Steve Williams 0 Posted May 15, 2013 Hi folks, Anyone have a slick way to keep your strobe firing circuit attached to your cameras hot shoe. Tape, velcro, rubber bands? I lost a dive today because mine vibrated loose on the boat ride out to dive site. Shooting 100mm macro with ambient is not very satisfying. I've never had the problem before but I guessing I'm not the first. How do you keep the hot shoe connected? Cheers, Steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kelpfish 15 Posted May 15, 2013 (edited) Hi Steve, I have had that issue with my wife's old 5060 Ikelite housing and on my housings a few times. I took a rubber band and put it around the cord hot shoe connector (where the wire attaches to the male hot shoe) from the sync port and twisted it a few times, then stretched the rubber band forward over the front of the camera and down and around the lens and found a way to attach it to a screw on the tray. Worked like a charm every time. There may be a better way but this was a field repair while traveling and all I had was a few medium sized rubber bands in my tool kit. I also had tape but this way I didn't leave sticky, gummy tape residue on my camera. Joe Edited May 15, 2013 by Kelpfish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bent C 18 Posted May 15, 2013 On all Ikelites I have used it has been a problem. I have used a piece of eraser rubber cut to fit between the back plate of the housing and the hot shoe. However, on the Nauticam I use now, I use optical wiring and have never had a problem. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blibecap 29 Posted May 15, 2013 Hi folks, Anyone have a slick way to keep your strobe firing circuit attached to your cameras hot shoe. Tape, velcro, rubber bands? I lost a dive today because mine vibrated loose on the boat ride out to dive site. Shooting 100mm macro with ambient is not very satisfying. I've never had the problem before but I guessing I'm not the first. How do you keep the hot shoe connected? Cheers, Steve Hey Steve Lets see what I remember. If it doesn't move and it should = WD40, If it moves and it shouldn't = Duct Tape, but I agree with Joe on this one, I used a very short rubber-band from broccoli and cut the width down and it worked great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Deep6 7 Posted May 15, 2013 Hey Steve Lets see what I remember. If it doesn't move and it should = WD40, If it moves and it shouldn't = Duct Tape, but I agree with Joe on this one, I used a very short rubber-band from broccoli and cut the width down and it worked great. LOL: Nice play on the old Navy saw. Bob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paul Kay 62 Posted May 16, 2013 I have used a piece of eraser rubber cut to fit between the back plate of the housing and the hot shoe. A small piece of foam rubber stuck inside the back of the housing will prevent vibration causing the hot shoe to become loose. I also use the end from a Nikon SC11 cable when firing a flash from the PC flash socket, as the SC11 has a threaded collar which prevents the flash cable plug from undoing from the PC flash socket. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Williams 0 Posted May 16, 2013 Thanks Paul, I like the idea. It's a permanent solution that would seem easy to implement. Cheers, Steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ehanauer 41 Posted May 16, 2013 Another solution is to ditch the hot shoe and go fiber optic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Williams 0 Posted May 16, 2013 Something to seriously consider Eric, I have always thought my YS-250s were more dependable when triggered electrically. I could do it with my 7D but probably not while I'm here in Lembeh for the next couple of weeks. I'm triggering the my wife's little S100 Fix with a fiber and it's been flawless. I've been running into all sorts of small issues I've never seen before. Today some button was half pressed so that I wasn't getting a review of the image I had just shot. I couldn't pull it back up to review. I've never seen that before. Very weird, it was like shooting film again. I was bracketing strobe power just like in the good old days and hoping something good would happen. I think my issues are a combination of my substantial rust and Neptune checking me out to see if I'm serious. I'll keep at it. I reset the hot shoe connector this morning and it worked fine today. Cheers, Steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andy_deitsch 17 Posted May 16, 2013 For what it's worth Steve, and it won't help while you are in Lembeh, I'm using fiber optic on my 7D with a Nauticam housing and it's flawless. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
John Bantin 101 Posted May 17, 2013 You can usually adjust the spring tension on the flash connection foot on most housings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Williams 0 Posted May 17, 2013 Thanks John, didn't think to look for it. Appreciate the thought. It may be time Andy, are the fiber optic cables long enough to do reasonable wide angle work? I don't use really long arms, just 5 and 8's, but the fiber optic cords I've seen seem very short. Steve Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andy_deitsch 17 Posted May 17, 2013 (edited) Steve, I also have a 5 and 8 and the cables are long enough for me to stretch the arms fully (please excuse the upside down image - hopefully you get the point) Edited May 17, 2013 by andy_deitsch Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cary Dean 3 Posted May 18, 2013 Something I never considered. Thanks for allowing me to learn from your misfortune. Hope you figure out a suitable solution. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
