Learn me about optical slaves

[IronWing]

I've been reading up on flash slaves (Wein Peanut being one mentioned) but I'm not clear on all the pieces I would need to make this work. I have an old Vivitar 550FD flash and just ordered an LX5. I would like to use the flash wirelessly and an optical slave looked like a cheap way to do this. From what I've read I don't need anything on the camera side but I do need a way of connecting the slave to the flash. This is where I'm slow. Anyone use an optical slave and have any ideas?

 

[xchangx]

You will need something on the camera for the initial flash. That flash will set off the other flashes. Make sense? The optical trigger will probably plug into the pc port on the flash or trigger it via shoe-mount adapter.

 

[996GT2]

The optical slave basically just "sees" the light from your on-camera flash and triggers the remote flash to fire when it gets this signal.

Make sure you orient the slave so that it can "see" the flash signal. In outdoor daylight use, optical slaves may be less than perfect due to interference.

RF triggers are a more reliable way to go and don't cost much more. You should give it a look.

 

[The Stigenator]

I had got a 550FD from a local store (used) and while it worked for me in person it refused to trigger by my wireless trigger (or in optical mode). Turns out it needs more than 6V sync voltage, so YMMV..

I returned it.