P camera holder / flash bracket ?

[djon]

Occasionally I like to use flash fill but I distrust the Canon accessory shoe for flash mounting.

The back-release gizmo on Canon P (and L1) is blocked by my otherwise Hassleblad-nice Sunpak handle/bracket. Using this bracket, which works fine on F1, I can't change P's film without unscrewing the bracket. 🙁

Any ideas on another flash bracket? Ideally maybe it could mount the flash on the RIGHT hand side to avoid blocking the release. Suggests a bracket that isn't primarily a grip (per my Sunpak) because that'd make the advance lever awkward.

Or is there a camera holder for P to which a bracket could be solidly attached, allowing the camera to be easily removed for film changing?

 

[back alley]

i'm in the dark for this one john. 😉

i don't normally use flash so my experience is nil in this area.

joe

 

[djon]

Joe, I'm thinking of utilitarian photos (eg "grip and grin"), pure info photos (eg construction detail), weddings, and stuff that's lightly filled, not obviously flashed...

I rarely use flash myself, except when using my convenient little 3.2mp digicam...then it's surprising how often I use it.

 

[back alley]

i use lights for the coffee & camera shots or like the shot that is my current avatar.
i have never mastered on camera flash so i don't like the look of my flash stuff.

for grip & grin there really is little choice but to use flash.
if you have a 283/285 type flash there are small softboxes that fit over the flash head that make for much nicer soft light.
i actually have a small bounce device that velcros on a flash head if you want it. never used, free for the asking.

joe

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Have you looked at the StroboFrame Quick flip 35? You can mount a 283/285 type flash with coiled PC cord.

Wayne

 

[djon]

Joe, thanks for the offer....maybe take you up on that a little later...I've got an ancient Sunpak 411 that's amazingly flexible...same vintage as original 283 but maybe more zip...extreme rotations of head include straight up into an accessory 45deg bounce diffuser...but its shoe doesn't clamp well directly onto cameras...

Wayne, that StroboFrame looks like it could be used on the wrong (advance lever) side of the Canon...necessary if it's to be mounted without covering the magic opening knobbe on the bottom of the P, which is my goal...my sunpak grip/flashmount won't work from that side...

Do I have that right? Will it mount on the wrong side?

Strobes can actually be fun, though they don't deliver Weston images. Think in terms of Weegee and the murder victim, or bounced off walls, or painting whole rooms or huge subjects evenly...with a dozen flashes from a little strobe while the camera sits on a tripod, minding its own business with its shutter open..

Thanks guys!

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Yes, it can be used on the right (wrong) side.

Wayne

 

[djon]

Wayne...a sign on the side of a VW Microbus in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury (where I lived at the time) in 1969:

"The road to enlightenment is paved with excess."