03 February 2017

SunPak MS-4000 Pro System


I got a new set of lights a few months back. By new I mean new to me; they date back to the 1980s, as far as I can tell.

They're good lights. The flash tubes are fine and they can run at 100, 200, or 400 watts. They were originally designed to be portable, so they have hookups for batteries as well as A/C power and they have HH sync ports (household) which is good because the built-in slave sensors don't work any more. 

A SunPak MS-4000 is heavy, though, for a "portable" monolight, and there isn't a lot of documentation out there--like none, that I could find off eBay, and I'm not about to pay $40US for a "user manual" which might just be a slip of paper with a picture on it, so what I did is just hook them up and start trying ways to get them to run using modern DSLR equipment. Here's the process I went through. If you just want the gear solutions, skip to the bottom. 

First thing I did was to hook them up to power and turn them on and leave them on for about 4 hours without testing the tubes or flipping switches or anything. Just let them sit there with the power on. From what I've read, this allows the capacitors inside the hulking things to "reform" or "recondition" themselves, which means that putting current through them helps them to kind of internally repair themselves, as long as you don't discharge the capacitors during the process. 

After they'd been on without discharging for about 4 hours, maybe 5, I went ahead and hit the 'test' button on the back to see if the flash tubes worked. They did, on each output level, so that was great. The modeling lamps didn't work, though, and from what I'd found on the interwebs they were expensive, so I decided I could probably do without them. I can buy a desk lamp for $10US from the thrift store, so why pay $125 for something with a SunPak logo on it from 30 years ago? 

I run Canon 5D mark II cameras, which have low hotshoe voltage and they can be damaged by voltage which is too high, so I slotted a sync cable and hooked up a multimeter to the contacts. The voltage wasn't too high... somewhere around 8.3-8.5 volts, which is pretty low for a mechanical era light. 

I hooked them up to a Vello hotshoe converter for Canon cameras, and tried them out. Nothing. Well, it's not the first time I've had some issues with DSLRs and strobes. I had a Vivitar 283 which just wouldn't die, but it wouldn't run off anything but a mechanical SLR camera until I found Wein Digital  Peanuts (and took out the thyristor), so I thought that's probably where I'd end up. 

So, after fiddling a little bit, I hooked the sync cable up to my Pentax K1000 and BOOM!!! There was light! 

Knowing that they worked (this is when I found out the built in slaves didn't work) I decided to spend a little bit more time and money (maybe it's all money, since time is supposed to be a rough equivalent to money, even though mine never has been) finding a way to get them to work. After all, the price was right and the power was right, and a good 600W setup would set me back a lot more money than I have right now. Someday I'd love to get a good variable power setup, maybe a 5-light set just for fun, but I don't need it right now. I also figured I could add fills with speedlites, so wireless would be the way to go. 

Knowing I needed wireless, or at least some photo slaves to make a full portrait system work, I looked around pretty hard for a few weeks to find any information from anyone who had set up these lights and gotten them to work. Couldn't find a dang thing. I did find out that Paul C. Buff, Pocket Wizard, and Cactus triggers all had voltage max threshold ratings in excess of what was going through the monolight's sync port, so I went ahead and bought the Cactus V5 set. I like them. More on them as I get a chance to experiment more.

Tried several online resources, including chats with a few bigger online retailers, and didn't find out anything useful. They knew that whatever product I used should be insulated from a potentially high trigger voltage, but as far as dealing with retrofitting anything that old, what worked could be anyone's guess. 

Well, the Cactus V5 wouldn't trigger the SunPak either. Sometimes the receiving unit would just turn itself off, as well, so it didn't like something about the setup.

It was around this time that my wife reminded me there is a camera store in our town, and so I dropped in there and made an appointment to try out some of their equipment to see if anything would fire these monsters. Nothing worked there either, although they wouldn't risk a PocketWizard for testing purposes. I guess I don't blame them, but dang. Went home sad, but not defeated. Remember the Vivitar!

Well, I figured I didn't neeeeeeeed them right away, and I knew they worked, and I had some faith in Wein even though their website is only in Japanese now and seems to offer mostly bath products and ED cures. So I went ahead and looked on B&HPhotoVideo.com for a HH plug solution, and found a couple Wein candidates. 

First Wein I tried didn't work. Disappointing as hell. I was starting to think maybe there was something wrong with the sync port(s), or that maybe I had to have a battery hooked up to send the right voltage snap to the light, but the sync port voltage matched a table on the only website I'd seen which offered anything helpful on SunPak monolights.... Also thought that maybe the modeling lamp had to be in-circuit for the slave circuit to fire, so I bought a modeling lamp--Broncolor lamp for Pulso/Primo heads. Those theories turned out to be incorrect, but I found out that B&H offers some very affordable modeling bulbs which fit. Score!

Anyway, in a last ditch attempt, I ordered a different Wein slave. I was nearing my $50US threshold, and if I went past it I'd decided I'd give the lights away to someone who still shoots only film. Can't go spending months on a money pit when I could just save up and buy something cheapish which would get me by. 

Bingo!! The Wein L8 triggered them, from a modern Canon 600EX-RT no less. That was perfect. The modeling lamps didn't have to be present for the light to fire, so I was set, but I still bought a second modeling lamp, because they're nice to have during setup, etc. 

Next order of business was to get stands. It turned out to be a little bit more challenging than I thought it would be. As I mentioned, the MS-4000 light itself is Heavy; about 20 lbs. Any stand needed to be able to hold on to that as well as take the added weight of modifiers. After a bit of searching I did find a few good stands on B&H's used section which had the right size studs and a high enough weight rating. The studs, it turns out, are not that hard to change out on other stands, and a lot of them come with 1/2" studs on one side and 5/8" studs on the other side of a removable unit. 

The sad part about this is I don't have space to put them up and I haven't taken any photos with them yet. I have to trigger them via flash, and it's been too cold to go outside (don't want to shock the flash tubes in any way if I can help it). So I know they work but I haven't yet used them. I'll try to post some pictures soonish. 

Gear List:

The following stuff works. Ignore the stuff up above unless you need it for reference or you like a good mystery. The links go to B&H Photo Video; if I keep them updated, they'll work. Otherwise just search for those products. You can use any retailer you want, but B&H has always treated me right and I always go to them first.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,