Off Camera Cords

<p>Does anyone know if the older 5 pin off camera cords and connectors will work with the new digital bodies and the new flashes. The set I have is from the early EOS cameras but will also work with my T-90's and they have A-TTL flash.<br>

I have a very fancy cross polarized light macro flash bracket and setup I made to use two 300TL's with my T-90 and I'm wondering how much of it might still work with the new bodies like a 7D. I would have no problem if it only worked in a basic mode since the subjects are flowers and tiny items on the forest floor they don't move much so trial and error would be fine.</p>

<p>This is what I built shown here without the polarizing fliters on the camera or the flashes<br>

<img src="http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h217/UJ78/flash%20bracket/CrossPolarizedBracketPrototypeonben.jpg" alt="" /><br>

Here is it is all broke down and ready to fit into the 3" X 3" X 6" rectangular zippered pounch I have for it.<br>

<img src="http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h217/UJ78/flash%20bracket/CrossPolarizedBracketPrototypecolla.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Very elegant bracketwork! The old Canon cables will only work in TTL mode. They can't transmit E-TTL data, so you wouldn't get any automatic metering with any digital EOS body.<br>

If you're OK with all-manual metering for the flash, and if you've got manual capable flash units, you could use those cables as sync-only cables. There'd really be no point other than saving money since you already own them.<br>

Note that if you want to keep using the 300TL flash units you'll only have two manual power settings - high and low. So all your adjustments for output will have to be at the camera end in terms of aperture and ISO.<br>

I just tested this setup with my 5D II and you need a battery in the HSA-3 for it all to work, even in manual mode.</p>

<p>I don't know but ETTL sync cords are only $10</p>

<p> </p>

<p>There is a "Phottix Duo" flash cord that has two hotshoes -- one at both ends the cord. This means that one flash is truely tethered and the other one is on top of the camera's hotshoe. And since you could use a regular flash cord in the shoe on the part that goes into the camera's hotshoe, you could have both flash units tethered and fire at the same time.</p>

<p>However, the big drawback is that E-TTL will not work when using two flash units. The strobes need to be set on manual. Too bad. On the other hand, Phottix also offers the cheap "Phottix Tetra" radio triggers for up to three Speedlites...</p>

<p>The 300TL doesn't support E-TTL. </p>

<p>Another solution is to get a pair of 580ex, 550ex, 430ex, or the 420ex flashes. The 7D can control the slave flashes wirelessly using E-TTL. You can set the power and the ratio directly from the camera itself.</p>

<p>Mark, there's more to this than meets the eye. I had an extensive wired-flash setup which I used with my film EOS bodies, and the interesting thing is that the connecting cords and the multi-way connector have six wires all of which are connected (they are six-pin not five-pin), so they can in principle transmit E-TTL data. That's not true of the TTL adaptor that goes into the camera accessory shoe, which is an electronic device with a battery in it, nor of the adaptor into which the flash fits. The latter has only the five wires required for TTL connected, and there is a diode in the flash firing connection to enforce polarity.</p>

<p>The original Off-Camera Shoe Cord also has six wires connected (and a diode at the flash end). I have read that it does not work with E-TTL, that being possible only with the OCSC-2 and OCSC-3. Well, mine works fine with E-TTL, or, at least, it did when in its original form. My son, who is an electronic engineer, has modified it for me to make it "pluggable" by cannibalising some bits from the wired TTL system. He took the hard-wired cable off the camera end of the OCSC and replaced it with a socket from a TTL-system flash-end adaptor, and added a sixth connection between the socket and the shoe on another flash-end adaptor. Plugging one end of the Connecting Cord 60 into each produces something that functions exactly like the original OCSC – six connections with the diode in the firing circuit at the flash end – and works successfully with E-TTL just like the unmodified OCSC. So why bother? Well, the idea was to see if it would also work with the Connecting Cord 300, providing in effect a much longer OCSC. The connections are there OK, but there is some indication that the cable length may be more than the E-TTL system can cope with, and I have been reluctant to run even a rather remote risk of frying anything by actually trying to fire the flash using it. I have read somewhere that you can connect two OCSCs in series but no more, and I guess that's consistent with the Connecting Cord 300 being too long for E-TTL.</p>

<p>Now, of course, the temptation would be to use the TTL multi-way connector to connect more than one flash. I doubt very much if that would work properly for E-TTL, and it might well confuse things to the point where damage to a flash or to the camera would result.</p>

<p>So all this is really no more than an amusing digression. The simple message is that to use flash on a Canon DSLR you need an E-TTL flash, one of the EX series, and to use more than one flash you need one that can act as a master and one that can act as a slave (or an ST-E2 flash controller or a 7D, and two slaves). The only other possibility is the rather expensive MT-24EX flash, which has two heads on cables powered from a unit that goes into the camera accessory shoe. The heads have cold shoes and could be used with your bracket setup if you did not want to use them on their mounting ring. There's no wired E-TTL solution for more than one flash apart from that.</p>

<p>So I think your options are as follows.</p>

<ol>

<li>Any body, MT-24EX</li>

<li>Any body, ST-E2, 2× slave-capableable EX flashes</li>

<li>7D, 2× slave-capable EX flashes</li>

<li>Any body, 1× master-capable EX flash on OCSC, 1× slave-capable EX flash </li>

</ol>

<p>Cool lots of hard to follow information. Since as I said I can do the work I use the Cross Polarized lighting for in completely manual mode. And I have flashes that will work in completely manual model at anywhere down to 1/16th power As long as the cords will trip the flashes I think I'm good. Since both of those flashes Sunpack 433D's are only 6V trigger voltage I see no reason why they would endanger the body.<br>

I'll just have to hunt and peck my way through the sttings until I find something that comes out well on the review and Histograms.<br>

I can also go with your option 3 since it appears I'm headed in the direction of a 7D body.</p>

<p>Mark, of course if you are happy to continue using manual flashes then you can use the good old PC connection, and that will fire any (reasonable) number of flashes, so your existing setup will keep you going for as long as you want. As you realise, my comments referred to using automatic exposure control.</p>

<p>You can use ND gel strips to throttle your 300TL strobes beyond the two steps offered with more recent Canon bodies. Most of my speedlite kit is built with 580EXxx units, but I still use my several older 300TL, and 533G units when I need more light in more places than I have 580EXxx units to place. ND gels waste battery power, but they are accurate for changing ratios, and pretty much work fine all around. I still shoot with T-90's, but I have no doubt that I use the 300TL units far more often with EOS gear.</p>