I'm trying to classify this post as a 'tip' so here goes.

Don't throw away that P/C cable.

I have a love-hate relationship with P/C cables going back to my first flash trigger days, back when I was using the dreaded 'disposable' Gadget Infinity 16-channel triggers. The problem -- for me -- with those triggers was that they relied upon these flimsy little P/C cables and tips that connected the trigger with either a flash with a female P/C port or a hotshoe-adapter that allowed the trigger to send a fire signal to the flash. I hated these things. They always came loose, they sometimes got dirty, they broke, never worked, etc. There are service suppliers out there who sell P/C 'conditioners' that you use to clean out the tips. I was overjoyed when I went to hotshoe-interface only triggers.

What is a P/C sync cable?

P/C stands for Prontor/Compur, two early camera manufacturers who had created differing standards for a sync connector that allows a camera to send a fire signal to a flash through a cable whenever the shutter is activated. (See more detailed explanation here). This page indicates that it was Zeiss that finally established the standard in 1953.

This is what got me last night when I had friends over for a meal. I showed them this newest toy -- my 1950s Ansco folder camera -- this camera with all these shiny chrome levers and knobs and rings. Almost none of it familiar except for: the P/C connector. The hated hated P/C connector.

I got the Ansco on a whim, perhaps to use as a street shooter. I'm already plenty impressed that it actually will expose film properly. But really, do I expect this relic to also fire my flashes? This camera that was around decades before I was born, I wouldn't be able to use it for portraits, could I?

So yesterday before guests arrived I popped open the Ansco and looked closely at the P/C connector; the thing that, on the radio triggers made in the 21st century, regularly caused me great anguish. The connector looked -- okay? There was only one way to test it.

Let's hear it for undying standards

Pocket Wizard, in their wisdom, include a P/C cable for those cameras that do not have hotshoes -- the other way you can trigger one of their units. Even if they didn't, I still had a dozen or more P/C cables from when I had my other radio triggers. So I popped one into the PW, and the other I carefully settled into the female P/C connector located right on the lens.

I set up another flash with its Pocket Wizard. Then I tried the shutter on the Ansco. WOW. It fires.

A camera made in 1953 -- incidentally the first year of the P/C standard -- can actually interface with the 21st century radio trigger.

All I can say now is: let's hear it for undying standards.

I used the Ansco with the Pocket Wizard mounted on its deadshoe for a subsequent short portrait session. I won't know if it synced correctly until the film comes back but I'm holding out hope.