Editor's Note: Here are some updates from Elliott Swanson after the January meeting where he picked up a "Lens in a Cap" at the auction and demonstrated his twinned Sony F717 cameras with the LANC sync attachment:

February 2004 Edition

By Elliott Swanson

Here's what happened to the Canon EOS Loreo "Lens in a cap" I picked up at the auction. It now has a metal Minolta MC mount, and works perfectly on my one remaining beater Minolta X-700. I pulled the mounting piece from a broken telephoto extender. The metal mount had to be drilled open, and the plastic mounting needed some minor modifications to get the correct fl distance for the Loreo/Minolta combination. Took about an hour and a half.

Here's a snapshot of the Sony F717 camera, with wide angle adapters, mounted on one of Morrie's Northstar bars, and the LANC attached. You can see in the LANC readout window synch is .04 Fs!

Rob Crockett is the person who designed the LANC Shepherd that synchronizes my Sony cameras, and you can find out more at the site below. The one you saw at the meeting was sort of a prototype. If you want to buy one, contact him directly at: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/rcrock/lancshep/

As I said, my LANC Shepherd synch box was a prototype, but any "production" versions would be the same. However, the amount of work involved for the model with the display (which requires an additional processor) is $300, not $200. He's working on less expensive versions that would use LEDs to flash and show synch, and these would be quite a bit cheaper. All contact should be direct with Rob-- I'm not a middleman, though I may try and help sell some at NSA.

BTW, they'll work with all models of the Sony camera, as near as he can tell, but best to ask re any specific model first.