Last Updated on 01/16/2015 by Julius Motal
A while back, Triggertrap introduced the Flash Adapter, which allows Triggertrap to become its own flash trigger. When used with its sound sensor, Triggertrap can trigger a flash or strobe with just a loud sound to make it go off. The setup is very simple gear-wise, but setting this up otherwise can take some work and will need planning and experimentation. But once you have it down, you’ll be able to apply many more creative decisions to your photography.
If you’re a fan of droplet photography or capturing high speed moving subjects, then you’ll want to check this out.
Pros and Cons
Pros
– So, so cool!
– Doesn’t actually need to be used with a flash. Can also plug into a monolight
– Pretty simple to use once you experiment with it and make mistakes
– Gives you lots of creative possibilities.
Cons
– I don’t think that my living room has ever been so much of a mess after a shoot
Gear Used
We tested the TriggerTrap flash adapter with the Fujifilm X Pro 1, Phottix Indra500 TTL Monolight, Lumopro LP-180 and iPad Mini.
Tech Specs
Taken from the product listing page on their website
- Must be used with the Triggertrap Mobile Dongle.
- Never attempt to connect a flash directly to your smartphone.
- This flash accessory must only be used with modern, portable electronic flashes. Use with studio equipment or with high-voltage flashguns may damage your smartphone.
- Not compatible with Sigma 530DG,Sigma EF610DG, Nikon SB400.
- A note to Android users: The Triggertrap Mobile app for Android is not yet optimised for high speed photography with the Triggertrap Flash Adapter. Although you will be able to trigger your flash, delays inherent in the Android operating system means that our Android app can’t be considered a truly high-speed device, therefore we recommend this product for use with the iOS version of the app only.
Ergonomics
The TriggerTrap Flash adapter truthfully doesn’t have very much to it: what you get in the box is a special cord, to use with your triggertrap and a dual flash bracket head with hot shoes. But you don’t need to use these.
The important part is the sound wire that you get to hook your triggertrap up to a monolight of some sort and that connects to flash. By all means though, this is really just an audio cable. Your Triggertrap is the other part that you see here.
Build Quality
The TriggerTrap Flash Adapter is built very simply and very solidly. Then again, it’s pretty much just a wire with a dongle that hooks up to a duel flash hot shoe bracket. There isn’t much that you can sit there and complain about with the Flash Adapter.
Ease of Use
To use the TriggerTrap flash adapter, you’ll need to set your camera to a long exposure of some sort and control the light manually. After you’ve set the specific exposure and metered the scene accordingly, you’re going to need to enable the sound trigger and set the sensitivity of the app to the sound. If you’re dropping a glass of some sort, the app needs to be able to hear that sound–it will then immediately fire off a signal to the flash to fire.
By doing this, the camera will be able to capture the movement and stop it due to how flash duration works.
It also helps to manually focus the lens beforehand so that you can get just the right area in focus.
Here are some samples of us doing this. These images are two second long exposures but some at 3 seconds long. Be sure to also check out how we used it to illuminate photos shot with a phone.
Conclusions
What’s there to hate about the TriggerTrap Flash Adapter? Truthfully–nothing, but Android integration would be nice. It’s available for a very affordable price and when used with your flashes it can help you deliver really creative and cool images where the only limitation is your imagination.
With that said, expect to get messy. Go out there and create photos and have fun. We sure did.
The TriggerTrap Flash Adapter receives four out of five stars. It would get a solid Editor’s Choice rating if Android integration were better.