In a previous post I mentioned that I was having problems with some low cost radio slaves I had gotten in an effort to avoid forking out significant bucks for the industry benchmark PocketWizard brand radio slaves. That effort failed miserably, and I was forced to concede that I needed the more expensive units. I happily received two PocketWizard Plus II Tranceivers for Christmas. I still need at least two more, but that’s neither here nor there as far as this post is concerned.

 

The PocketWizards come with a cable that goes from the unit (using a 1/8″ mini-phone plug) to a flash via a PC plug. This is perfect for most modern small flashes such as the Nikon SB800 or most of its predecessors (Canon would be the same). However, you need to buy additional cables to use the PW’s with any varying connections on most larger studio flashes or even small flashes like the Vivitar 285 HV’s which have non-PC connections. In the case of the Vivitars which use a unique proprietary plug for such things you have to buy the MV1 cable which, in Canada, costs $36 + tax (and shipping if you order online) and is a special order item in most camera shops which takes a lot longer. The same is true if you have studio flashes that use a 1/4″ plug. In that case you’d need the PocketWizard MP1 cable which costs about the same as the Vivitar cable. I found this exorbitant…but then I find most things hugely overpriced when it comes to photography equipment. This is why I always search for alternative products than the usual benchmark equipment sold at most dedicated photography stores.

 

I was talking with friend and fellow photographer Rob Faubert of Holeriders Adventure Sports Photography yesterday and was telling him all this. It’s always interesting talking to Mr. Faubert about gear because he’s the MacGyver of photography. I once saw him make a pc-sync cable out of a straw, some grass, two toothpicks and a stick of bubblegum…I kid, I kid. Anyway, he suggested it would be very simple to make this cable myself. I was a little dubious because I’m not exactly Mike Holmes or Bob Villa with my hands…in fact, I could accurately be dubbed the anti-MacGyver, but resolved to give it a shot anyway.

 

So, off I went to The Source (formerly Radio Shack) to see if I could pull this off. They had all the requisite parts which I happily grabbed. But, on the way to the cash I walked past the audio cable isle and noticed that they had a shielded audio cable with the exact connections I needed (1/8″ and 1/4″ plugs). It was 1.8 m (6 ft) long, 10k gold plugs, etc… and cost only $10! That was even less than all the parts I was about to buy. I bought that instead, making sure I could bring it back if my experiment didn’t work.

 

Long story short, got the cables home, plugged it into one of my studio flashes and voila. It worked perfectly. Score one for the good guys!

 

Unfortunately, this won’t work as easily for the Vivitar flashes (which I also use) since the plug needed is proprietary…I think. I’ll need to do more research on those particular plugs. I may be forced to pay full price and wait a long time for that cable.

 

Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.