580 Master ----> 550 slave --- delay of 1/2 sec?

Hi, all --

I'll say right off that I'm in the middle of proctoring a test at our

highschool in the resource room; don't have all my gear here, nor all the

settings from my gear fresh in mind for the question I'm posing. If there are

any of you out there who can give me a lead on what's up, though, I'd

appreciate it...

Was shooting an event two weeks ago and pulled out my secondary strobe - a

550ex - to lend to a friend. On the walk back from our car, I set my 580ex to

Master and held the two a hand's-width apart, firing the 580 at the sensor on

the 550... 580 went off, and pause --- pause --- bam, 550 went off nearly a

1/2 second later.

I believe the 550 *was* set to slave.

Using one to trigger the other, shouldn't they go off instantaneously - at

least as perceived by human eyes? Or, do I have a misunderstanding of the

equipment? Or, is it a simple matter of settings? Or, is this somehow

related to the pre-flash I see often referenced in the forums?

Any and all help appreciated; I'm aware I'm shoddy on facts, but hope that

someone might take a bite at this one.

-mcs

If you were merely firing the 580 by pressing the button on the back of the flash, then the

system sees this as a "test" firing, and there will be a delay so that you can see that all flashes

in your circuit are firing.

Firing the flash from the camera will give you normal synchronization between flashes and

camera.

Gut reaction, no - because I've never yet played with it. That's on my summer list of things to do. However, I could've easily engaged/set it unknowingly, since I'm not very educated on its use. Would that explain the symptoms above, NK?

-mcs

No, kiddin', Paul? Huh...

just out of curiosity, what is it about the 550 that knows that the 580 was being fired off the button, and not the shoe? IR signal? Something else?

-mcs

For real Mike. I couldn't tell you why/how. But this is all in the manual, and a feature I use

quite often to test my wireless setups.

-Paul