Studio Flash compatability advice wanted (Oly E500 user)

[mokka]

Hi, I'm looking to get into studio lighting and buy a couple of strobes with softboxes. There are plenty of kits available but I'm left a bit confused by all the talk of S-type bayonets and EX-type bayonets and don't want to buy something and then find that it won't sync with my camera, especially as I use an Olympus E-500 and have this fear that most stuff will only work with Canons and Nikons.

I'm familiar enough with what a PC cord is, and that my camera has no connector for one but you can by a hotshoe to PC adaptor fairly inexpensively that will let me plug a PC sync cord into my camera; but I also keep seeing S-type and EX-type bayonet fittings mentioned over at Interfit Studio Lighting, where I have been looking at starter kits. I can't find anything at all online that explains what these are and how to know if you're buying the right one, and I suspect there may be other compatibility issues to consider too, as I'm pretty sure you can't just see a lighting set up you like, buy it, plug the sync cord into your camera (albeit via an adaptor) and start shooting away as you would with a flashgun.

Any advice? please?

[i speak in math]

Different strobes have different mounts on the front of them to which light modifiers attach. If you are not buying softboxes and strobes together in a pre-made kit, you should make sure they have the same mount (and more importantly, that that mount has the light modifiers that you will want in the future available). If you are looking at a kit that includes lights and softboxes, don't worry about compatibility, worry about quality light output and if that mount has the modifiers you will want in the future.

oh, and for firing them, pick up some quality radio triggers, like pocket wizards or the cheapo cactus v5

[mokka]

thanks, so what you're saying is that all this bayonet business only refers to how you attach modifiers to the front of the light? Is there anything else I should know about connecting the light to the camera or will I be fine so long as I can get a PC-hotshoe adaptor for the camera?

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by mokka

thanks, so what you're saying is that all this bayonet business only refers to how you attach modifiers to the front of the light? Is there anything else I should know about connecting the light to the camera or will I be fine so long as I can get a PC-hotshoe adaptor for the camera?

Pretty much. We have Profoto lights at work (and a few photogenic) so everything we buy has to have profoto mounts or speedrings and such.

The camera can plug into the pc-socket if you have the pc-socket on camera, or via and adapter, but it would be better to use radio triggers and free yourself up.