off-camera flash won't trigger optical slave, but built-in will

[jammy_c]

hey guys,

I have an old school Sunpak Auto Zoom 3000 Thyristor, which works with some cheap PT-04 type wireless triggers that I have, but for some reason it won't trigger my Nissin di622 flashgun (when set to optical slave), however the pop-up flash on the camera will.
I'm very confused.
I knew that the nissin wouldn't work with the triggers, but though I could use the camera to trigger the Sunpak and the Sunpak would in-turn fire the Nissin via optical.
hmmm.............. any ideas?

 

[adamgasson]

I sounds like the Nissin's slave mode works on the assumption you have a TTL flash system - so the flash will look for a pre-flash burst, ignore that, then trigger on the next flash. So when the Sunpak fires it treats this as a pre-flash (even though it's not) and it's then sitting there waiting for the next flash to trigger it.

 

[Mike Jackson]

Adams correct, to trigger from a manual flash you need the mark II the mark I only triggers from a digital flash.

 

[jammy_c]

Ah, cheers guys. that makes sense.