A900 and elinchrom BXRi flash

[harvey]

I have a question about the best way to connect an A900 to elinchrom BXRi flash.

I can see three options:

• A900, FS-1100, Skyport transmitter
• A900, FS-1100, Skyport transmitter (A900->Skyport Sync lead)
• A900, passive flash adaptor, Skyport transmitter (A900->Skyport Sync lead)

I'm wondering if the first option would be expected to work. If not would the second
option cause a problem with two electrical connections.
For the passive connection I see SpeedGraphic have something (Code HA6976)

[David Kilpatrick]

I just hang the Skyport off the PC sync terminal in the A900, it is very light and dangles next to the camera. If you really want to work more slickly for portraits or hand-held stuff, get a simple old flash L-bracket - a left hand grip with a shoe on top. Fit the Skyport into the shoe, plug into the sync socket, and grab the grip. I am using the BXRi kit right now, results are excellent but the fan has an uncanny synchronisation between two heads - it comes on within seconds of each other if you leave the heads running, even without shooting.

David

[harvey]

Good suggestions, and I should have noted that I do have the FS adaptor.

Now could I bring myself to take a hacksaw to my CG-1000?

[David Kilpatrick]

Send me £10 for the postage and I'll send you one of my couple of remaining Minolta VSB-1 brackets - a video grip easily adapted to the still cams, folds as well.

David

[harvey]

Now that I have the A900 I think I will give it a go with the FS-1100.

I found a posting where someone is doing exactly this:

http://s11.zetaboards.com/Alphamount_Si ... 7066158/1/

Also the Sony support site has a great section on compatibility and using the FS-1200 is OK.

On a related topic I tried my 5400HS today and it worked fine, although you have to set the
power manually.

[harvey]

Found some time to try this out and the skyport works fine mounted on the FS-1100.

[David Kilpatrick]

I have always used the Skyport with the FS-1100 or clone. It's not totally reliable, I have had one session where the connection to the camera seemed to be impossible to guarantee.

I have been testing the BXri 'pre flash' learning function and it's interesting - the Canon 50D only uses one pre flash, so does the A100 in pre-flash TTL mode, the A700 uses one extra preflash in all modes, using ADI adds an extra pre flash, using red eye mode on the A100 produces a surprising total of six pre flashes.

David