A Little DIY
Inspired by the Strobist Movement, I ordered a copy of the 16-Channel trigger from GadgetInfinity on Ebay. Here is a link to the Ebay Shop
Here is what the pack looks like.
It contains
- The trigger (to mount on the camera)
- The receiver (to connect to a strobe)
- A PC Sync Cable
- A 1/4" to 1/8" phone plug adaptor
I had chosen this over the 4-channel version because I wanted to use the attached PC Sync cable instead of mounting the flash as that one required as I felt this would add some unwanted height.
After opening the package, I found that the PC Sync cable was only there to connect the receiver directly to the camera and had a male mini phone plug (middle) on one end while the receiver had a 1/4" male phone plug for output (front). Basically this had been designed to fire studio strobes and not the Nikon SB800 I wanted to use it for.
After some pointers from the Strobist Flickr Group, I went off to RadioShack and got this. They had been on the shelf for quite a while (RadioShack in Bahrain).
The idea was to cut the PC Sync cable and replace with the RadioShack item so that the receiver could be connected there. The other end could then be connected to the SB800.
These are the innards of the RadioShack piece. The short bit is for the +ve signal and the bigger one is for the -ve signal.
Here is the connection. The +ve is in the offwhite inner cable in the PC Sync cord while the -ve is bare and around it.
Final Result. It works!
In action
Please note that this 16-Channel version cannot be used on flash units without PC ports. The 4-Channel version which features a hotshoe is needed for such units.