Setting off studio flash using the in-built camera flash

Hi, I was hoping anyone could shed some light on how I would set off a studio setup (with slaves) using the on camera flash on my Ds.

The flash sets off the studio lights via slaves as it should, however the camera only records the flash from the inbuilt baby flash and not the main flash from the studio lights.

I have tried various settings such as long exposures however it gives the same result of only recording the on-camera flash.

Ps: the reason I am using this method is because my flash is a strobe kit which gives off too much sync power for the DS to cope with and the kit has been known to fry little DSLR's, especially those with the flash sync connected via hotshoe.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hi Ofutter

As far I know all Pentax digital bodies will only do P-TTL in all modes with the RTF so your strobes will be firing on the pre flash, milliseconds before the main flash/shutter sync, there is no known way to overcome this.

There are a couple of things you can do to overcome this, purchase a Wien Safe adapator, this gadget will prevent your DL from being fried with high voltage strobes. you will have to wire them up though (stand to be corrected here).

My prefered choice would be to aquire an older Pentax (or compatible) flash with a tilting or better tilting and swivel head. I sometimes use my Sunpak 888AFZ (around £15-20 from ebay), with the 888 attached the flash will fire in manual mode, set it to it's lowest output and point it up (or away from the scene), this should fire your strobes in sync. If the power output is still too great cover the flash lens with some white toilet tissue till it doesn't register in the shot.

You can do this as well with an AF360FGZ/540AFZ by setting the flash and camera to manual mode.

Hope this helps.

try a cheap radio slave (speedotron)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=8007&A=details&Q=&sku=433030&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Thank you both for the quick replies, I have already tried a wireless kit (mini magic) and the kit toasted that, unfortunately warranty doesnt cover when using a strobe kit

McBrian, you mentioned using an additional flash on the camera to set off the slaves on the strobe kit. I have a pentax 400ftz would this be sufficient for that purpose? But wouldnt an additional flash give the same problems as using the built in pop flash, ie firing the flash before the camera is opened up?

I have sent an email to Wien to check compatibility with Strobex and am hoping this would be the simplest solution.

Regards

if you use an old pentax flashgun which does not support P-TTL you will not run into problems with the preflash because it doesn't give the preflash...

I would think getting an old pentax compatible flash which has a manual mode is a good idea. Just put it into the lowest possible output and even put a diffuser on it so that you get as little light out of it, just enough to trigger the slave flashes.

Hi Ofutter,
when I was writing the reply the AF400FTZ was the flash unit I had in mind, perfect for this. Set the flash to a high ISO (1600>, set to 24mm and point it away from the scene using the tilt and swivel but let one of your strobes magic eyes be within the flash beam (bit of trial and error needed here). As Goldiesel also quotes, the flash will fire in manual mode only and sync with the camera with no pre flash.

A bit of trial and error will get you there.