Seagull SYK-4 Optical Slave Trigger with PC Sync Socket

First it should be fairly well known that optical slaves are not the most reliable triggers on the market especially with high voltage flashes. Since my flashes are not high voltage I hope to get longer life from this.Some have complained about the sensitivity of this slave which concerned me but what I did was face the slave away 180 deg. angle and about 3 ft away from the triggering flash which was pointed at about a 45 deg. toward a wall, which is off white, from about 3 ft and firing the flash at full power it was able to trip the slave. Once I reduced the triggering flash to 1/4 power it wouldn't trip it. This means the light from the flash had to travel 3 ft to the first wall, about 12 feet to the opposite wall and back to the slave another 6 ft to trip it. So I was very impressed with the sensitivity. Others, obviously, have had problems and I won't argue the point that buying one these triggers is always a throw of the dice. But Seagull has been around quite awhile with some decent products, low end, but generally work well.

The final verdict is still out - but for now, it simply does not work. I have two older Vivitar 283s that I used for many years as a portrait and fashion photographer in the SF Bay area. I also used slave triggers in many different ways so liked the concept. My main flash now is a Canon 580EX. I bought one of these Seagull SYK-4's to see how well they work - then planned to buy a second one if all went well.So far, I simply cannot get this puppy to work. I have tried every way I can think of to make it fire one of the 283's to no avail. The 283 works just fine as it always does. The on camera flash from my Canon 50D in any mode will not fire the slave, nor will the 580EX.Will write more as I try to resolve this - but for now, based on my experience so far and from what I read in other reviews, I cannot recommend this item.1/31/15: Follow UpFound the problem. My older slave units rotated - allowing me to point the trigger bulb towards the master flash. This unit does not rotate - so, thinking I needed the bulb pointed towards the master flash I mounted it that way on the Vivitar 283. The Vivitar w/slave unit is on a small tripod. My AhHaaa moment was when I discovered the connection is "not" centered, so if mounted that way, the connection between the slave and the 283 flash are not touching. It now works even tho the trigger bulb on the slave is pointing in the opposite direction from the master flash.Will do further tests to see how far away from the master this will still work considering the slave flash and trigger bulb are pointing in the same direction as the slave flash. Am thinking if used on a group shot, e.g., where the slave/s are 20 or so feet from the master flash.So now I can post that this unit will fire a Vivitar 283 from my Canon 50D built in flash, or, from that 50D with a Canon 580EX flash, shoe mounted. And it does this consistently from any position from the slave flash. From a "it works as advertised" I can recommend it. How well I can improve some shots I will have to explore - but that is not the problem of the item. Have ordered a second unit now, and raised my rating to 4 stars.2/6/15: Follow-up (2)It would be nice if the manufacturer would include some thoughts on how this item may or may not work with various equipment configurations - cameras and flash. After much searching the net for thoughts I finally got the unit to sync w/my Canon 50D with a Vivitar 283 as a slave to be fired using the SYK-4. Various DSLR cameras will have settings to turn pre-flash on and off, plus more expensive flash units have Off-Master-Slave toggles. Unless I have overlooked something, there is "no way" to sync my 283 on the SYK-4 using the Canon 50D built in flash. The slave "does" fire every time from anywhere within 360 degrees of the master flash. It just does not sync properly.However, once I made my Canon 580EX flash shoe mounted on the 50D the master - plus set the 580EX Off-Master-Slave to Master the 283 synced perfectly every time, regardless of the mode setting on the Canon 50D. My 283's have rheostat type sensors so now I am purchasing another SYK-4 and will start doing some smaller set up product shots - using this 3 flash set up.BTW, I did do an indoor test today where I placed the 283 slave about 25' away from my shot with the Canon50D and 580SX. The SYK-4 sensor was 180 degrees in the opposite direction of the master flash. And it continued to fire and sync each time properly. Will do further tests to see how far away I can do this outdoors.Hope I haven't been too lengthy here - but these inexpensive slave sensors can be a very good way to get into multiple flash photography, but OTOH, may take a lot of fiddling with equipment to get the setup working properly. A nice learning process as well.

I bought one of these for my daughter for Christmas. Of course I didn't try to use it before I gave it to her yet when it came in, I thought I should buy one for me as well. Now that I have them, neither one of them work at all. I have used flash slaves for over 40 years without an issue. I liked the design of these but after trying them with many different flash heads, I could not get either one of them to work once. I have a lot of CowboyStuidio gear and I love it all but these just don't work.

It works very well with the PC connection. However, the hot shoe is rather short and not manufactured as well as it could be. It is poorly pressed rather than precision made and the side rails are too high off the base to allow a snug fit with a flash foot. The length of the rails that the flash slides into are also short and this, coupled with the clearance of the rails to the base does not allow a snug & solid mounting. It does, however, work very well as a stand alone optical slave when using the PC connection!

bought it for an experiment with a high speed sync hack... it didn't work :(other than that it cost me only $8, so i don't feel to bad about itit sometimes worked, but it took a while to recycle... not worth it, buy yourself a trigger instead

The unit has a plastic body as expected and seems solid enough. I'm not using the slave to mount the flash on a tripod but the slave's tripod socket is metal and looks deep enough to make a stable connection. I'm mounting a Wein Products W990560 (purchased from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Wein-Products-W990560-SSHSHS-Safe-Sync/dp/B00009UU18/) in the Slave's hot shoe socket and connecting the flash's PC cord to the Wein's PC socket. The flash is 30 years old and uses a much higher sync voltage than modern flashes. It's important to an adapter like the Wein when connecting an older flash to a newer camera. No idea if I need the Wein for the slave but I don't want to find out the hard way. The Wein fits snugly in the hot shoe socket. My Nikon SB 600 is a looser fit so clearly the fit varies. I'm not planning to carry the slave around with something mounted in the hot shoe so the fit doesn't concern me. I've tested the unit in a few different setups and it works as expected.

I bought the Seagull SYK-4 to use with my old Vivitar 283 flash (high voltage), which has been sitting on a shelf collecting dust since digital cameras have become the norm. After reading the mixed reviews I decided that for $10 I could afford to take a chance. While it is not exactly high quality, it did work. It has fired consistently at a distance of 10 feet or so away from my Nikon 7000 and triggers from my SB-600. 4 stars since I've only been using it for a few weeks.