1dmkII not synching

Hi all,

 

I was hoping someone can help me with this problem.

 

I have a 1DMKII that I don't want to connect directly to the power pack, Speedotron

D1402, the problem is the power pack has a two prong synch connector so I couldn't get

pocket wizards for remote firing. After some fiddling my local camera store suggested this

set up, my 550EX in the hot shoe with peanut slave in front of flash so that theoretically

the peanut slave should fire the studio lights when it has picked up the light from the

flash, but all I am getting is ambient light recorded on my sensor. I've tried first and

second curtain sych and a variety of shutter speeds. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

By the way the lights work fine with 4X5 it's just the digital camera?

I don't know for sure but it's a Canon - don't they fire some sort of pre-flash?

 

If so, the pre-flash may be causing the studio flash to fire early. Your manual should tell you how to turn this function off.

Pocket Wizard makes a synch chord with a mini-phono plug on one end for the PW and what is known as a houshold plug on the other end for the Speedotron.

 

Have your local camera store order several of these synch cords when they order your Pocket Wizards.

dunno if it's the same for canon, but with Nikon, set your flash to manual and 1/16th

power so you don't drain the batteries. this will disable the preflash.

Setting your 550EX to a low manual power level will suppress the pre-flash and should work fine with an optical slave. You may want to use 1/60th if your studio lights are at full power.

Thanks everyone, I totally forgot about the preflash, so I'll give it a go. I wasn't aware that

pocket wizard made an adapter. That's the route I'd prefer to take. Thanks again.