DIY PC Sync Cord

[poompy]

Hey,

I am trying to find out how to make my own PC Sync Cord. Ideally i would like to make some thing like this

Strobist PC Cord

This allows for it to be extended very easily.

But the shipping from the US would kill it!

Anyone know where to source parts locally?

Cheers for any help.

Ben

[jamesw]

I was pondering the same question recently when I broke a PC to Miniphone adaptor (for my pocketwizards).

I spoke with a friend who said he made it himself... He mentioned that a camera store near me had a box full of old PC cords. Perhaps your local camera shops?

In the end I bit the bullet and ordered a bunch of cords from B&H, the shipping was not too bad after I averaged out the shipping cost over 3 - 4 cords. Having said that, I probably would have made them myself if I had more time up my sleeve.

[Antsl]

Hi Ben,

While this might look appealing there are a couple of consideratons I would throw at you.

The first is voltage loss over distance.... if you put a flash stnc over a distance of cord there is a chance that it will not fire as anticipated simply because there is not enough variation in voltage when you release the shutter. I have problems with this in the past.

The second consideration is that actual weight of the cord... do you really want the hassle of a heavy cord to kick about a shoot.

As an idea get you hands on a conventional sync cord with a male type pc plug at each end and then cut it in the middle. Now attach a 6.5mm mono plug to each end...use a male on one end and a female on the other. Now get yourself several metres of bell wire (aka hookup wire). This s about half to one third the weight of an extension cord. Again, attach a 6.5mm male to one and and a 6.5mm mono cord to the other.

Here is the sweet aspect to this idea.... you connect up this cord and use it to connect a flash to your camera.... or you can take of the PC cord at one end and plug the same extension cord into a studio flash.

The plugs will cost you a couple of dollars each and the cord will cost you about 90cents per metre. No chance of accidentally plugging the cord into a wrong connection either.

[Wocka]

Ben,

Are you trying to make the entire Sync cord or just an extension?

There are heaps of articles on the net about lengthening the Sync cords, the best I have seen is with CAT5 network cable.

Stobist is a good place to start: http://www.flickr.com/

I'm not sure where you can buy the Canon plastic hot shoe parts, but most people mod their existing cable to make it longer. Unfortunatly these cables seem to be about $60 form Ebay.

Cheers,

[poompy]

thanks for the info guys, will look into those options.

cheers
Ben