Customer Reviews

Seagull SYK-4 Optical Slave Trigger with PC Sync Socket

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

One review gave 5 stars... the other, 1 star... so that tells me immediately you are going to get something that works or you dont. I didnt get one that worked... in fact, fortunately for me, I had borrowed a friends that looks just like this one he got from ebay and his worked perfectly (im not sure what brand it was, but it looked identical to the seagull). Comparing his to the seagull however, you can see the optial eye on mine was all out of wack. Its amazing any light got thru the thing at all... yet it manage to work a couple of times then not work at all. It does not fit well on the hotshoe either... it would short out and cause the flash to go off repeatedly when I picked up the flash... all in all very shoddy workmanship. Thanks to amazon for giving me a refund after I did not receive any reply from Cowboystudio on my email asking how to return the item... I guess they were all too busy riding on the range to answer, regardless i will never do business with that outfit ever again.

I purchased this to use with the Vivitar 285HV. I already own a Nikon SB-600 and frequently use CLS to trigger it off the camera. My fear was that the optical slave would fire from the pre-flash off my D80. Turns out this slave will only fire from the pre-flash if it's within inches of my camera. Otherwise, my SB-600 fires it every time.

I decided to buy this optical slave over the peanut micro-slave for one reason: I could put Velcro on it, and attach it anywhere on the flash to make it visible for my SB-600. In most cases this isn't necessary, but if I can't get a good bounce from the other flash this helps. It's certainly within the same limits I have with Nikon CLS. If I wanted anything better, PC cords or true wireless triggers are the only way to go!

I ordered two of these to go with 2 Vivitar 285s and a Vivitar 283. I have found them to be very unreliable. If the on-camera flash (usually a Sunpak 383) is close enough these might fire--or not. At any distance above 12 feet, forget it.

Some people have had good results with them, others not. So it's a gamble whether they will work for you. I suggest you save up and buy something better.

I bought one hoping to save on a RF trigger but I am very disappointed with this one because this trigger doesn't fire every time even with the master flash point at it.

Poor quality on materials and construction.

Bought this as a trigger for my vivitar 285HV flash and it works well for my indoor photo shoots. Very cheap and does what it was made to do. I haven't tried it outside in daylight as yet as I am not sure if it would work under such high lighting conditions. But I will try an experiment soon.

See my photos at: [...]

This thing is a piece of garbage. It fires maybe one time in ten IF another flash is directly pointed at it from close range. I knew it was a gamble and it was a cheap lesson but a lesson nonetheless. Don't bother.

I'm using 2 Seagull slave triggers, different models, and they work exactly as advertised. I shoot under heavy foliage a lot and often use 2 or 3 slave flash units to fill in dark spots. I got the most recent trigger to fire a big Sunpak 544 flash, it works perfectly.

I bought this because my digital camera don't have a sync on it, and this product should trigger my studio strobes when the flash is detected by this product and it don't. Don't buy if using with a digital camera!

This is a piece of junk It was cheap. I took a chance. I lost. Do not buy it.