My off camera flash setup

[ErickSaint]

So I had a few questions via PM about my off camera setup with my 5N. Here is a quick rundown. Some pics were taken with a phone, so forgive quality. I got most everything from Amazon, so I will provide links where I can. If you have any other questions let me know, I'll answer them if I can. But this is all new to me.

I started out with this adapter. I was skeptical as to if it would actually work or not. It came in and I mounted it, it works perfectly. Though it may be a bit flimsy to use a newer flash directly on the camera. The flash is so heavy and the adapter is just mounted with a small screw, but it does work. And it works great with the wireless triggers.

Amazon.com: JJC Hot Shoe Flash Adapter MSA-10 for Sony NEX 3 NEX5 MSA10: Camera & Photo

Here it is on my camera.

SPH-D710    ---    4mm    f/2.7    1/15s    ISO 400

I also got the Cowboy Studio wireless triggers.
Amazon.com: CowboyStudio NPT-04 4 Channel Wireless Trigger for External Speelights with 1 Trigger and 2 Receivers (NPT-04+extra receiver): Camera & Photo

SPH-D710    ---    4mm    f/2.7    1/15s    ISO 400

SPH-D710    ---    4mm    f/2.7    1/15s    ISO 400

And Yongnuo YN-560 II flash
Amazon.com: Yongnuo YN-560 II Speedlight Flash for Canon and Nikon. GN58.: Camera & Photo

And as you can tell the wireless units trigger the flash just fine.

NEX-5N       55mm    f/14.0    1/5s    ISO 3200

I was playing around with some smoke pictures using this setup. Here's a quick snap of my "smoke studio" at the dining room table. It's kind of a bad pic, but the flash is on the stand on the right. I use a desk lamp to light the smoke so I can lock focus.

NEX-5N       24mm    f/18.0    1/60s    ISO 2500

Finally, here are some shots I took with this setup. No post on any of these, just jpegs straight from the camera resized. This is the first time I have ever tried anything like this. Still need to play around with the background and keeping the flash directed on the smoke and not the background. I have some card stock cut and attached to the flash to direct the light, but where the background is bunched up its shining off the flash, which can be seen on the left side of some pics. The blue hue was caused by the AWB, when I played with that a bit I got it to the proper balance.

NEX-5N    E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS    43mm    f/11.0    1/160s    ISO 100

NEX-5N    E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS    55mm    f/11.0    1/160s    ISO 100

NEX-5N    E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS    55mm    f/11.0    1/160s    ISO 100

NEX-5N    E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS    55mm    f/11.0    1/60s    ISO 100

NEX-5N    E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS    45mm    f/11.0    1/20s    ISO 100

NEX-5N    E 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS    53mm    f/13.0    1/15s    ISO 100

 

[Bimjo]

Great tutorial, I may have to try the smoke thing. It has intrigued me for some time.

 

[ErickSaint]

Thanks. I just threw this together real quick. Lens used was the kit lens. I took about 70 pictures, these were the only ones I was partially happy with. On many shots the autofocus was zeroing in on the background. I'm going to try with some legacy glass when my schedule calms down a bit.

If nothing else I did learn a lot about the setup with just this one try. Local craft store has some 24x36 black matte board, going to try that next. It will be straight and flat so the flash wont catch on the ruffle on the side. Also the background was just a $5 dress my mom had found on a clearance rack so she picked it up knowing I was looking for a black fabric backdrop. Learning experience. Trying to figure out the best way to setup a tabletop studio for little things like this.

 

[Dioptrick]

I like it a lot!

Thanks...

 

[teefin1]

Me too.

 

[ChangshaNotes]

Cool!

 

[dsiglin]

forgive me for necroing this, but I'm interested in knowing two things:
1) what was the maximum shutter speed you could sync at?
2) I read that you have to have a wireless trigger that can compensate to flash after the Nex's "preflash" something or other. Any comment on this? Thanks!

 

[xXx1]

I am not Eric but for me maximum shutter speed is 1/250 with dumb flash adapter or Allacax Next II flash transmitter. Nex don't send the pre flash to dumb flashes. It is for TTL only.

 

[dsiglin]

You aren't Eric but your help is just as appreciated. I'm seeing similar speeds from others on the net. Are you using wireless? Any recommending wireless adapter?

 

[xXx1]

I like a lot the Allacax Next II flash remote (it is only for 3's and 5's). First model don't work, beware of it.
I got it from here:
Allacax

It puts my C3 to flash mode when I put it on (shutter to 1/160 s). It has blid mode too where it doesn't signal Nex that there is a flash and I can use the 1/250 setting (occasionally ok in bright light).

I hope that I can find a suitable small thyristor flash (Metz 20 c2 is bit pricey for what it is) too.

 

[ErickSaint]

Yes, exactly what xXx said. No pre-flash and 1/250 is the maximum with this setup.

Thanks for picking up my slack while I was at work.

My setup will not put the camera in flash mode, so it's best to not use live view with it, when I tried this the display was very dark. But as a trade off it was a very cost effective way to get an off camera setup. Though admittedly I haven't had much chance to perfect this yet, maybe once winter comes back.

 

[xXx1]

There are two ways over the dark LCD. First put the camera to bulb mode, secondly use adapter that informs camera that there is a flash. I like the Allacax Next II flash trigger as it puts camera into flash mode and it is small. They make a flash adapter too, search Ebay about smor.