Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Double flash umbrella swivel

I wanted a double flash swivel. They seemed too expensive to me and at the end, they still didn't have all the features I wanted. (a place for my pocket wizard, and to be able to align my flashes on the same axis of the umbrella. I looked into some options, but none convinced me.
So, I digged out an old flash bracket, and got to analyze it a bit.

I bought some Aluminum angle rod at Home Depot, for about $5 (the website shows over $9, but at the store is around $5) and cut a little piece, made some measurements and drilled some holes. Voilá, my new bracket aligns on the umbrella axis, actually I can reposition the flashes and I could add as many as I want by drilling more holes. So I just replaced the original flash base with the piece of aluminum rod.


I also want to mention a secret of mine. I used to buy these Nikon flash adapter, because they are just so well made, and have the locking pin. well, I don't know why, but I found these, that are exactly the same, plus have a cable I now use to add a 3.5mm mono plug to use with my pocket wizards. and less than 10% of the price of the other ones! Genius!
Lastly, I added one of these, to attach my pocket wizard. Total cost of the modification: $20 ( I already had the flash bracket)

1 comment:

  1. Excellent tutorial. I have all the materials in scraps and think this is my next project.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete