External flash possibilities for DMC-FZ18

[trt]

Hey all, I'm currently shooting with a Panasonic DMC-FZ18 (as the title states...), since I'm poor and can't yet afford a DSLR plus lenses bla bla excuses etc..

So, it doesn't have a hot shoe, Panasonic doesn't have an ext. flash to be used with it..

Does anyone know of a way around this? I'm interested in any options, even some ghetto wiring mod setup (my bro is a sparky, so shouldn't be too hard right?). I really REALLY want an external flash, but I would feel guilty parting with the camera as it was a birthday present.

Help me out please

[OsmosisStudios]

If you can get a flash to trigger using a simple optical slaving method, you'll be golden. It would just be a case of using the pop-up flash to trigger the off-camera one.

[trt]

Sounds promising. Do you know of any tutorials or anything to help me figure it out? I just did a quick google search but came up with nothing I could comprehend... Also couldn't find much on here..

Thanks for your help

[OsmosisStudios]

Basically you'll be looking for little optical receivers. They're little black boxes about 1 cubic inch in size (usually a bit smaller) and have a hotshoe on the top, a tripod screw (usually) on the bottom and a small clear red plastic bubble on one side. The bubble is the receiver, similar to that on a television. When it sees a flash, it triggers the flash attached to it to fire.

Once youve got that, read Strobist. All of it. Seriously. It'll save you from making any mistakes.

[Chip]

B&H has some stand alone slave flashes at this link, which might help. I'm pretty sure Adorama has some slaves on its web site, too.

I've seen those little receivers mentioned by OsmosisStudios, but I haven't found them yet on the B&H web site.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Basically you'll be looking for little optical receivers. When it sees a flash, it triggers the flash attached to it to fire.

Once youve got that, read Strobist. All of it. Seriously. It'll save you from making any mistakes.

This is an issue often discussed on strobist. I don't know anything at all about your camera, but optical slaves might not help you very much if you can't turn off the preflashes of the camera (used to get the right exposure with the flash). I've tried it on my P&S, and the flash popped only once at the right time (and blew everything out -- ha, ha). You might check there to see what people have said about this before using optical triggers.

[inkista]

Someone in one of the Strobist discussions mentioned using a Canon A620 with a Sonia optical trigger taped over the built-in flash connected to a PovertyWizard. Now THAT is something I would never have thought of.

[ed-dps]

As some already mentioned before, if the camera gives off a pre-flash it is not going to work. The FZ18 does give a preflash in any mode as far as I can tell. Just tried it with an Illustar 6800 slave flash and the slave goes off way before the camera shutter opens (together with the main flash of the inbuilt flas).
Taping a Sonia slave unit over the flas as Inkista mentioned is not going to help because that will be triggered by the preflash as well. The Sonia's in the link specifically say 'does not work with pre-flash'

There are a few solutions (none tried yet)
-in a posting somewhere on th einternet I saw someone got the fz 18 to work with a nikon SB800 in SU-4 mode, but again, I have not tried that.
-someone suggested to tape off the sensor on the flas with enough paper so it will trigger on the mainflash, not on the preflash.
-Use an adjustable slave unit that either has a settable delay, or that can skip 1, 2, 3 or more (pre) flashes.

If someone has a working combination I'd be happy to hear that.

[dlambert]

I've got a Lumopro LP160 that I bought to use w/ a Canon DSLR, but the optical trigger on it works great with other cameras. My brother was having a field day with it at Christmas setting it off w/ his little pocket P&S. The LP160 has an optical trigger mode that ignores preflashes -- this worked fine for me. I haven't tried with my Panasonic FZ28, but I'd expect it to work fine.

[ed-dps]

That is a coincidence. I stumbled upon the LumoPro160 today and figured it might work with the FZ18. Maybe I'll mailorder it, or take a little drive to the distributor to see if it actually works.

Tnx for yr input