RF60 and V6 compatibility with sony A6000
Hi
I try to find a way to use off-camera flashes with radio transmitter on my sony A6000. I found some contradictory forums on the topic... some say no problem some say not compatible...
So, can I use RF60 with V6 on my sony A6000. And if the answer is yes, is it possible to use the RF60 in HSS off-camera without a TTL/HSS flash on-camera?
I found that the Phottix Mitros+ can do HSS off-camera with the Phottix Odin on camera or with another Mitros+ on camera... but the price is just to much for me.
Thank you very much
Hubert
Comments
Regarding off-camera HSS you should be able to use it with RF60s up to a certain shutter speed. On my Pentax I can go up to 1/2000s before I see a black bar creeping in.
Beyond this shutter speed, you will need so-called pre-sync timing for the flashes. The camera will only provide it, however, if it assumes an HSS-capable flash is being used. If you can somehow achieve the latter than you can use the V6 to trigger on the pre-flash and use a delay to make it coincide with the main flash, but a V6 on its own will not make a camera assume an HSS-capable flash is involved.
The Sony A6000 works with a lot of third-party gear and I see no reason why the V6 wouldn't work as well.
Sometimes, however, it seems to be necessary to tweak the A6000's hot-shoe a bit in order to make it work with third-party gear.
I just happen to know that the A6000 has the newer Sony hot-shoe type (the former Sony hot-shoe type was of the Minolta design) and hence should work with all third-party single-pin triggering devices.
I'd be very surprised if the V6 wouldn't play with an A6000, potentially after a bit of tweaking of the A6000 hot-shoe, as necessary for other products as well.
Are you contemplating to buy an A6000 and are seeking confirmation that it will play with the V6 triggers you already have?
Initially I thought you were just trying to advise the original poster, but now it seems you have a personal interest in getting an authoritative answer, is that right?
The V6s talk to each other, and fire the flash with the TEST button, but the flash will not fire when I press the A7ii shutter button. I have tried the A7ii in both WIRELESS and FILL FLASH modes. Is the problem the weird A7ii "multi" hot shoe, or something else?
My colleague @raychan has been using the A6000 with the V6 and no problems so far.
Brand Manager
Fill-Flash is the correct option. Don't select wireless mode.
Sony does have the Multi Interface Shoe (MIS / MI shoe) despite it looks like a standard ISO shoe it's not. That said, the centre hot shoe pin is still in the centre more or less and it's in contact with the V6's so basic flash triggering is not a problem.
Brand Manager
The A7II should work with the V6 so it should be a hot shoe connection issue. I have tested consistently firing the gren LED (and the flash) on our own A7R.
Make sure your V6 has been inserted fully into camera's hot shoe mount.
Also, test with your camera in M mode.
Thank you.
Brand Manager
Given that the same SB-910 can be fired with a V6 Rx, does that not indicate a problem with the camera's hardware or at least its configuration?
It is conceivable that it is just a centre pin connection problem, but given his report of attempts to move the flash in and out on a millimetre basis, trying to establish contact with the centre pin contact, that seems unlikely.
Is there another possibility of a different hot-shoe connection problem, similar to the need to remove some paint on the A6000's hot-shoe to establish contact?
@Beban: The best course of action seems to somehow confirm that your camera is doing its part. One would hope that a dealer would at least be supportive of getting the SB-910 to work, if not the V6.
What I did with mounting the V6 on our A7R is I simply inserted it fully into the camera's hot shoe, till the very end. The V6 would look as if it's still sitting on the ledge but it's indeed fully inserted.
Here's the image of the hot shoe, you can see the marks left by us rigorously testing our gear. The V6's centre hot shoe pin sits pretty much in the dead centre of the camera's circular contact point:
Thanks for the video. We didn't have to do that sanding off the
paint of the hot shoe spring. @raychan said he could use the V6 on his
A6000 wihtout doing any mods.
@Beban, could you confirm if the
same V6 unit was used on your Nikon D7000? Try swapping to your other V6
unit to set as a transmitter. In case it is a hot shoe connection
problem with one of the V6, or a connection problem between the hot shoe centre pin to the circuit board, before the RF sends signals out
You could also check this by mounting the
unit you want to test on another V6's female hot shoe, switch both of them to either TX or
RX, press the Test Button on the unit on the bottom and see if the top
mounted unit status lamp blinks green at full-press.
FYI: Those who only has one V6 unit can do the above test by connecting the centre pin to the metal plate using a conducting device such as a metal keys, scissors, knife, etc. If the V6 is functioning normally the status LED will light up green.
Thanks and I look forward to your test results.
Brand Manager
That sounds like official confirmation to me.
When I suspected a "hot-shoe connection" problem, I did not refer to the V6 hot-shoe.
Rather, I referred to the A7ii's hot-shoe. If the A7ii's hot-shoe were functioning then it should be able to fire an SB-910 mounted directly on the camera.
Since, according to Richard (Beban), the SB-910 does not work on the A7ii, but does work on the V6, I'm suspecting that there is either a problem with the A7ii's hot-shoe or that there is still an A7ii configuration problem.
Community (Antonio, Class A, fotoman)!
Thank you all for your posts.
Long story short: bad hot shoe on the A7ii.
Long story: I took the A7ii, an SB-910, and two Cacti (for TX and RX) to the camera store here in Paris where I bought the Sony.
Amazingly (French clerks are not noted for their enthusiasm or customer service), TWO clerks jumped on the problem. They put the equipment through its paces on an A7R, and another A7ii, and it worked both times. So much for the You Tube idea that the matte finish hot shoe needs to be sanded.
They also tested the Cacti on a Nikon camera, and naturally, it worked fine.
They tried my A7ii with a Pocket Wizard adapter and a synch cord. Still didn’t work.
So, my A7ii is now off to the European Sony repair center (under full warranty) and I won’t see it for at least two weeks.
But I’m glad that the problem has been identified, and I can shoot with my D7000, SB-910s and Cacti until the A7ii gets back.
Again, thank you. Fine support here.
FWIW, the YouTube video was for the A6000. Everything pointed to the A7II having an issue and I was just at a loss what it could be since a configuration error seemed unlikely. Hence, not knowing the A7II in detail, I wildly speculated that the A7II's hot-shoe may sometimes need a similar treatment to the A6000's hot-shoe.
Anyhow, good to hear that you weren't given the "we don't support third-party equipment"-treatment and that you'll get the problem sorted under warranty.
@fotoman, that's really weird... I wonder if Sony hot shoes have some tolerance issues? Have you tried the trick Class A post in above's video - by removing paint of the hot shoe?
Brand Manager
Hopefully you can make the dealer resolve this with Sony.
It would not be the first time when a product comes back from a repair with the note that "nothing is wrong with it" while the respective technician just has to failed to understand what the error description is about.
Maybe your A7II has been tested only with Sony-specific flashes and the technician has thus failed to check whether the hot-shoe also works with third-party products (which it clearly should).
I am really not sure why many A7 users don't need to sand any paint off. Maybe they mount a flash device on it so often that the paint has already been scrapped off? Anyway I am glad it's working now!
Brand Manager