Post update: What is it?

The camera part featured in the last installment of “What is it?” is called the “Sync terminal” by Fujifilm, as shown in the following annotated image. The same part is also known as the “PC Sync terminal.”

Parts of the Camera | Fujifilm X-T3 Owner’s Manual

There seems to be some uncertainty regarding the origin of the name “PC Sync,” but it’s certainly true PC Sync is one of the older “standards” for external flash. Notice the word “standards” appears in quotes (there it is again!) because there are many different types of cables that are sold as “PC Sync” cables, so I’m confused — doesn’t “standard” mean all of the cables should look the same, or at least similar? You know, like the USB-C standard. But I digress.

Pluto

I bought the following PC Sync cable for use with my Fujifilm X Series mirrorless digital cameras and Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR. [My beloved Panasonic superzoom bridge cameras (DMC-FZ150 and DMC-FZ300) do not feature a PC Sync terminal.]

Pluto PC Sync to 2.5mm Sub-Mini Flash Cable | B&H Photo

One end of the cable has a screw connector for a secure connection with the camera sync terminal. Buyer beware — the other end of the cable can be a potential pitfall.

This type of cable can have either a 3.5 mm male plug or a 2.5 mm sub-mini male plug. Be sure to buy the plug size that fits your external flash unit(s).

All of my “older” Godox TT685 series flashes feature a 3.5 mm female jack. My “newer” Godox TT685C II Flash for Canon Cameras features a 2.5 mm sub-mini female jack.

… the flash includes a 2.5mm sync port for basic wired connectivity. Source Credit: Godox TT685II Overview, B&H Photo.

Name of Parts | Godox TT685C II User Manual

I bought a small adapter that features a 2.5 mm sub-mini female jack on one end and a 3.5 mm male plug on the other end. The adapter enables me to connect my older Godox external flash units with the Pluto PC Sync cable.

Why use PC Sync?

In case you’re wondering why I’ve been experimenting with PC Sync for connecting cameras with external flash units, the answer is simple: focus bracketing.

I love me some wireless remote control of external flashes, but sometimes for reasons only the photography gods understand there can be a problem with “flash dropout.” That’s when one or more flashes don’t fire, and that can ruin a focus stack. If I’m shooting one-off photos and the flash doesn’t fire, hey, no problem — just take another shot. But if reliability is critical, then I think a hard-wired connection is the way to go.

What are the take-aways?

Oddly, neither one of my two older external flash units made by Fujifilm feature a PC Sync jack. My older Canon 580EX and 580EX II flashes feature what appears to be some sort of proprietary PC Sync jack for which I have been unable to find the necessary cable.

I have tested the Pluto PC Sync cable with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II and am pleased to report it works as expected.

My Fujifilm X-T3 digital camera can be used to simultaneously fire flashes connected via the PC Sync cable, a camera-mounted flash, and/or a wireless flash controller such as the Godox XProF II. The flash is Manual mode only. High-speed sync (HSS) works, but you need to enable HSS on the flash itself.

I assume the same functionality is true for my Canon EOS 5D Mark II although I haven’t tested it yet.

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

What is it?

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages. It’s time for another exciting episode of “What is it?”

If you think you know the camera part highlighted by a red circle in the preceding photo, then please leave a comment. The answer will be revealed in a post update.

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

iPad/tablet tripod mount

Did you know I suffer from “decision paralysis?” I do. It doesn’t matter whether a product is expensive or inexpensive, I agonize over the decision to pick the one that’s best for me. This time, I made the decision relatively quickly with little angst.

I knew I needed to get some sort of tripod mount for my iPad mini 6. For a while, I was using a small photography clamp to hold my iPad. It was precarious at best and an expensive accident waiting to happen.

A quick Google search turned up a YouTube video that caught my attention.

The build quality looked good and the price point seemed fair, so I ordered one.

After a month or two of usage, I can say this versatile tripod mount works as advertised. I think the parts that actually support the iPad are a little narrow for my comfort, but they do work — just be careful to center your tablet on the mount and be sure it’s clamped down tightly.

The tripod mount came bundled with several “extras.” Most of them are borderline useless, but one item turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

The small wireless remote control is great for starting/stopping time-lapse videos. You can use the built-in timer featured in the Apple “Camera” app to shoot still photos and start video recording, but you still have to touch the iPad to stop recording video. That can result in “camera shake” that you need to edit out of the video, but hey, I don’t need one more thing to do when the “little remote that could” can be used for clean stops.

Is this the “best iPad mount” as the YouTube video title says? I don’t know. But it’s “good” and sometimes all you need to know is when good is good enough. Please comment if you know of a better product than this one.

Related Resources

• THIS is the iPad/Tablet Tripod Mount YOU NEED! by BenoniTech (2:55)
• Aluminum iPad Pro Tripod Mount Adapter Holder With Cold Shoe Ball Head and Bluetooth Shutter for iPad Pro 12.9 11 10.5, iPad Air Mini, Surface Galaxy Tab, Video Recording 3.5 to 13.5″ iPhone Tablet $29.99 (as of this writing)

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Experimenting with a telecentric lens rig (plus Post Update)

I’ve been experimenting with a telecentric lens rig. My rig is cloned from a similar one created by Rik Littlefield, using gear I already own.

I’m guessing you’re thinking “What is a telecentric lens?” The honest answer is “I don’t know.” I’m not sure I’ll ever understand what telecentric lenses are and how they work. I’m hoping practical experience will result in better understanding of the theoretical.

So why have I written a blog post about a topic I don’t really understand? Good question! The simple answer is because I have learned enough, mostly from Rik Littlefield, to know there are practical advantages to using a telecentric lens for macro photography.

The best advantage of a truly telecentric lens is there should be little or no “focus breathing” as the camera moves closer to/farther from the subject. Essentially that means the apparent size of the subject should remain the same. That should enable better focus stacking because the outline of the subject is constant.

My Rube Goldberg telecentric lens rig

Rik Littlefield’s telecentric lens rig features the same gear as mine (described in the next paragraph) minus the Canon-to-Fujifilm lens adapter because he uses a Canon EOS Rebel T1i DSLR camera body with his rig.

My Rube Goldberg telecentric lens rig is cobbled together using a Raynox DCR-250 close-up filter attached to my Canon EF 100mm macro lens using the plastic clip-on adapter supplied by Raynox. The lens assembly is mounted on my Fujifilm X-T3 APS-C digital camera using a Fringer EF-FX Pro II adapter.

Rik developed another telecentric lens rig that results in lower magnification (0.8x versus 1.69x) but better image quality. I need to order some inexpensive parts before I can build and test that rig.

Testing 1, 2, 3.

The following closely-cropped composite image shows the result of my first test of the telecentric lens rig.

I shot 57 images of a toy plastic lizard using my NiSi NM-200 manual focus rail. I used an aperture of f/8 and a step-size of 100 microns, as recommended by Rik Littlefield.

Helcion Focus Method B was used to focus stack the “as is” JPGs from my camera. The resulting TIF file was cropped using Apple “Preview” — that’s about as quick and dirty as cropping gets!

Post Update

The first time I heard about telecentric lenses is when Allan Walls teased the topic during one of his YouTube live-streams. During a subsequent live-stream, Allan demonstrated how to make a lens telecentric using a rig similar to one that Rik Littlefield created.

Telecentric Lenses – Macro Talk Too – from Allan Walls Photography, June 29, 2023 (1:12:10)

Allan’s YouTube live-streams are one hour in duration, but there’s usually a lot of chit-chat during a typical live-stream that might not interest readers of my blog.

In this case, I recommend that you watch the segment from 11:22 to 30:21. A lot of what I have learned about telecentric lenses from Rik Littlefield and Allan Walls is covered during that part of the video. (If you continue watching the video beyond the 30:21 mark, then you will hear my name mentioned twice.)

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Outflow boundary

What goes up must come down.

A simple conceptual model of a thunderstorm includes an updraft and downdraft. Sometimes the downdraft causes an “outflow boundary.”

What is an outflow boundary?

Outflow Boundary

A storm-scale or mesoscale boundary separating thunderstorm-cooled air (outflow) from the surrounding air; similar in effect to a cold front, with passage marked by a wind shift and usually a drop in temperature. Outflow boundaries may persist for 24 hours or more after the thunderstorms that generated them dissipate, and may travel hundreds of miles from their area of origin.

New thunderstorms often develop along outflow boundaries, especially near the point of intersection with another boundary (cold front, dry line, another outflow boundary, etc.; see triple point).

Source Credit: Glossary, NOAA National Weather Service.

Recent outflow boundary near my location

Notice the intense thunderstorm located to the northwest of the blue reticle that marks my location. The large cell produced heavy rainfall, as indicated by the red radar echoes and green polygon that outlines an area where a flash flood warning was issued.

Click on the following image to see a full-screen view of the animated GIF.

05 JUL 2023 | KWLX | Outflow boundary

Now notice the ring of radar echoes that radiate outward from the dissipating thunderstorm cell. That’s an outflow boundary!

If you pour water on a flat surface, then the water will spread out in all directions. Like water, the atmosphere is a fluid (albeit much less dense than water) and behaves similarly.

Also notice another strong thunderstorm that formed along the outlfow boundary (to the southeast of the blue reticle) where the gust front might have interacted with some type of atmospheric boundary that caused uplift and fueled a new thunderstorm cell.

Related Resources

• What Causes a Thunderstorm? [Featuring embedded video (2:38).]
• How Thunderstorms Form
• Life Cycle of a Thunderstorm

Copyright © 2023 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.