PC plug to hotshoe thingy / PC plug, any high quality plugs available?

Any ideas:

I have one of those things you put in a cold shoe that has a hotshoe on top
and a cable to connect to the camera's PC socket. It seems rather
unreliable. I suspect that the plug does not make very good contact.

Is there a source of better quality ones or better plugs?

Pete

 

I know what you mean, most of those are poor quality. I think that Wein makes
a connector that is more robust, and not just a slave type. The other option
is getting a flash unit that have a PC socket in it.

One really cheap option I use with old folder cameras is an old Nikon SB-10
Speedlight with an SC-7 Synch Cord. The SC-7 is hard to find, but low cost.
You should be able to find both these items in working condition for under $US
30.

A better more modern Speedlight, like an SB-25 or SB-26 (around $US 100), has
a threaded sync cord PC socket built into the side of the flash. The newer
Speedlights with the TTL connector on the shoe pad will often not start up
directly in a cold shoe, so you would need to tape the bottom connections to
mask them off from contact with metal. The nice things about the newer flashes
is the higher power and many manual settings possible.

 

Gordon Moat wrote:

Other end. I don't think the hot shoe end is the problem, it is the camera
end. I seem to have had the problem with more than one camera, so I can't
blame one cameras PC socket.

I have a cheap Centon 'computer' flash, the type with the sensor and the
slider that goes over it to regulate the flash output.

Well, I am mainly a Pentax user, it is pentax dedicated but only in the most
limited way (signals to the camera that it is charged).

Actually I'm not a big flash user. I went to a museum. The plan, had the
flash worked was to put fast film in the camera for available light and
then use the flash for the shadows. Unfortunately even if it had worked I
could not have wound its power down.

 

Funny, I always had the wire come loose at the hotshoe end. Maybe if we
combined both terrible types, then we could make one really good piece of crap
.. . . then throw the other out.

That would work, though you would be stuck with full power or auto flash. The
SB-10 does not provide much adjustment either, though it is compact.

I am less familiar with Pentax strobes. Metz also have some that allow a sync
cord connection to the side of the flash, bypassing the hot shoe. Most of those
have power settings that can be changed.

The other simple trick is index cards and tape to dial down the power. You
would need a flash meter to be certain of the affect. The index card over the
flash head also makes the light softer, sort of a poor and cheap mans soft box
effect.