Status update regarding my flash adapter for the Nikon V1/V2

Well, after I made the first seven I considered the appearance not to be good enough for selling these adapters and I realized that the tools I have are not enough to make it better looking. So that gave me three options.

1. to let some company make the part which I cannot do on my own
2. to buy or build a CNC (computer controlled milling machine) which could be used to make better looking adapters, all repeatable and very similar to each other as opposed to my first seven, which are all individuals and have a "hand made" look
3. to just ignore the project all together and give up

I opted for the first two, starting with the first one. I asked a local company make me 10 pieces. These are just partially ready and still needs some finishing plus the final installation on a hot shoe. To let a company make part of the adapter is very expensive and strictly speaking, I know I am going to make a financial loss on this, but I will test the market and sell them once I am ready with all the 10. It took some time to find a company which could make my 10 pieces at a reasonable price since I was not ready to pay any amount. Low volumes have very high prices normally, and this is no exception, but I am not ready to order higher volume at this moment, partially because at this moment I am not sure I can sell them, and partially because I am also working on option 2, building a CNC which can be used for this and for some other projects I have in mind for the N1 and other cameras. All that plus the fact that it is summer in this part of the world with a lot to do around the house, being outdoors and so on, resulted in a halt (or at least a break) in the progress. I will not start selling before I have all the ten ready, so that might take some more time. If I sell all 10 within a short period of time I may decide to continue and make them in higher volumes, but I may also just give up if I get tired of it because of all the trouble and all the time it takes plus the costs involved.

I hope this is for answering the questions I receive about why it is taking so long. Anyway, there is no product for sale yet. Sorry to have to keep you waiting a little longer, be patient, it is on the way.

Updated information:

The adapter is now available. Read about the details here:

http://adapting-camera.blogspot.se/2015/08/the-v1-f1a-is-dead-long-live-v2-f1a.html


If you are interested, here is a short video about it as well:

 

Beware of the flash trigger voltage

If you are going to use a flash other than the original Nikon flashes with the Nikon V1/V2 cameras with the help of my adapter then you must make sure that the flash you are intended to use is suitable for the purpose and won't fry your camera. Please note that Nikon does not publish the maximum allowable trigger voltage, so it is an intelligent guess that you should not exceed 12V. This is based on my own tests since my old flashes have a diversity of trigger voltage and the highest I used on the V1 has 12V. It is an old Olympus T32 flash, and while it is from the late 1970's, it does not mean that every flash made after that date is safe. Olympus was early in using low trigger voltage, most flashes from that age and even long after that, used high voltage which may cause harm to many modern digital camera, so it is entirely up to you to check that the selected flash has safe trigger voltage level.

 

How to measure the flash trigger voltage

To check the trigger voltage is very easy. All you need is a digital volt meter. One terminal must be connected to the ground contact of the flash and the other to the center pin, the actual trigger signal. After that the flash must be turned on and the increasing voltage should be monitored. Once the flash is fully charged the voltage should stabilize around the final trigger voltage. The displayed value should not be higher than 12V. I don't know what is happening if it is higher and I am not willing to try at this moment, all I know that my flashes have a large variety, from 5V to 350V, so if you just pick any flash you might end up with the same variation.

 

Four of my flashes as examples

 
The lowest trigger voltage has the Osram VS280 Studio which has 5V and is safe to use. The age of this flash is unknown, but I am guessing it isn't very old.

Next is the Olympus T32 which has 12V trigger voltage. It is from the late 1970's and in spite of the duct tape, I still use it fairly often.

The third is the Metz Mecablitz 30BCT4. The trigger voltage is over 150V, so I regard this unsafe, even though it is a very nice flash.

The fourth flash has even higher trigger voltage, almost 190V. It is the Sunpak Auto zoom 3000. It is very versatile but in direct trigger mode, using a cable, it is a NO NO.

I also have some other flashes which have even higher trigger voltages. Of course, these flashes can be used if you are using a radio trigger with a receiver which can trigger high voltage flashes. 

Please note that all the modern flashes I know of have low trigger voltage and also of course, all modern Nikon SB flashes, like the SB-600, SB-900 also are safe to use.

 

It is very important that the trigger voltage is checked prior to using a flash with my adapter on the Nikon V1/V2 cameras. The adapters will contain a protection diode, but the best level of protection is your own carefulness. The diode I am using is a 33V zener diode. Why did I select 33V zener? Because that's what Canon is using in their hot shoe cables, and I figured if it works for Canon it works for Nikon also. In other words it is just a guess from my side, so measuring the trigger voltage of unknown flashes is an important safety measure to avoid accidents, and the only thing I know for sure is that 12V (or less) trigger voltage is safe.