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Why are my strobes acting up?
After years of resisting going to strobes, I bought a three light setup and starting clicking away. Until recently, I rarely had a misfire. I have probably shot 20,000 frames with it. Now the strobe probably only goes off half the time. I have tried the following: *Changed the cord *Used a remote *Used the hotshoe adapter *Plugged into a different light All with the same aggravating results. I'm about to go back to my Lowells and deal with the heat and slower shutter speeds. Any suggestions would be appreciated... I don't have much hair left to pull out. Jun 05 06 09:04 am Link Plugged into a different light meaning, you changed your flash tube? Do you have radio slaves that you can hook up, maybe your built in slave does not work properly. what strobes are you using Jun 05 06 09:08 am Link Joseph_T wrote: I am using a Smith victor set up Jun 05 06 09:13 am Link there is one other thing that can happen depending on the camera you are using. i have a mamiya rb67 body i use sometimes and the lenses have the sync in the lens. sometimes the sync in the lens gets loose or misfires and sometimes it goes out and unfortunately to fix it costs more than the lens. ......i lost my 250mm that way  but if the strobe fires when you manually hit the fire button on the pack then it is a sync problem so it is the connection or the cord or the connection in the pack that may be bad. also there are some strobes that have a thermal heat shut off and if you are firing fast they sometimes shut down. i have some old norman heads that have that feature but there is an indicator light that comes on and when it cools down you can shoot again. if that is the problem i usually will shut off the modeling lights to keep it cooler. for me it happens if i am doing multiple pops for when i need the extra depth of field (f64) Jun 05 06 09:18 am Link there is one other thing that can happen depending on the camera you are using. i have a mamiya rb67 body i use sometimes and the lenses have the sync in the lens. sometimes the sync in the lens gets loose or misfires and sometimes it goes out and unfortunately to fix it costs more than the lens. ......i lost my 250mm that way but if the strobe fires when you manually hit the fire button on the pack then it is a sync problem so it is the connection or the cord or the connection in the pack that may be bad. also there are some strobes that have a thermal heat shut off and if you are firing fast they sometimes shut down. i have some old norman heads that have that feature but there is an indicator light that comes on and when it cools down you can shoot again. if that is the problem i usually will shut off the modeling lights to keep it cooler. for me it happens if i am doing multiple pops for when i need the extra depth of field (f64) Jun 05 06 09:18 am Link what strobes are you using I am using a Smith victor set up SV might be the problem. The delta bewtween the cheap and the expensive is reliabality and features. Jun 05 06 09:18 am Link yani wrote: Because theyâre Thespians Jun 05 06 09:24 am Link Have you checked the fuses? Jun 05 06 09:24 am Link MMDesign wrote: No because they do go off when they feel like it.... Jun 05 06 10:01 am Link Brand & Model ? Your flashtubes could be finished or capacitors could be finished or firing circuitry etc... are they all acting up or just some ? Specifics!! C. Jun 05 06 10:07 am Link Fons Studio wrote: As I said previously.... Jun 05 06 11:35 am Link How fast are you shooting? There is a recycle delay while they charge up between shots. Other than that it could be a problem in your camera. Digital cameras are very touchy about the voltage that comes through the sync cord. I always use a Wein sync isolator to protect my cameras. Jun 05 06 12:50 pm Link Mark Anderson wrote: I'm thinking along the same lines as Mark. The recycle delay is proportional to the power level. If you are shooting at full power, it could take longer to recycle. This is assuming you are shooting say a frame a second at full power and the strobes aren't recharged. Jun 05 06 01:01 pm Link Round 2" How are you connected to them ? wired or wireless ? If you push the test button , do they fire flawlessly ? C. Jun 05 06 01:07 pm Link Is your camera set to force flash or auto? Jun 05 06 01:18 pm Link Stupid question, Are you shooting digital? And the only reason I am asking this is because a peer/friend, had a similar problem, she was shooting with a nikon D70 using photogenics. The flashes would trigger but not record. She then used Pocket wizards, lights would trigger and the camera would read all lights. So the problem may be, though your lights are triggering or going off, the camera may not be reading the entire story. Jun 05 06 01:24 pm Link Yani, not enough information. There are quite a few different possibilities. Most likely is a weak contact somewhere in your sync link. Let's do some diagnosis. I assume that your cords are fine (since you have tried different ones) and that the wireless you used is also fine. Does it fire everytime if you use anything else BUT your camera? If that's the case, the sync inside your camera is not good. Does it fire half the time if you use, say, your flash meter to trigger? If that's the case, the sync inside your strobe is bad, assuming that your flash meter trigger other lights 100%. Most likely it's the switch that triggers; and it's directly hooked up to the high-voltage trigger. If the strobe's sync is bad, unless you are extremely electronic savvy, send it back to SV for fixing. Voltage inside the strobes is very high, please be very careful. Jun 05 06 01:28 pm Link yani wrote: The intermittent firing indicates a bad connection, particularly since the lights work in slave mode. You've tried the obvious, which is a new sync cord. One thing to check is the possibility that your PC contact on the camera has tarnish on it. Try cleaning it with some isopropyl alcohol, including both the strobe and camera ends. Look at the contacts on the strobes to make sure they aren't tarnished either. Another thought is that the camera PC connection may be going bad. You could try a Wein hotshoe insert with a PC connector on it to see if that gets your flashes firing (or alternatively, a strobe in the hotshoe, powered down to minimum, aimed at ceiling, and your strobes in slave mode). Finally, here's another thing to try--use some pliers and tighten the PC connector on the cord (i.e. crush it very slightly). It may just be as simple as a too loose contact with the camera PC connector. Jun 05 06 09:44 pm Link Thank you all for your input. I went back and cleaned the hotshoe contacts better and that seems to be the fix. Fingers crossed. Jun 06 06 05:48 pm Link Your sync cord is the weakest link, and from your description it sounds like the classic sign that it is on it's way out. If you start experiencing the same symptoms again get a new one. I have a bad habit of stepping on my cords and yanking them every once in a while, so I have to replace them every couple of months. The more expensive, heavy duty ones will last a lot longer and are worth the extra money. Jun 07 06 09:23 am Link I agree that a prime suspect is the sync cord PC connector. The connector is very weak and has to be in perfect condition to work. Just a slight tug on the PC cord, even a brand new cord, when it is plugged in to the camera is enough to distort the PC connector to where it makes only intermittent contact. I have used needle-nose pliers numerous times to get going again, but it is embarassing in a photo session to have all those misfires. There is a special tool that you can buy in a pro photo store that is supposed to realign the PC connector quickly and properly. I am going to try a radio slave to solve my problems with the PC connector by eliminating it entirely. Jun 07 06 09:45 am Link |
