Canon's Off Camera Shoe Cord

[abdul smith]

I am speaking of the 2 foot version. I am assuming this is mainly for use with a

flash bracket. Is there an alternative to this if I really want to get the flash

(currently using a 420ex) off the camera, and say, bounced off an umbrella? I

know at some point I am going to have to upgrade to a more powerful flash, but

in the meantime are there any options for me? I have the off camera cord, but it

definitely does not provide me the flexibility of motion that I need when shooting.

 

Thanks in advance.

[bobatkins]

TTL Hot Shoe Adapter 3 plus Off camera shoe adapter OA-2 plus connecting cord 300 (10ft).

 

Note that this isn't very compatible with DSLRs though. Works fine with film cameras in standard TTL mode (which DSLRs don't have).

 

With digital it would presumably work OK if the flash can be set in manual mode, which I'm not sure the 420EX can.

 

I have heard of people stringing two Off camera shoe cords togther and it still working.

 

Personally, I'd just buy a cheap AC stobe. You can get one for around $60 that will probably be a lot easier to use than messing around trying to get a 420EX far off camera, would work better and would be cheaper too.

[andrew duncan]

Abdul,

 

Your choices are (in no particular order)

 

<ul>

<li>Buy a <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=141&modelid=8304">wireless transmitter</a>

<li>Buy a 550ex or 580ex to act as a master

<li>Chop your off camera cord in two and add some wire to it to make it <a href="http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=117659">longer</a>

<li>An alterative, buy a cheap flash that has varying power settings and buy a cheap wireless transmitter/receiver from an online seller.

</ul>

 

Andrew

[andrew duncan]

Abdul what camera are you using?

<p>Bob, according to <a href="http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/flashwork/lineup/index.html">Canon</a> the Off-Camera Shoe Adapter OA-2 is not compatible with any of the Canon DSLRs or the Rebel T2/300x. Is this correct?

[jimstrutz]

Canon's answer is for you to buy an ST-E2. Hey, it's only a couple hundred bucks. Why not? :) It does work well, and heavy duty users find it more reliable in the long run than the OCSC2 that you're using now. You can use it with the flash on a bracket or with the flash 20 feet away. There is a limit to how far it can reach however, and the remote flash does need to "see" the ST-E2. But it's IR signals do reflect off walls and ceilings, so inside it's more versatile than outdoors.

 

You could also daisy chain two or more OCSC2's together, but Canon does state that you might get exposure errors. Two seem to work fine to me, but I've not used them that way extensively. Also, Paramount Cords will hack (literally) your OCSC2 and insert a longer section of six wire cord for a longer reach. But neither of these methods are exactly inexpensive either.

 

Before anyone recommends using cheap optical slaves and trigger your flash with the built in flash (providing your camera has one), you should know that most generic optical slaves will lock up most Canon Speedlites after each firing. Also the built in flash fires a metering pre-flash which will prematurely trip any optical slave that is not pre-flash aware. So this is not generally considered a good option.

 

Of course, you could dump the use of your 420EX for off camera photography, and get a manual or auto flash with optical slave and trigger it with your 420EX in manual mode (disables the pre-flash).

 

There are work arounds for a lot of this stuff, but the ST-E2 starts to look pretty good in view of the options.

[jimstrutz]

Canon's modular off camera wire system (Off-Camera Shoe Adapter OA-2, etc.) will not work with a flash in E-TTL mode. Since digital SLR Canon's only do E-TTL or manual, you're stuck with manual if you use these. They do work in manual flash mode, but you don't get any flash metering. Since the 420EX has no manual mode, I'm not sure if it will even fire. Should work with the 430EX though.

[abdul smith]

Andrew,

I'm using an Elan (7n), but Jim's right, the 420ex has no manual mode. looks like my options are either the cheap strobe or the wireless transmitter..but for the price of the transmitter I might be able to buy an alienbees strobe..

 

unfortunately im not savvy enough to splice wires and extend it myself

[abdul smith]

actually looks like Jim's answer is referring to digital, so the OA-2 may be the easiest option

 

BTW thanks for the responses.

[bobatkins]

If you don't mind manual flash, you can get a cheap strobe for under $60 - http://www.adorama.com/LTBF.html

 

If the 7n doesn't have a PC socket for flash triggering you can get an inexpensive hot shoe adapter.

 

Basically using a 420EX into an umbrella isn't a great idea unless you can get the umbrella within 2ft of the camera.

 

The off camera shoe cords are short because of signal limitations over longer distances (all the TTL stuff), however some people have strung a couple of them togther and still had everything work. It's just not recommended.

[JohnMWright]

Abdul,

 

I recommend the Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter. They are about $200. It works with your flash, plus the 430EX, 550EX, and the 580EX. It can trigger multiple flashes, and you can organize the flashes into groups. It will make your studio setup quite versatile.

[doug_harhai]

Abdul,

I recently posted this similar question and here is the advice that I was given, which has worked: 1) get a $9 pc sync hot shoe adapter at any camera store (the flash sits in the hot shoe, and the pc connector attaches to the 2) paramount pc cord, male/female (mine is 10' long). One end plugs into the hot shoe adapter which is connected to your flash, and the other plugs into the pc socket on your camera. If you don't have a pc socket on your camera, you can buy an attachment for your camera's hot shoe which has a pc socket on it.

 

You can buy cheaper cords than the paramount, but I think that they are worth the extra cash, as they are built better than other cords that I have used. By the way, I have also triggered a 580ex with a Wein peanut slave (made for Vivitar 285) without fail on a few shoots now in the past month, and it performed flawlessly. The end of the peanut slave just plugs into the pc cord adapter which is connected to the flash.

 

Sorry if I appear to be trying to 'dumb this down', I am trying to make it easy to understand for anybody who is reading it. I wish I had known about this stuff sooner. If you have any more questions, just email me.

[jimstrutz]

Doing what Doug recommends might work with the flash in manual mode. But be warned that most Canon Speedlites do lock up after firing when triggered with most optical slaves. Over the years I have found a few combinations that worked, but most don't. Oddly some Speedlites of the same model worked and others didn't - very strange. However since your 420EX has no controls for manual power control, you're stuck with full power pops from the 420EX. Not exactly the best option.

 

And you're right, in my previous answer I had assumed that you were using a digital camera. Since you're using the Elan 7, Canon's modular wire system will work. The camera and flash will revert to TTL metering (not E-TTL), but there isn't a lot lost by doing so. Still those pieces are not cheap. You need the 10' cord, OA-2 (or is it OA-3 now?), and the remote shoe (can't remember it's designation). And it will not work with any future digital Canon that you might buy later. Unless you can get a fantastic price on a modular wire setup (check ebay), you're better off buying the ST-E2. That or buy a 550EX/580EX to use as master and fill flash.

[doug_harhai]

Ooops, Jim is right, I always use on manual. The 580ex can be dialed down in manual mode, the 420ex does not have manual settings (maybe the only downside of this flash) and needs to be diffused or moved away from the subject, etc. I am not familiar with using them in wireless mode, but use wein peanut slaves instead.

[robin_sibson1]

Andrew, the Canon site to which you give a link does NOT say that there is any incompatibility between the OCSC and digital bodies. The footnote refers only to components of the wired TTL system. Indeed, the recently introduced flash bracket uses the OCSC and, according to that web page, is supplied with two of them.

 

Anyone needing a longer OCSC has at least the following options.

 

1. Daisy-chain OCSCs

 

2. Cut-and-paste the cable

 

3. Rewire at the two ends using 6-core cable. The 300cm TTL cable is suitable for this - although the TTL system uses only 4 cores, the cable was future-proofed for a future that never came.

 

4. Cannibalise the end components of the TTL system, relying on the fact that not only the cables but also the plugs are fully wired. The OA (flash end) adapter may already be fully wired, but if not it can easily be adapted. The camera-end adapter would have to be gutted and all six cores wired straight through. This would pruduce a plugged equivalent to the OCSC.

 

Disclaimer: I haven't yet done (4) (although I do have the now-redundant TTL components on which to try it), and there is, as pointed out, the possibility that cable-length constraints apply.