Syncing Lens to Strobes

[SoulfulRecover]

Question for you all; I have a Kodak Commercial Ektar in an Acme shutter. I bought two sync cords so I would be able to plug it into my Paul C Buff wireless trigger for my Alien Bee strobes. The sync cords go from bi-post to pc male, pc female to 3.5mm jack. The problem is that the PCB trigger uses a 2.5mm jack. I found a 3.5 female to 2.5 male adapter but I wanted to check with you all and see if this would work before I purchased it.

Or would I be able to buy a hot shoe and ditch the second sync cord and plug the PC end into the hot shoe and run my trigger that way?

Thoughts?

https://www.frys.com/product/8447888?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[Tin Can]

Question for you all; I have a Kodak Commercial Ektar in an Acme shutter. I bought two sync cords so I would be able to plug it into my Paul C Buff wireless trigger for my Alien Bee strobes. The sync cords go from bi-post to pc male, pc female to 3.5mm jack. The problem is that the PCB trigger uses a 2.5mm jack. I found a 3.5 female to 2.5 male adapter but I wanted to check with you all and see if this would work before I purchased it.

Or would I be able to buy a hot shoe and ditch the second sync cord and plug the PC end into the hot shoe and run my trigger that way?

Thoughts?

https://www.frys.com/product/8447888?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I want one too. I cut and splice. I just checked Paramount and B&H which sells Paranount.

Paramount will make custom cords for a price.

But make sure the Bi-Post end fits...

[LabRat]

From a commercial photo point of view, the problem is that the wireless sync unit has only a PC camera connector, where any other studio strobe cord uses the two prong (US AC type) connection as a standard sync cord end (not that I agree that was the "best" end choice (in the USA) as I have seen assistants absentmindedly plug flashmeters etc directly into AC mains and blow up stuff), but it still is a standard...

The very compact PC connectors have a fairly delicate cord to plug bond, and will usually fail sooner or later, so cords are somewhat expected to become expendable over time, but I don't like that there is no choice with this configuration, without resorting to a "daisy chain" of cords, adapters etc where something might not allow the strobe to trigger when it should (every time)...

But I saw directly afterwards when a school tech that couldn't get a wireless sync receiver unit to turn on (needed a battery), and plugged the sync directly into the wall (to power it), and a little mushroom cloud of magic smoke came out... (She asked me if I could fix it, and I replied politely to put a note on it that said "out of order" and saved her a tedious lecture about ruining the unit...) ;-0

Steve K

[SoulfulRecover]

I want one too. I cut and splice. I just checked Paramount and B&H which sells Paranount.

Paramount will make custom cords for a price.

But make sure the Bi-Post end fits...

The bi-post to PC cord is Paramount and the PC to 3.5mm is Impact. Both from B&H.

[Corran]

There's no reason the 3.5F -> 2.5M adapter shouldn't work. It's $2, so easy enough to try. Not sure where you are located but they might have such an adapter locally if you've still got a Radio Shack or similar there. Whatever you buy, just make sure it is a "tip ring sleeve" or TRS cable, not a newer "tip ring ring sleeve" connector as some modern phones use for pushing out video or mic connections in addition to stereo sound. You'll notice 3 rings on the male end of the cable for those newer 4-connector cables. These could be dangerous due to non-standard wiring (https://www.provideocoalition.com/ts-trs-trrs-trrrs-combating-the-misconnection-epidemic/).

[SoulfulRecover]

There's no reason the 3.5F -> 2.5M adapter shouldn't work. It's $2, so easy enough to try. Not sure where you are located but they might have such an adapter locally if you've still got a Radio Shack or similar there. Whatever you buy, just make sure it is a "tip ring sleeve" or TRS cable, not a newer "tip ring ring sleeve" connector as some modern phones use for pushing out video or mic connections in addition to stereo sound. You'll notice 3 rings on the male end of the cable for those newer 4-connector cables. These could be dangerous due to non-standard wiring (https://www.provideocoalition.com/ts-trs-trrs-trrrs-combating-the-misconnection-epidemic/).

Great information. I had no idea about any of this. Turns out the Fry's up the street has this in stock and I will be picking it up in the next hour

[SoulfulRecover]

Well it seems to fit, just need to test it this evening

174822

[Bob Salomon]

Well it seems to fit, just need to test it this evening

174822

Just to be sure, that shutter have X sync or just M or both.

[SoulfulRecover]

both