Hiviz Sound and Motion Trigger
Fall has come to New England, and that means that Old Man Winter is only just around the corner. For some photographers that means bundling up and heading out to get those pretty winter landscape shots. For me, that means hunkering down in the house and staying warm. It is the time of year that I tend to play around with some small studio setups and off camera flash. I recently decided to add a new tool to my arsenal – a Multi-Trigger Kit from HiViz.com.
So what exactly is a Multi-Trigger kit? It is simply an electronic circuit that will trigger a flash to go off under one of two different circumstances:
- When the trigger hears a sound
- When the trigger detects a motion
The sensitivity to the event is adjustable, as well as the delay between the event occurring and the flash firing. So when would you want to use one of these devices? How about if you wanted to take a photo of a balloon popping? Or maybe getting a shot of two drops of water colliding in mid air? These are exactly the experiments that I have in mind for this winter!
HiViz.com sells several kits – sound, motion, or the combination kit (called the Multi-Trigger Kit with Breadboard) that I purchased. I also added the Project Box and the PC Cord adapter to my shopping cart. Total price was $45.75 US dollars, including shipping. As you can see from the photo, I bought the kit un-assembled and put it together myself, but you can buy it already assembled if you choose. Assembly took about 4 hours, and went rather easily. The instructions are on their web site and are very thorough, complete with high quality photos that take you step by step through the process. I highly suggest thoroughly reviewing the instructions to ensure this is the type of project you feel comfortable undertaking before you decide to assemble it yourself. A 9 volt battery (not included) supplies the power and a cable goes from the trigger to the PC port on my flash.
Hiviz Sound and Motion Trigger
Now that I have the trigger fully assembled and have tested it to ensure that it works, I can see that there might be a few modifications in the near future. Perhaps a method to switch the PC cord connection between the sound trigger and the motion trigger external to the box, as well as replacing the provided potentiometers (the yellow, blue, brown and white adjusters) that control the sensitivity and delay. This might just make it a little easier to adjust, and certainly would not be mandatory.
I have a feeling that this little gadget is going to see a lot of use this upcoming winter. Check back often to see the shots that I get, and to find out what I think of this product after putting it through its paces a bit.