How reliable is Canon's wireless flash solution?

chris321

chris321

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Hi guys! Right, having had a flashgun for a little while now, I'm starting to experiment with the flash more, and I want to have a go at off-camera flash. I know the cheapest way would be to get a cable, but I would like to have a flash a few metres away from the camera.

I know the Canon range has its own inbuilt triggering system (using a 580EX, 580EX II, or 550EX as a master, and others as slaves), and I was just wondering how good and reliable this is? I know it used infrared rather than radio, but is this any worse than buying a cheap set of triggers, as I hear they have plenty of reliability issues of their own! I'm planning on being in the same room as the flash and subject, so line-of-sight isn't too much of an issue, but what distances could I realistically expect from remote triggering this way?

I ideally want to build up having a few flashes, and the canon way SOUNDS pretty ideal, but judging by the number of people using radio triggers I'm assuming there are some serious shortcomings somewhere along the line!

So if I'm going to be building up to having several flashes, should I buy some cheap manual flashes, and expensive wireless triggers, or more expensive flashes that don't NEED wireless triggers (unless the IR triggering is a bit dubious!). Sorry for the slightly jumbled essay, if it's not clear what I'm saying then please tell me!

Chris
 
If you use the Canon solution you'll get TTL metering - put your flashes where you want and everything magically works, you control their power through +/- exposure relative to the TTL - a very cool way of working. The traditional route of manually configuring everything takes a lot of learning, it depends what your looking to get out of it really, a solution that just works is the Canon TTL but on a personal level I know people that get a great kick out of getting the strobist stuff just right :)

My advice:
Get yourself a 550EX - a great flash which can work as a commander and also has full manual control, shop around and you should get one for around £130 - its a very good bit of kit.

Then get yourself some cheap eBay triggers and have a play.

The flash will be useful anyway and the triggers + manual controls on the 550 will allow you to experiment. From there you could go down the Canon route, perhaps buying something like a 420EX to run as a slave to your 550EX or get the Canon transmitter or both.
 
Thanks a lot for your reply! The TTL is very appealing, I'm not sure if I'll scare myself off the idea if I plunge in at the deep end and go for adjusting everything manually!

I probably should have added, I've already got a 430EX, which is why the canon route is so appealing.... If I'm going to get another flash, it might as well be one that can trigger my current one.

I did look at the canon transmitter, but it seems a bit pointless to spend a hundred-and-something quid on it, when I could spend a bit more and get another flash that does the same thing!

So does anyone use the IR triggering that canon supplies? Or does everyone just use wireless triggers? I can't seem to find many threads praising the IR route, yet ebay triggers seem to be very common? And I'd love to hear anyone that can compare the reliability of the two!

Chris
 
Can't speak for Canon but I use the Nikon CLS system all the time and I love it - not had any issues with it yet but I've only used it indoors.
 
You can get ebay triggers and put them on hotshoes, and main triger on your hotshoe camera, sometimes the flashgun can flashguns can flash randomly so have to play around,

or you can get 580ex and then 430ex and link them by infrared i have never tried this way, i do own 430ex ,430exmk2 and 430ez which i have used all together before, and can sometimes work well and sometimes not,


430ex use ettl as mainly mode but i have had them go to ttl before and then not want to work, which i dont no why this happend, if anyone knows why would like to know , but i mainly use M mode coes you can make the flashguns brighter or dimma depending what effect your going for,


or another way is get pocketwizards which alot of people i know now do it this way but there alot per flashgun and if u have 430ex you will need a cable to plug into pocketwizard,


I would get a 550 or 580ex if you already have a 430ex that way you can see if infrared fits your needs,

if not you can always get flash trigers from ebay or get pocketwizard which should last you along and should fail on you, and be able to shoot with long distances outside,


hope this helps,

regards
 
grumpybadger said:
I've not found a problem with the Canon solution over reasonably short range indoors.
Click to expand...

That's good to know, what kind of range are we talking about?

I've been doing a fair bit of research into radio triggers, but I can't really afford pocketwizards, and I've heard a lot of bad things about the cactus triggers (and the only place that sells them won't accept my card!). Which leaves skyports, but if I'm going to get another flash anyway, I thought the IR route is worth considering!

Thanks for you views!

Chris
 
The manual states around a 12 metre radius indoors 8 metres outside.
 
It's OK indoors but outdoors in bright sunlight then it doesn't work.
Main problem I found was worrying more about getting a decent line of sight with the flashguns, rather than the subject.

I wouldn't trade my pocketwizards for anything, 100% reliable and a good talking point with the subject.
 
Yeah, I had heard that things go wrong in sunlight, but most of the time I'll be inside, or outside when it's darker. So would I be o.k with using the innfrared do we think? I'll probably invest in some good triggers at some point, but I need the flashes first! Thanks again guys!

Chris
 
The canon system works just fine providing there are some reflective surfaces about.
Not so cleaver outside unless you have direct line of site between them ,bright sun shine probably a no no in many cases.
 
O.K, thanks a lot guys, I think I may try getting a 550EX or a 580EX, try the infrared, and if it doesn't work well enough I'll look into getting the triggers! Cheers again!

Chris
 
I have a 580EX and 420EX with a Canon ST2E which goes on the hot shoe so I can use the two flash guns with a soft box and brolly.
Works great but mostly been used indoors.
I do have a set of Bowens Gemini 200's for when I need to work with a bigger indoor area.
 
I bought a little flash sensor thing from Jessops for under £10 on Saturday. It fits onto the hotshoe of any flash, and senses another flash going off then pops the flash it is attached to.

No battery in it - just point it towards the "master" flash and you're laughing. Cheap as chips. Limited range and requires line of site (ish). So you could have any old cheapo flash off-camera and triggered by your on-board flash. The "slave" flash of course would be on manual mode.
 
i use my 550EX and two 580's with the ST2 nearly every day for the last few years and it is a set up that works very well in all conditions
i have noticed the battery consumption is a lot worse with the newer guns but they are more powerful
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I'm quite tempted by the ETTL-ness of the canon system, but I might try some optical triggers or something at some point as well!

Chris
 
I'm in a similar situation as you chris, I recenlty purchased a 580ex II and already own and 430ex. The 580 is used as a master and the 430 as a slave. However I would rather have both flash guns off camera and be able to utilise the expensive 580II as more than just a master on camera. this brings me to how to go about doing this. The St-E2 trigger sounds good however I intend to shoot outdoors as well as in and IR just does not cut in when you're 10ft away and the sun is out. I have some cheap ebay triggers which are pants. So I have decided pocket wizards are the way to go. I'm going to purchase the pocket wizard II set which includes 2 transiever/recievers. One will go on the camera hot shoe and the other on the 580ex II off camera. My question is when the 580 is triggered via the pocket wizard will it automatically send a signal to the off camera 430 to fire also? or will i need a third pocket wizard attached to the 430 to fire that?
 
The 580 will trigger the 430 automatically using the pocket wizards. You won't have ETTL capability though and the 430 will be the same output as the 580 unless you use flash compensation on the 430 I suppose.
 
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