and away the most confusing thing about off-camera flash. And there are many people that can help you on the above-linked discussion groups. Don't let this one technical issue throw you off.


Next: Soft Light: Umbrellas