Flash Trigger Newbie question (30D)

[erictomenga]

I've been searching through this forum and Strobist and feel that I've gained enough knowledge to see how much I

really don't know about flash photography. A lot it seems but I think I have enough knowledge to ask a question

now. I have a 30D for over two years and decided that I was start to take my own family holiday portraits at

home to save some $. I know the initial cost of the equipment will be more than a trip to the studio but I could

use the same equipment in other family events and in the future to make it worthwhile.

 

My plan was to purchase a 580EXII, a tripod/adapter/umbrella. I know a 2nd flash would be a big plus and thought

about a vivatar 285HV as a secondary flash. It would keep everything within my budget. The big question is the

triggering. Wireless would be great but e-ttl isn't supported and Canon's wireless trigger at $214 is too

expensive. I found info on a flashzebra.com site in one of the threads here that had a long enough cord to make

a simple pc connection enabling the e-ttl. However, how would I trigger both flashes with that? Could the

vivatar be triggered by the 580EXII? I'm trying to avoid manual triggering. Any advice?

[henryp]

The<a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/61441-REG/">Vivitar 285</a> can be triggered by a simple optical slave. Something as simple as the <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/63118-REG/">Wein PN Peanut Slave</a> would do (as long as your primary flash isn't set to put out any "pre-flash" signals which would trip the slave prematurely. Other optical slave options are <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/1736/">here</a>. <p>You can attach the Vivitar to a light stand with an <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/298709-REG/">umbrella adapter</a>. There will be no camera-flash communication with the Vivitar so e-ttl is not an option.<p>

--<br>

Henry Posner<br>

<b>B&H Photo-Video</b>

[davyjo]

I believe a 580EX II will trigger one or more 430EX's while maintaining ETTL.

[erictomenga]

Thank you for the responses. After going through what you suggested Henry, I might consider holding off on the 580EXII and choose 2 Vivitars. I saw the <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=workaround.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=263022&is=REG">Wein PN Peanut slave -Digital</a> version. Would I be able to use that to trigger the Vivitars in manual mode? Or do I need something like the Wein Combination Slave and Foot for Vivitar 283 & 285?

I know ETTL won't be available but looking at the cost of everything I needed added up to just one 580EXII, I'd be willing to wait to upgrade. With the savings I can get the AC adapters for the Vivitars and a diffuser for on-camera.

[stevepamp]

As long as you're shooting the flashes manually you can optically trigger your slaves from any master flash. Once you start trying to bring ETTL into the mix, the preflash will make optical triggering impossible. So you could trigger the Vivitar / peanut combo with the 580EX, as long as the 580EX was on camera and in Manual mode. Otherwise, your options are either PC cables, the Canon infrared trigger (ok indoors, not so much outdoors) or a radio trigger such as PocketWizards. I personally use the CyberSynch. A good radio trigger with decent range and cheaper than the PWs.

[erictomenga]

Steve, Thank you for the response. I've decided to keep my costs low for now and get two of the vivitars so that means I would trigger them without the 580EXII. The problem is that those flashes won't trigger via the on-camera flash. I'd have to plug one of them in using the PC-1 cord and that will trigger the 2nd one. I'd want to buy a long PC cord to replace the 1' one that comes with the flash. Now according to the model 285's info it has a sensor on it already so I wouldn't need the peanut slave.... ?

[stevepamp]

I have a Vivitar 285 and it doesn't have a built in slave sensor, so you will need the Peanut. I have optically slaved my 285 using the peanut and it works pretty well. The peanut slave will simply trigger when it detects any flash of light so you should be able to trigger that with your 30D's built in flash

[erictomenga]

The model 285HV mentions a "Removable sensor can be camera mounted with the optional sensor cord permitting automatic exposure when using side bounce flash photography. " in the specs which I had thought was a slave trigger but maybe it's not. In which case I'll get two of those Peanuts and I should be all set then. Thanks again.