Phase One H20 question

[mmc]

Hi! I bought a phase one H20 in eBay and looks he has the Flash Sync broken, what I wont to now is, is their any
way to make the flash's trigger with the synk broken? Hope their his a way :-)

Thanks for your attention.


Costa

[GregShapps]

Hi! I bought a phase one H20 in eBay and looks he has the Flash Sync broken, what I wont to now is, is their any
way to make the flash's trigger with the synk broken? Hope their his a way :-)

Thanks for your attention.


Costa

My sync crapped out on my H25 at the end of march - its been in Denmark since April 1 and there has been zero response from Phase to Calumet as to what the hell the problem is and why its taking so long to repair.   After 5 weeks Phase finally decided that they should send me a temporary back - of course all that Phase NJ has left was a P30 which does me no good since I use a view camera.
   Calumet rental just gave me a back out of inventory instead.

This whole concept of not being able to deal directly with Phase is really stupid!!!!

[Doug Peterson]

Hi! I bought a phase one H20 in eBay and looks he has the Flash Sync broken, what I wont to now is, is their any
way to make the flash's trigger with the synk broken? Hope their his a way :-)

If you're still able to return the item you could consider buying an H20 from a dealer. It won't cost that much more (maybe even less) and you will know that it works and have someone to help with setup/installation/troubleshooting/repair questions. We often have an H20s on the shelf.

Since you purchased from an unreliable source you'll also want to make sure that the IR filter is free of scratches, the CCD is free of any line errors or dead columns, and the firmware is up to date (all things a dealer would take care of). It's not a bad idea to have a dealer run the serial number for you to make sure it's not stolen (unlikely, but more common than one would think).

A flash sync repair will $600 plus shipping and you'll need a dealer to set up the repair for you.

If you wish to work with your flash sync port broken you can purchase or improvise a Y cable for your flash sync on the lens you are using which will trigger both the flash and digital back; albeit with unreliable results. Since this is not a recommended setup it would be especially prudent to run the Y cable to a pocket-wizard and not directly to the lighting system.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870  |  Cell: 740.707.2183
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[Doug Peterson]

This whole concept of not being able to deal directly with Phase is really stupid!!!!

Here's my perspective. I know just about every person in Phase One US (and several in the DK office); I would even call several of them friends. I am on the phone with Phase Support at least a few times each week. The dealership I work for does a LOT of $$$s worth of business with Phase One.

For all these reasons when one of my customers has a problem it gets fixed. Period.

On top of that I know my customers, so I know their needs, their tendencies, their level of experience. One of my very technical customers called me this week to report his 150mm lens was consistently front focusing; I didn't need or ask for any additional information or troubleshooting because I know that particular customer would not have called until he was sure he has isolated the problem. On the other end of the spectrum I have many customers who are doing photography as a hobby and may do the digital equivalent of "forgetting to remove the dark slide". I enjoy working with them a lot; because I know who they are I can help get them answers faster and better than any generic help line at a manufacturer ever could.

None of this is to dump on Calumet by the way. It sounds like Calumet came through for you with a free rental, but maybe didn't notice right away that the repair was past Phase's guaranteed (by contract with the dealer) repair times.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870  |  Cell: 740.707.2183
Newsletter: Read Latest or Sign Up

[mmc]

If you're still able to return the item you could consider buying an H20 from a dealer. It won't cost that much more (maybe even less) and you will know that it works and have someone to help with setup/installation/troubleshooting/repair questions. We often have an H20s on the shelf.

Since you purchased from an unreliable source you'll also want to make sure that the IR filter is free of scratches, the CCD is free of any line errors or dead columns, and the firmware is up to date (all things a dealer would take care of). It's not a bad idea to have a dealer run the serial number for you to make sure it's not stolen (unlikely, but more common than one would think).

A flash sync repair will $600 plus shipping and you'll need a dealer to set up the repair for you.

If you wish to work with your flash sync port broken you can purchase or improvise a Y cable for your flash sync on the lens you are using which will trigger both the flash and digital back; albeit with unreliable results. Since this is not a recommended setup it would be especially prudent to run the Y cable to a pocket-wizard and not directly to the lighting system.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870  |  Cell: 740.707.2183
Newsletter: Read Latest or Sign Up

Thanks for the tip, I will try to solve the problem that way.

Costa

[tmx3]

If it is just the sync socket this is fairly easilily replacable- you can get new sockets and a tool that allows you to unscrew the old one and put a new one in. I'm not sure if phase/dealers are keen to give these tools out (it has phase one logo on it) out but I used one a few years ago on a couple of h series backs.

[Doug Peterson]

If it is just the sync socket this is fairly easilily replacable- you can get new sockets and a tool that allows you to unscrew the old one and put a new one in. I'm not sure if phase/dealers are keen to give these tools out (it has phase one logo on it) out but I used one a few years ago on a couple of h series backs.

Dealers who choose to will have such a tool for repairing the sync port on P series backs, but to my knowledge (and I am pretty confident on this) the H series backs are specifically excluded from this and must be repaired at the factory. The P series sync ports were redesigned specifically to allow for this user/dealer repair.

We also sell a custom product we as a dealer had produced called a Sync Saver which takes all the wear-and-tear of the sync cables being plugged in/out, tugged, twisted etc and places it only on the Sync Saver which means if/when the sync fails you simply replace the $32 sync saver rather than deal with any of this crap.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
__________________
Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870  |  Cell: 740.707.2183
Newsletter: Read Latest or Sign Up