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major_clangerFollowing on from Part One of my 'make a longer flash extension lead' project I today committed myself to Part Two, by taking the not particularly cheap Canon extension lead and a pair of wire-cutters. That, I thought, as I contemplated the two halves of the lead, could be a very expensive snip if this doesn't work.
But, after a lot of fiddly preparation of wire strands, soldering of them to connectors and assembling of plug and socket parts, my two half-leads each had a six-way mini-DIN connector. I plugged them together, attached my camera and flash, and turned everything on. Encouragingly, as I zoomed the lens I could hear the flash adjusting itself to match, and a few shots indicated that the metering seemed to be working. (Canon's ETTL flash system involves the camera monitoring and shaping the flash as it happens, so if it works it proves the lead is connecting the camera and flashgun properly).
Next was to try again with my already-made extension lead plugged in between. With the camera on one tripod and the flash on another I was able to get the two a good seven or eight feet apart, which is enough to allow a wide range of lighting options. I did try a few test shots but seeing as how I hadn't shaved today I'll spare you the results, other than to say that even this quick try showed that the lighting looked much better than conventional head-on flash or even flash bounced off the ceiling. I did use my phone camera to take some pictures of the setup and the newly-bodged lead though:
I'll admit to being quite pleased that this all works. Despite all my engineering qualifications I do tend to regard myself as quite ham-fisted when it comes to practical stuff. I've decided to try more build-it-yourself projects as a way to get over this and encourage myself into making actual things rather than just playing around with a computer. Of course, after this project I now get to take more pictures and play around on a computer with those.
But, after a lot of fiddly preparation of wire strands, soldering of them to connectors and assembling of plug and socket parts, my two half-leads each had a six-way mini-DIN connector. I plugged them together, attached my camera and flash, and turned everything on. Encouragingly, as I zoomed the lens I could hear the flash adjusting itself to match, and a few shots indicated that the metering seemed to be working. (Canon's ETTL flash system involves the camera monitoring and shaping the flash as it happens, so if it works it proves the lead is connecting the camera and flashgun properly).
Next was to try again with my already-made extension lead plugged in between. With the camera on one tripod and the flash on another I was able to get the two a good seven or eight feet apart, which is enough to allow a wide range of lighting options. I did try a few test shots but seeing as how I hadn't shaved today I'll spare you the results, other than to say that even this quick try showed that the lighting looked much better than conventional head-on flash or even flash bounced off the ceiling. I did use my phone camera to take some pictures of the setup and the newly-bodged lead though:
I'll admit to being quite pleased that this all works. Despite all my engineering qualifications I do tend to regard myself as quite ham-fisted when it comes to practical stuff. I've decided to try more build-it-yourself projects as a way to get over this and encourage myself into making actual things rather than just playing around with a computer. Of course, after this project I now get to take more pictures and play around on a computer with those.
