Canon D III second curtain synch

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Duncan.F

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I understand Canon have not included this option unless you have a 580 Ex2 on the camera?! What happens if you want to uses triggers, I don't have pocket wizards!
 
I'm not sure where you got the info from, I've had many Canon cameras and they've all allowed 2nd curtain sync with appropriate speedlights and triggers.

The caveat being that the 2nd curtain sync signal doesnt go through the centre pin, so you need appropriate triggers.
 
I found this out the hard way running a workshop and none of the Canon bodies that the attendees had could do rear curtain with the dumb studio triggers - the cameras simply had no functionality for rear curtain sync - unless we attached a Speedlite. I suspect it works by passing the shutter speed to compatible Speedlites or triggers which can then work out when to actually fire, but the actual centre pin impulse always comes at the start.

We came up with 2 solutions: as we were using fairly long exposures of 1-6 seconds, and sometimes on bulb mode, I fired the flashes manually using the test button on the trigger and the photographer then closed the shutter when they saw the flash. A better solution was to just mount a Canon Speedlite on the camera, set rear curtain sync on that and aim it, at low power, at the slave cell of a studio light. I can't remember now, but this option may not work for bulb shooting (as the camera has no idea at the start of the exposure, how long it will be).
 
Scooter said:
I found this out the hard way running a workshop and none of the Canon bodies that the attendees had could do rear curtain with the dumb studio triggers - the cameras simply had no functionality for rear curtain sync - unless we attached a Speedlite. I suspect it works by passing the shutter speed to compatible Speedlites or triggers which can then work out when to actually fire, but the actual centre pin impulse always comes at the start.

We came up with 2 solutions: as we were using fairly long exposures of 1-6 seconds, and sometimes on bulb mode, I fired the flashes manually using the test button on the trigger and the photographer then closed the shutter when they saw the flash. A better solution was to just mount a Canon Speedlite on the camera, set rear curtain sync on that and aim it, at low power, at the slave cell of a studio light. I can't remember now, but this option may not work for bulb shooting (as the camera has no idea at the start of the exposure, how long it will be).
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They don't expect the speedlight to 'work out when to fire', they send the fire signal through a different pin (which is why you need triggers with an ETTL hotfoot). And AFAIK all Canon DSLR's have this function, whereas Nikon don't include it in their low end bodies.
 
I see. Thanks Phil. Nikon bodies do not need it - they just send the firing signal out of the regular centre pin at the end of the exposure for rear curtain sync. I don't have any D3xxx Nikons, but my D5200 certainly works this way.
 
Canon's second-curtain sync is compromised, for historical patent reasons. It's available on all cameras I think, certainly all current models, but only with the flash on-camera (or cord). Wireless remote second-curtain sync is not available using the Canon system including the latest RT kit, but it is with most (possibly all) third party E-TTL triggers, including with Canon guns. As mentioned above, the firing signal doesn't use the centre pin, so basic manual triggers won't play.
 
Hi, thanks for the responses! Couldn't figure why it wasn't on the camera menu! However when I set high speed synch on my 580 ex and say 1/1000 sec on camera it still defaults to 1/200? Am I doing something wrong? Also is it possible to use second curtain synch and high speed at the same time. If you wanted to catch some action shots using HS and SCS, say someone coming out of the starter blocks, is there a way? I was hoping to use a Bowens pro studio light triggered by the 580....
 
2nd curtain sync only becomes effective at 1/30 and slower.
 
Ah, thanks Phil that makes sense now! Any idea why I can't set a high shutter speed with flat on HSS?
 
Duncan.F said:
Ah, thanks Phil that makes sense now! Any idea why I can't set a high shutter speed with flat on HSS?
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No idea, once the flash (or trigger) is set to HSS all my cameras just go up there.
 
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