580ex ii, wein digital peanut, hotshoe vs PC cord

[brad_farwell]

<p>Hi all - So, have tried to do my due diligence research before posting this, but have gotten conflicting answers. I have a 580ex ii (set to manual) that I want to trigger via optical slave (wein digital peanut) tripped by a small on-camera flash (canon 220ex). I used to use an old 'potato-masher' flash in this role, but since the 580 is more useful generally, I'd rather carry it around instead. </p>

<p>The question: Will the optical slave work, or will it 'lock up' the flash?</p>

<p>If it locks up (ie requires cycling the power on/off before it will fire again) is this only when you trigger from the hot shoe? </p>

<p>ie: Will the peanut attached via cable to the PC post on the flash (preferable to me) work?</p>

<p>I don't have time to get a sonia, would rather not spend the money, and don't want to carry the kid through the snow in to manhattan to hit B&H for the second day in a row (to buy a male-male PC cord, grumble grumble canon) if I'm just on a wild-goose-chase.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>(to head off other suggestions: radio trigger doesn't work in this situation, as I need the TTL on the local flash.)</p>

[brad_farwell]

<p>The answer is: it don't work. not off the PC post, not via the hotshoe, not at all. total BS.</p>

[Mark Salo]

<p>580ex ii (set to manual)<br />optical slave (wein digital peanut) <br />canon 220ex in TTL mode<br /><br />So 220ex fires preflash to calculate exposure for the 220ex and then 580ex ii kicks in and over-exposes the image?</p>

[brad_farwell]

<p>The goal was that the 580 (on a stand/etc) provides ambient room lighting off the ceiling. The 220, dialed down a little, provides direct light on the subject, filling in some of the shadows from the overhead lighting. For example, in the attached photo (it isn't a good photo, but was the first example I had handy), his face is being evenly lit by the 220, and the overall room is all being lit by my old manual flash. </p>

<p>It's something I've done a number of times with an old manual flash as the overall light, was hoping to retire it and use the 580. But no dice.</p><div></div>

[Mark Salo]

<p>I see: 580 furnishes overall light in the room while 220 follows the subject.<br /><br />Does 220 have auto thyristor mode? Can 580 be slaved optically w/o peanut? (Nikon user here.)</p>

[brad_farwell]

<p>No, or I'd have done it.</p>