External Flash with Canon S50

Greetings..

Does anyone have any experience using an external flash in slave

mode with the Canon S50? Supposedly the S50 allows the user to

reduce the flash to where it suffices to activate an external

slave. My idea is this: use a handle mount flash with the S50

connected to a slave, the S50 on manual and exposure set to the

(variable) output of the external flash. With my manual non-TTL

cameras I do this (flash in hot-shoe, however - no slave) and it

works quite well, so I assume it would work in this case. Reason

for the S50 as opposed to other cameras (G5, DSC-V1); size, RAW, and

price. Faults: no hot-shoe, which is vitally important. By the way,

what was Sony thinking when they ruined the V1 with no RAW format?

Thanks in advance.

Huh? Why would you need to reduce the output of the S50 flash in order to trigger a slave? It will trigger a slave at any output. You want to use a "handle mount flash" ... "connected to a slave"? Any additional flash that you employ with the S50 IS the slave (the S50 flash is the main light). In addition, trial-and-error is the only way of achieving proper slave flash output, so any thought of using a third flash is out. If a hot shoe is "vitally important", why get this camera. Also, if you are considering a handle mount flash with this camera, how important is size? Go for the G5.

If you still want the S50, buy a "digital" flash, that will ignore the camera pre-flash and fire on the second burst - such as the Metz 34CT2 digital, the Vivitar DF200 or the Digislave DSF1. Or, puchase a Wein digital hot shoe slave trigger, which will trigger a flash on the second burst and with which you can use any flash.

You want to reduce the output of the flash since in the studio you frequently do not want direct lighting.

Paul - I have read of a slave where you attach a piece of black tape over the flash to block everything but the IR light and that IR light triggers the flash.