Pocket Wizards and the Canon flash system

[wedding-photography-denver]

I am curious after reading David Schillings thread about the use of a second

light. My question relates to the ability to connect a PW receiver to a 580.

Would someone be so kind as to tell me what cord/connector you use to do this?

 

I use the PW's with Monos but never tried it with the little canon flashes.

 

Thanks for the insight.

D.

[jurmellies]

Hey David,

 

I just read an article on the Rangefinder Magazine site.

Maybe this is of some use to you.

http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Sep06/showpage.taf?page=28

[lb-]

hey david,

 

http://www.paramountcords.com/ sells the cord/hotshoe thingy.

 

I gave up on the ettl wireless and just use PWs with off camera flashes now.

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

I'm using a combo of both with wireless ETTL and strobes fired by radio slaves, you have to be careful setting up but it works well. Keep in mind that it is not easy to trigger the 580ex or any canon flash using a slave. The contacts on the bottom make it difficult with the vast majority of pc to hotshoe adaptors. Aparently paramount make a custom adaptor though.

[medina photography cherry]

I am using the paramount hot shoe adapter with both my 550ex's and it works fine.

[picturesque]

Hey Lucas, which one do you use--the hotshoe or miniplug model? Is one better than the other, more reliable? What about the Off Camera Shoe Cord grafted model?

[lb-]

hey nadine,

 

the cords I have are female hotshoe to male miniplug. not sure what the model number is.

 

I don't have the off camera version (expensive!). When I use a 580 on camera + a PW to trigger oc strobes (not that often) I just keep the 580 in the hotshoe and connect the PW with a regular PC cord.

[wedding-photography-denver]

Cool. Thanks so much guys. Time to get some more toys :-o

 

Best, D.

[barry_davis___st._louis__m]

David, though i'd like the idea of the PW to trip the 580 and maybe the 420,,,why not just use the ST-E2...I know some have said the ST-e2 gives the camera a better reading anyways...especially in low light. BUt, if the PW trips the 580 I think i will buy the cord as well!

[conraderb]

david - I have been pretty disappointed with the way the canon wireless system works.

 

the wireless TTL system works well when you have a flash in front of your subject, but seems to break down once it is behind.

 

I'm also very disappointed that the canon wireless system doens't do manual flash very well, eight! from my experience, my 580EX doesn't allow me to fire, say, on camera flash at 1/8 power, slave flash at full power and slave flash #2 at 1/4 power. ridiculous.

 

AND the canon flashes do NOT have a PC sync input, unlike some (most? all??) of their nikon counterparts.

[kiva]

david, you might check these links out before buying gear right away.

 

a person named michael bass does a very quick modification on the 580ex flash that allows the 580ex to use ettl and fire the other units at the same time. I'll let you read:

 

two links to check out:

 

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/external-sync-mod-for-canon-flash.html

 

and

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=004&item=140022987559&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

 

 

he's very good at communicating via email:

 

MichaelBass@charter.net

[michael_bass3]

Thanks for the kind words, Bill.

 

To all:

I have also been adding the sync jack and extension cables to the OffCameraShoeCord2, and the sync jack to the ST-E2, as well as all the other Canon units that Canon "forgot" to include with this capability. People who recognize the usefulness of this have been sending me units from as far away as the UK, and the modification takes a day or less for me to do. One sync cable is included with each mod, either 6' coiled or custom length straight.

 

The hot shoe(F) to miniphone adapter works just fine most of the time for many people, but it is another item to keep track of, and then you can't use the E-TTL functions of the on camera flash.

 

Here is a recent eBay link that gives more details and explanations, but I can always answer email directly if additional details are needed.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=004&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=140045770663&rd=1&rd=1

 

Regards,

Michael Bass

(michaelbass@charter.net)

[michael_bass3]

An update to my last response - I have set up a blog site to show this Canon Flash Auxillary Sync Mod and some of the other items I have come up with for making the photogs life more productive and fun!

 

www.michaelbass.blogspot.com

 

Michael<div></div>