optical slave

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:41 pm

I'm embarrassed of my lack of knowledge but ...
What is an optical slave?
A slave flash is on my to-buy list in order to light up my white backdrops. I thought that I would reduce my on-camera flash(which I don't normally use) down to the lowest power and that would still trigger the flash for the backdrop.
Do I need an optical flash?
Am I on the right track?
signed,
confused

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:06 pm

Simple answer,
An optical slave is a slave that will respond to a quick change in light (like another flash going off) and fire the flash connected to it in sync.

I think it could work in a studio using flash only, if there is too much constant light the slave won't pick up the change and hence won't fire.

If you have a hot shoe/pc sync on your camera radio slaves are by far the better way to go, and more reliable (especially i you'd like to use outdoor flash)

Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 8:23 pm

Radio slaves became important to wedding photographers when they started using a second light and the guests kept triggering the optical slave before they got the shot.

In other situations, optical slaves seem to work just fine. I've used them outdoors in bright sunlight. Battery powered ones are more sensitive and can trigger the slave more reliably if the slave is not in the line of fire with the triggering flash.

You can get an optical slave to give a false trigger by quickly moving it from a shaded area to bright sun. I've had that happen a couple of times. Mostly they work just fine, indoors and out. Cheap an reliable. Buy a radio slave if the optical ones fail you.

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:25 am

If I have a choice I will go for a RF (Radio Frequency) remote flash than Optical one....

with the Optical, the slave need to see the flash to be triggered while the Radio Transmitted flash doesn't need to see it and it can be useful specially at event where there's a lot of distraction or thing that block the slave flash....

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:33 pm

A peanut slave costs $30.00.

A radio slave costs $350.00.

In most cases the peanut will work fine. In cases where the peanut is not in the line of fire and does not trigger, then I put it on a long PC cord and place the peanut in the line of fire.

So, for $45.00 I have managed just fine without the radio slave.

If I shot weddings with a remote strobe I would definitely get a radio slave so that the guests would not be triggering my flashes.

You can go out and have a nice dinner on the town for the $300.00 that you save by sticking with the optical slaves.