I absolute love my CyberSyncs. They are reasonably priced and, as far as I can tell, have all the reliability of Pocket Wizards. This is a huge deal. For the price of a pair of PW IIs I was able to get a CyberSync transmitter and 3 CyberSync battery powered receivers. I’ve tested them at about 100 feet indoors in an area with A LOT of 2.4 GHz interference and there was never a misfire or a missed flash. They work and they work well.
But, this isn’t a review of the CyberSyncs. They’ve been analyzed to death. Bottom line is this, “They work. They work really well. The price is amazing. Go buy them.”
That said, CyberSyncs have one flaw. Apart from the transmitter which uses a hot shoe connector like the Pocket Wizards, the CyberSync receivers have no way of attaching themselves to a flash. Pocket Wizards have a little tether cord you can use. The CyberSyncs, on the other hand, simply have a sync cord connector. I suppose you could let them dangle in the wind by their sync cord, but I don’t like the thought of that. There have been many suggestions of ways to add tethers to the CyberSync receivers, but most have involved taking them apart in some way. I didn’t want to do that. Rather, I spent a weekend driving around the Bay Area going into every store from WalMart to Home Depot looking for ideas of ways to keep my CyberSync receivers safe and attached to a strobe.
Every store I went to was a disappointment. Cell phone cases looked like they might work, but were super expensive (usually 20 bucks each). I wasn’t going to spend 60 dollars to mount my receivers. Eventually I started to think more pragmatically. An old addage of mine is that the military at some point has already experienced every problem I could possibly imagine. As a result, they tend to have a lot of gear that serves multiple odd purposes. So what did I do? I went to a local Army / Navy surplus store. While looking at accessories for the modern fashionable soldier I stumbled across these Rotcho Compass Pouches. They were the perfect size to fit a CyberSync receiver as well as a sync cord. Even more importantly, they were dirt cheap at about 3 dollars each, and they were made out of very strong nylon to military standards. The fact the pouch had some shape would also provide a level of protection for my CyberSyncs should they ever fall to the ground.
I flipped the pouch over and noticed that it has a metal belt hook/clasp in the back. Slowly the gears of the DIY’er in me started to turn. I hunted around the store some more and found exactly what I was looking for, neon keychains! But not just any key holding device mind you, coiled spring neon key chains! This particular key chain consisted of a metal keyring attached to a straight coiled strap, that attached to another metal key ring with a hook fastener. I removed the metal key ring from the far end, and turned the straight coiled band into a loop by attaching it to the other metal key ring. See the photo on the left for an example of what I’m talking about.
I then took the extra metal key ring and attached it to the back of the compass pouch. Since the compass pouch already had a belt hook, this was quite easy. A photo is on the right if you want a picture.
Now, the rest was going to be easy. I would use the hook on the keychain and attach it to the metal keyring on the back of the compass pouch. When out shooting, my CyberSyncs would be safely inside the Rothco Compass Pouch. If my flash was on a light stand, I could simply attach the pouch to the stand by putting the coiled strap on a knob or handle. If someone was hand holding a flash, they would simply put the coiled strap around their wrist and hold the flash normally. The entire setup for 3 flashes cost me less than 15 bucks and now provides me with a great storage case, tether, and protective covering. All in all, definitely something you might want to consider if you are a fan of the CyberSync triggers as much as I am.
