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- Les
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I have an Canon off camera cord (Jessops make) that means I can use the flash off camera and still retain ETTL, the difficulty is, while the cord is great if you want the flash on a bracket attached to the camera, it's difficult using it with a multi-speedlight setup with speedlights mounted on stands.
After googling the issue, and reading through a number of strobist sites, a range of options were described to extend the flash cord, this is the method I chose.
It consists of cutting the off camera cord in two, using a 5m Ethernet RJ45 LAN Cable (same cable as connects a modem/router to PC) for the extension cable, with two RJ45 jacks to connect the Ethernet cable to the off camera cord. I already had the jacks, but you can easily purchase all the components from e-bay for a fiver.
The first task was cutting the cord, and I expected there to be 6 individual wires, and the various advise I'd read stated as long as each individual wire matched the same colour and the same position in each of the jacks then there would be no problem, unfortunately there were 8 wires, with 5 individually coloured wires and 3 black wires???
With a wing and a prayer I assumed the 3 black wires were 'common' wires, therefore wouldn't matter which black wire matched which black wire on each of the jacks, as long as the three black wires (in whichever order) matched the slots on each jack.
The actual placing the wires in the individual slots in the jacks was straightforward but fiddly.
Once I'd fixed the off-camera cord ends to each individual jack, I put it all together.
It was then with fingers crossed, I tried it on camera, and it worked fine, retaining ETTL functionality.
As can be seen from the above image, I hadn't thought it through completely, as I made the camera end of the cord the short end, which means the jack/connector rubbing against the lens and/or getting in the way. I should have made the camera end the long end with the cord coil against the lens, with the short bit at the flash end.
What I'll do is replace the stubby bit of cord between the camera part and the jack with a longer piece of cable so the jack/connector rests well below the camera body.
Anyway. I now have a working extended off camera cord, with a short Ethernet cable that I can slot in instead of the 5m cable if I want to use the off camera cord on a flash bracket on camera.
I came across one or two mishaps that can happen when reading through the info on the issue, particularly around ensuring you had no bare wires touching in the jacks, and for those solutions that involve soldering irons, components burning out because of heat transmitted from the iron.
Also, there seems to be a maximum limit to the extension cable, with reported failures with long leads (15m +), as I haven't (or needed) to test anything longer than 5M I can't vouch for the validity of this.
After googling the issue, and reading through a number of strobist sites, a range of options were described to extend the flash cord, this is the method I chose.
It consists of cutting the off camera cord in two, using a 5m Ethernet RJ45 LAN Cable (same cable as connects a modem/router to PC) for the extension cable, with two RJ45 jacks to connect the Ethernet cable to the off camera cord. I already had the jacks, but you can easily purchase all the components from e-bay for a fiver.
The first task was cutting the cord, and I expected there to be 6 individual wires, and the various advise I'd read stated as long as each individual wire matched the same colour and the same position in each of the jacks then there would be no problem, unfortunately there were 8 wires, with 5 individually coloured wires and 3 black wires???
With a wing and a prayer I assumed the 3 black wires were 'common' wires, therefore wouldn't matter which black wire matched which black wire on each of the jacks, as long as the three black wires (in whichever order) matched the slots on each jack.
The actual placing the wires in the individual slots in the jacks was straightforward but fiddly.
Once I'd fixed the off-camera cord ends to each individual jack, I put it all together.
It was then with fingers crossed, I tried it on camera, and it worked fine, retaining ETTL functionality.
As can be seen from the above image, I hadn't thought it through completely, as I made the camera end of the cord the short end, which means the jack/connector rubbing against the lens and/or getting in the way. I should have made the camera end the long end with the cord coil against the lens, with the short bit at the flash end.
What I'll do is replace the stubby bit of cord between the camera part and the jack with a longer piece of cable so the jack/connector rests well below the camera body.
Anyway. I now have a working extended off camera cord, with a short Ethernet cable that I can slot in instead of the 5m cable if I want to use the off camera cord on a flash bracket on camera.
I came across one or two mishaps that can happen when reading through the info on the issue, particularly around ensuring you had no bare wires touching in the jacks, and for those solutions that involve soldering irons, components burning out because of heat transmitted from the iron.
Also, there seems to be a maximum limit to the extension cable, with reported failures with long leads (15m +), as I haven't (or needed) to test anything longer than 5M I can't vouch for the validity of this.
after a heavy night in a busy pub kitchen.
