The Nysaverse

So I recently got a set of Paul C. Buff CyberSync flash triggers. My earlier/cheaper triggers don’t work with my 430EX, and limited my ability to do off-camera flash. Since I’m still rather interested in exploring that direction, this was a problem.

After some hassle with UPS (AlienBees claims their shipping does not require a signature, but UPS begged to differ), I picked up the triggers yesterday and gave them a try today. Imagine me freaking out when the flash gets triggered every single time I trip the shutter… but… the image doesn’t light!

Turns out there’s something up with the alignment of the antennas, possibly also related to the distance between the transmitter and receiver… Apparently the antennas don’t like being parallel — actually, that’s not correct. The antennas love being parallel. So much so, in fact, that they’ll trigger the flash before the shutter opens!

I finally figured it out when I noticed a small strip of lit image at the very bottom (Canon’s shutters open from bottom-to-top). The flash triggered before the shutter opened, and what the sensor captured above was actually the flash bulb cooling down after firing.

Needless to say, I’m relieved that I didn’t waste money on another attempt to avoid buying the über-cool, über-reliable (and thus über-expensive) PocketWizards… It’ll take some experimenting to determine how to best avoid a repetition of my first experience with the CyberSync triggers, but at least I now know where to start!

Hopefully I’ll soon have some photos showing me gaining experience with off-camera flash as a result!