Adding a 430 EX II to exsiting Lencarta setup

cmjt_uk

cmjt_uk

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Chris
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Hi Guys,

Bit of advice need please.

I currently have a 2 light set up using Lencarta elite pro 300's. I fire these with the wireless remote supplied with the kit. So I have the sender on the camera hotshoe (canon 5D MK I) the reciever in one strobe and this then this fires the second when flashed.

Now i would like to add the 430EX II in to the equation as a third light?? Any ideas on how to get this working?:thinking:

I dont want to have any leads from the camera as I want it all to be wireless.

Oh and I would like to do it on the cheap, if I tell the wife I need even more kit she will brain me....

Thanks,
Chris.
 
don't think you can use the 430 as a slave in this situation - it certainly doesn't work for me

I use a flash-in-the pan trigger on the 430 and used that to trigger the lencarta lights in slave mode, and that works fine
 
put the receiver on (well under) the 430 so it gets fired by the trigger
that'll then trigger the two Elite Pros
 
keirik, good plan i might get one of those cheap £15 ebay jobbies and try that.

mmcp43, I'm not sure if the reciever has a hot shoe mount just a lead that plugs into the Elite pros. I'll take a look when i get home and that may save me buying the Ebay option.

Thanks guys appreciated.
 
nope if its the same receiver as i've got its a 3.5mm jack plug so no go

chris, flash in the pan - on here, provide the chinese triggers i'd recommend buying off him rather than ebay - he's got a good rep

do a search to find his threads- loads of info about his gear
 
I seem to recall that the 430 has a flap with some sockets inside
and the Lencarta triggers come with a bunch of wires

"if it fits it'll probably work" :rules:
 
I have some tiny clear plastic cubes about 2cm by 2cm by 2cm with a tripod screw at the bottom and a hot shoe at the top. You attach this to a tripod and place any flash on top. It turns any flash into an optical slave. Available from fitp but nit sure if he has decided to sell them.
 
mmcp42 said:
I seem to recall that the 430 has a flap with some sockets inside
and the Lencarta triggers come with a bunch of wires

"if it fits it'll probably work" :rules:
Click to expand...

that must be the 430 from a parallel universe :lol:

mine doesn't, are you thinking of the 580 or other 500 series
 
Yea ive looked at all possible holes and connectors on the 430EX II but i can only find the threaed hole on the side, must be for some sort of adaptor thingy..

I've found 'Flash in the pan' and the triggers may do the trick cheers.

The 'clear plastic cubes' are they just a mechanical adaptor or do they have some crazy electrical gadgetry in them? Sounds interesting. If its just mechanical the 430EX II comes with one to tripond mount it.

Thanks again guys.
Chris
 
keirik said:
that must be the 430 from a parallel universe :lol:

mine doesn't, are you thinking of the 580 or other 500 series
Click to expand...

oops - or could be total memory failure? - nah!:amstupid:
 
Checked the eBay gadget and it looks good but unfortunately it states it won't work on canon. I'll do a bit more digging for a canon version. Cheers.

I think I may end up with a new set of triggers from flash in the pan, seems to be the best option if I can't find a canon version of the above.

Cheers guys. :)
 
I've had problems with some Canon flashes using the cheap optical slaves.. namely they will sometimes only fire once and then need a power cycle to fire again.

The RF602 triggers are a great and versatile piece of kit. You can get a Canon cable for it to use it as a remote release as well.
 
Lencarta recommend 5500K and as cowasaki said the 430's are daylight so should be OK. Only going to be used to blow out the background, so fingers crossed should be fine.
 
Easiest way is to attach the 430 to an optical slave so that it triggers off the studio heads. Ebay, or a tenner from Jessops. Maybe your local dealer is favourite so you can check it works first.

But I think you're lucky in that the optical slave lock-up mentioned above (ie the flash fires once and then has to be turned off/on before it will fire again) only applies to the Mk1 Canon guns. I'm fairly certain of that having suffered it myself, but otherwise one of these particular Sonia slaves gets around it http://flashzebra.com/opticalslaves/index.shtml :thumbs:
 
nope

as i said earlier - if you get the flash-in-the pan set up it costs pennies (relatively speaking), it works and you get a free camera remote into the bargain

why look for an alternate solution from someone you don't know as opposed to a TPer with loads of recommendations

i don't know, some people just ask for help but then don't want it :bonk::naughty:
 
keirik said:
nope

as i said earlier - if you get the flash-in-the pan set up it costs pennies (relatively speaking), it works and you get a free camera remote into the bargain

why look for an alternate solution from someone you don't know as opposed to a TPer with loads of recommendations

i don't know, some people just ask for help but then don't want it :bonk::naughty:
Click to expand...

Because the best, easiest, neatest and cheapest solution is to get a simple optical slave, the size of an Oxo cube, and pop it on to the flash. You also retain full x-sync speed which you do not with a radio trigger.

You just need to make 100% sure there's not a lock-out problem with that flash, which is easily checked at the dealer, or make sure the ebay item is refundable. Alternatively, the Sonia slave will sort it and Flash Zebra are very a well known and respected supplier, though I'm sure they can be sourced in the UK.

On the other hand, everything you say about the excellent little RF-602 is true! :)
 
Yes, I had my lock-up problems with older Canon flashes, so the new ones are probably fine then. I don't have any new mkII flashes myself.

The best thing about optical slave 'cubes' is that there's no batteries to run out ;)
 
Decided on a set off RF602's as they will allow me to have a set of triggers for when i want to use the flash out side etc, as well as fixing my problem. Bonus :D

But typical me they are out of stock:bang: damn you cruel world.... oh well I'll just have to wait.
 
Good optical slaves go for around £10 I.e http://biSPAM/cPB4EY, http://biSPAM/9faXH0 and work just as well indoors as well as out.

The cheap chinese ones are a different story. I have a couple of them and they only work on an old high trigger voltage flash. So you need to be carful. The other thing you need to be aware of with optical slaves is the sensitivity of the photocell, cheap ones tend not to be very sensitive thus have a reduced range.

As I said earlier RF602's are the best wireless trigger set you can get for less than £100. They are just as good as Pocket wizards cyber syncs etc.

Oh Also you might want to look at the Phottix Atlas http://biSPAM/d6QIm7 these are Pocket wizard compatible triggers they sell for £80 per unit, you need 2 units to trigger a flash, or 2 flash's with the use of a sync cord. If you plan to get pocket wizards in the future geting a couple of these might be a good idea.


cmjt_uk said:
Decided on a set off RF602's as they will allow me to have a set of triggers for when i want to use the flash out side etc, as well as fixing my problem. Bonus :D

But typical me they are out of stock:bang: damn you cruel world.... oh well I'll just have to wait.
Click to expand...

See this link to get them from china via ebay http://biSPAM/8XYmDt they are the exact same thing just will take up to 2 weeks to get them, some times longer. Might be faster waiting for Flash in the pan ( Graham ) to get them back in stock.
 
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HoppyUK said:
Because the best, easiest, neatest and cheapest solution is to get a simple optical slave, the size of an Oxo cube, and pop it on to the flash. You also retain full x-sync speed which you do not with a radio trigger.
Click to expand...

.... triggering the studio heads by radio, so something is radio and something optical however its set :p

also studio flash - so low level ambient - who gives a **** about sync speed :lol:
 
HoppyUK said:
Because the best, easiest, neatest and cheapest solution is to get a simple optical slave, the size of an Oxo cube, and pop it on to the flash. You also retain full x-sync speed which you do not with a radio trigger.
Click to expand...

Have to disagree about not retaining sync speed, you can sync up to 250th with the triggers. Granted when you use high speed sync you will have problems but there is more than one way to skin a cat.
 
Diadem said:
Have to disagree about not retaining sync speed, you can sync up to 250th with the triggers. Granted when you use high speed sync you will have problems but there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Click to expand...

No, usually you cannot, not reliably. The only radio triggers I have used 100% succesfully at full x-sync speed with all types of flash, are the expensive Pocket Wizards. (New Elinchrom triggers have a high speed mode, but I don't know details of those - and neither did The Flash Centre when I asked them recently.)

All of the others require you to reduced the x-sync speed a little, and sometimes quite a lot. They take a fraction of a second to process the radio signals and convert them from/to a sync pulse.

I posted something the other day. With RF-602 triggers I got full x-sync with a 580EX at 1/8th power and lower. Above 1/8th power I got progressively more shadowing due to the longer flash duration catching the second curtain closing. With studio flash heads, the shadowing was much worse and you have to drop 1/3rd to half a stop generally. But with optical triggering, everything is fine right up to max x-sync.

Not that it's a problem in the studio, but it's there.
 
Never noticed a problem with small flash with RF 602's, with studio flash I can see how it could catch the edge of the shutter.
 
Well due to the RF 602's being out of stock I picked up a cheap 'oxo' cube optical slave from jessops, tested in the shop with a couple of flashes and it worked fine. Tried it at home and as previously stated it would only fire the flash once, then you have to turn the unit on and off to reset. Pretty useless in a studio set up... So I'm just going to wait for the RF 602's. They seem the cheapest and best option. Would love pocket wizards but they are just out of my league at the moment.

Thanks for all of your input guys its appreciated.

Chris
 
cmjt_uk said:
Well due to the RF 602's being out of stock I picked up a cheap 'oxo' cube optical slave from jessops, tested in the shop with a couple of flashes and it worked fine. Tried it at home and as previously stated it would only fire the flash once, then you have to turn the unit on and off to reset. Pretty useless in a studio set up... So I'm just going to wait for the RF 602's. They seem the cheapest and best option. Would love pocket wizards but they are just out of my league at the moment.

Thanks for all of your input guys its appreciated.

Chris
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that Chris, and apologies if I lead you astray in suggesting that the Mk2 Canon flashes were okay. I thought they were :( Did you not test it in the shop with your flashgun? Jessops are usually very good with taking stuff back, and that Sonia optical slave will certainly work as it's modified to overcome this particular Canon problem.
 
No worries Richard, it was definitely worth a shot and i appreciate your input. I did try it in the the shop with 2 flash heads and it worked... God knows why it wont here... In the shop the set up was 580EX master and the 430EX as slave. Should have tried it the other way i suppose, as that would have been more representative of my set up.

Thanks,
Chris
 
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