[awaldram]

Well, Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Gossen and Sekonic may be a short list, but they are the biggest names in the business. Really, my point is that these 4 camera manufacturers, in direct competition with each other, and the two remaining light meter manufacturers, in direct competition with each other, all decided to go with the screw lock PC. For what reason might they have done this, except that it was a good idea, improved the reliability of the connector, maintained full compatibility with existing PC cables, and did not significantly modify their bottom line (the latter being conjecture, but you can bet if it was too expensive to do this, they wouldn't have done it)?

Perhaps a design constraint the larger thread would about 1.5-2mm diameter to the internally space required to fit pc-sync socket.

I would imagine they (Pentax) could have got a better unit price on the commonly used thread so would imagine they had a valid reason for going for the size they did.

Perhaps the only one they could get that was sealed.

[stevebrot]

For anyone having the notion to tinker:

Products




Steve

[Arjay Bee]

Interesting thread now in its third page :-)

Just a thought but on an interconnected set up I think it is good to have planned weak points. If a coil cable gets too much tension or if a poorly balanced light stand topples I think it would be useful to have a breakaway point so the camera and tripod don't get pulled down along with the stand. A pushed in cable offers this breakaway point while a screwed in socket will be potentially firm enough to overcome the stability of a tripod.

For example when pondering a new speedlight do you get the one with the metal foot or the one with a plastic foot? I have had a plastic foot fail when the camera and strobe assembly fell through 90 degrees when moving a tripod with the portrait/landscape mounting screw not tightened. The torque produced by the strobe on the top of the camera shoe was enough to tear one side of the foot off. This was a better result than potentially tearing the hotshoe off the camera. New strobe has plastic foot.

Another consideration in the adoption of a socket is the impact on assembly of the body panels if this larger diameter piece of metal was included. Would it require a change in assembly processes?

[asharpe]

Interesting thread now in its third page :-)

Well, I do what I can .

Just a thought but on an interconnected set up I think it is good to have planned weak points.

I don't think any of the other cord connectors (household, 1/4" jack, 3.5mm, etc.) were designed to pull out under a certain load. You want the connection to be secure, and only come out when you want it to come out. Any cord, coiled or not, can pull down a light stand, and while it would be better that your connector breaks away instead of pulling down your expensive light; most connectors fit tight enough that the chances of that occurring seems slight. With a "standard" PC connector, it would, but it could also fall out on it's own accord.

[Arjay Bee]

it's own accord

I like the inadvertant pun. I know I have to re-engage the plug in the socket from time to time to ensure reliable flash with my Nissin so work its way out it does and it uses a long coiled cord that I wrap around the bracket to stop snagging

[robbiec]

So does anyone make a sync cable which has the smaller Pentax thread and the larger Yongnuo thread?

[Digitalis]

No, there is a standard, and Pentax chose to use it

And THAT is the straw that broke the camels back?

the CANON 580EXII 7D 5DII 50D 40D 30D 20D 10D 1D, NIKON D300S D300 D200 D100 D700 D3X D3S D2X D2H D1 SC-15 SB900,800,80DX,29s,29,28DX,28,27,26,25,24,22s,22,20,17,16,14,11,140, PIXEL TF-321 TF-322 TF-323 TF-324 TF-325, Sekonic L-758DR, Gossen DIGISKY, Yongnuo flashes, RF603II trigger, Olympus E1, Sony a900, Samsung GX-20 all seem to have come to some agreement...

You forgot: Elinchrom ,Sunpak, Broncolor,Profoto,Bowens,Alienbees,Minolta,Godox,Rollei,Polaroid,Jinbei,Schneider,Rodenstock,Voigtlander,Fuji,Contax,Mamiya,Silvestri,Alpa,Sinar,Linhof and Zeiss - these manufacturers use un-threaded PC sync cords on their cameras, flash units,transmitters, receivers and lenses.

So does anyone make a sync cable which has the smaller Pentax thread and the larger Yongnuo thread?

no, you would probably have to make it yourself, which isn't hard if you have the right equipment.

[asharpe]

Well, I suppose the proof is in the pudding; the new K1 still has the old non-screw-in pc socket, with the tiny proprietary screw in cover that makes no sense. Too bad. Ah, well, there's always the cowboy and yongnuo triggers, and, for the folks that have extra cash, the pocket wizards and the elinchroms. Just have to cart more batteries around.

[stevebrot]

So does anyone make a sync cable which has the smaller Pentax thread and the larger Yongnuo thread?

Does anyone make a cable that supports the Pentax thread, period? No.

As hinted by digitalis, this might be a tremendous business opportunity for someone willing to design and make such a line of cables...or not...


Steve

[Digitalis]

I don't think the market for PC- sync cables is fast enough to support this. Especially with the increasing use of wireless flash triggering systems.

[hangman43]

I actually love the fact that it does not screw in I can not count how many times I have tripped over cord and it just comes unplugged instead of yanking camera and tripod over.

[asharpe]

I actually love the fact that it does not screw in I can not count how many times I have tripped over cord and it just comes unplugged instead of yanking camera and tripod over.

That's the beauty of the screw-in connector. You don't *have* to screw it in *if you don't want to*. But if you do, it will be more secure. What I was (and still am) objecting to is the fact that Pentax purposely designed a PC socket that had a screw-in weather cover, and chose *not* to use the screw-in PC standard for it. That, I don't understand at all, since, by definition, they had to make a new connector themselves, and not use a standard off-the-shelf connector that already had screw threads that they could easily design a weather sealed screw-in cap to fit.

[stevebrot]

they had to make a new connector themselves, and not use a standard off-the-shelf connector

If one truly wants a robust standard* connector, the 3.5mm mini-phone jack may be a better and less fussy solution.


Steve

* My casual survey on available threaded male pc fittings indicates that on face value based on Google search, they are anything but standard in regards to penetration depth and thread depth.

[asharpe]

My casual survey on available threaded male pc fittings indicates that on face value based on Google search, they are anything but standard in regards to penetration depth and thread depth.

That's the great thing about standards, there are so many to choose from.

[commongrounder]

Why not use a hot-shoe to threaded PC cord adapter like this? Seems like it would be as sturdy as the camera PC socket.

Vello Universal Hot Shoe Adapter - PC Connection + Top HSA-PSU