Assuming that you could capture a Canon EOS engineer...

...what would you force him to build before you released him back into the wild?

 

<p>

 

Personally, I hate the AF-assist "strobe light" on my Elan 7. I don't do or desire to do much flash work anyway, so I'd love it if I could get a little hotshoe unit with just a near-infrared AF assister-- no main flash at all.

 

<p>

 

...And while I'm dreaming, I'd make the engineer incorporate a bubble level into the back of the unit, so I don't have to swap back and forth between the two.

 

<p>

 

Any other suggestions for custom/specialty equipment you'd buy if it existed?

If I'm not mistaken, there is such a hotshoe sensor--it's the

transmitter for when you use your (550EX) speedlight as an off-camera

slave. The hotshoe doodad does have an IR assist.

 

<p>

 

NK Guy and Julian Loke can confirm, with specs.

He or I could?

 

<P>

 

Well, you're presumably referring to the ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter,

which is designed to control remote flash units using the E-TTL

wireless protocol, and which happens to have an AF assist light built

in.

 

<P>

 

<A

HREF="http://www.usa.canon.com/camcambin/cameras/speedlite/ste2.html"

>http://www.usa.canon.com/camcambin/cameras/speedlite/ste2.html</A>

 

<P>

 

It exists, but is an expensive and cumbersome solution for such a

basic camera limitation, it seems to me. As for the original

question, I have a fairly unimaginative wishlist on my site.

 

<P>

 

<A HREF="http://teladesign.com/photo/"

>http://teladesign.com/photo/</A>

I knew you would know, NK Guy. Do you also happen to know if that

device can fire the flash if I hold in my hand above and behind the

camera? Is that angle of coverage from forward only?

 

<p>

 

Would a short cable be the best route if I just want to hand-hold my

550EX off camera and not locate it across a room?

 

<p>

 

Thanks.

Wireless E-TTL works by having the master device send out rapid

preflash pulses containing encoded instructions to each slave flash

unit.

 

<p>

 

In the case of the 550EX as master these preflash pulses are white

light from the main flash tube. In the case of the ST-E2 the preflash

pulses are basically infrared - the ST-E2 has a small flash tube on

the front which is covered by a sheet of plastic which lets through

infrared but blocks most visible white light. The smaller tube on the

ST-E2 is why it has less slave-triggering range than the 550EX.

 

<p>

 

That's the theory. As for practice I'm not the person to speak with,

as my experience with this gear has been quite limited. My

understanding is that in indoor spaces with reflective surfaces

(white walls, etc) you can expect the ST-E2 preflash signal to bounce

around a lot, so you may not need to have the ST-E2 unit facing the

slave units. Outside or in an indoor space which lacks reflective

surfaces, however, you'll apparently need the master and slave units

to be able to see each other. (line of sight)

 

<p>

 

However I personally have not played enough with the system to offer

you precise suggestions on what sort of angles work and what don't.

 

<p>

 

As for your other question that really depends on the setup you

need. The Canon Off-Camera Shoe Cord 2 gives you about 60cm of

distance from the camera. If you need more then wireless would seem a

convenient alternative.

I would ask them to update the EX set of speedlites and add a third mode (FP and Second Curtain are the current two modes). I would ask them to add an Auto Switch mode that uses Second Curtain when the shutter speed is below or equal to max sync speed, and that automagically uses FP mode when the shutter speed is above max sync. It is so damn annoying to have to change the flash modes when moving from indoors to outdoors frequently during a shoot.

I would have him/her add "lock on" to the AF servo on the EOS-3. My

lowly Nikon N90S and F-5 had it and that is the "only" thing I miss

about the Nikons. I finally went back to Canon after shipping my

Nikons off to Melville pro services for repair, after repair, after

repair. ----------------------------------------------------------