Second curtain synch w/10D & External Flash

[beauh44]

Hi All,

 

I'm a bit baffled. I'm trying to use 2nd curtain flash synch with

some external lights and I must be doing something wrong. I'm using

my 10D and going into custom functions and setting it there. When I

do, the on-camera flash indeed fires at the end of the shot. (It's a

long exposure so I can tell) I've also tried my 550EX and set it and

it works too. What doesn't seem to work is when I hook my 10D via a

PC cord to an external light; it fires right away instead of at the

end of the exposure. What am I doing wrong? Many thanks in

advance! ...Beau

[fj5]

Beau,

 

I'm not quite sure of the answer to your question but may I ask you a question? When is it useful to use second curtain sync? I don't shoot much sports nor do I shoot many moving objects at all (besides candid pics at parties). Is it generally a good idea to just use first curtain sync for my style of shooting (stills, architecture fill, portraits) or is second curtain sync better?

 

In hopes to better understand your question, what external light did you attach to via pc cord? Does it support second curtain sync? (maybe the camera is all you need to support it but I'm just asking). Were you using TTL or E-TTL? (again, does it matter?)

[NK Guy]

You aren't doing anything wrong. Second curtain sync requires a dedicated flash unit

using automated through the lens metering. The PC socket can't support

communicate digitally-encoded information to the flash unit.

[fj5]

Ahhh... see, that's what I thought! I knew that... I just kinda forgot. ^_^

[toddr]

I'm getting the same result. Same thing with the hotshoe used with a vivitar 283. This sucks. Wonder if a software upgrade can fix this.

[adam_hemphill]

No. That's just the way it is.

[toddr]

Just talked to Canon tech support about this. It seems weird to me that they have a pc connection but it doesn't work with second curtain sync - but it doesn't. When I asked about studio work showing movement or industrial work showing motor or fan movements they said that there are differences between digital and film cameras. Maybe the electronics prevent this from working?

 

They said the way to get 2nd curtain sync to trigger studio strobes (and not have the pre-flash fire) is to use the 550ex in manual mode set to 2nd curtain sync.

 

Weird because 2nd curtain works fine on my elan2 off the hotshoe. Wonder if the PC connection on the 1D works this way? Someone has an optical slave that works correctly with ETTL I think. This might be cheaper depending on how many you need (or how many lights you have because none can be optically triggered because of pre-flash).

 

I was hoping they could do a software revision to fix this but they said no. FYI.

[bill_goldman]

2nd curtain sync requires that both the camera and the flash support it.

 

Some Canon Speedlites support 2nd curtain sync and provide a switch to select it. Others support it but do not have a switch to select it.

 

With the former it must be selected on the Speedlite (e.g., 550EX). With the latter (e.g., 420EX) it is selected by setting the appropriate custom function on the camera. At least that's the way my EOS-1V works.

[beauh44]

Many thanks to all who responded!! FJ, I didn't try 2nd curtain synch for the usual reasons. You'd normally use it to properly catch a moving object with flash; without it you'd have a "trail" in front of the object instead of behind it. You can also get some pretty cool effects with things like butterfly photography. Anyway, I'm doing some product photograpny - very goofy stuff. It's locomotive parts that are to be put in a catalog. The client wants to perk them up a bit and asked for them to appear in a red light. He also wants a white background. Red + White = Pink!

 

Anyhoo, early on I was using a very long exposure because the light and gel I'd ordered hadn't arrived, so I was "painting" the red light in with a dark red filter taped over a focus-beam flashlight! (I know, I know...) But it worked really well - even better after I switched to a black velvet background. I still needed a strong frontal light to illuminate the manufacturer's name on the part(s). I noticed tho, that when the flash fired first, and then I'd start "painting", well the red wasn't very noticeable. But if I painted the red and then fired the flash at the end, it seemed to stand out more. And that's how I got to monkeying with the 2nd curtain flash synch! Whew... ;-)

 

I guess the general consensus is that I can't get there from here. I suppose it's no big deal - leave it to me to find some obscure thing that I can't do! I have set the custom function on the 10D and also on my 550EX. The 550 works like a charm, but any external flash fires at the beginning of the exposure. But I *didn't* try it in manual mode along with the external flash... I should've thought of that. I'll try it and if I have any luck, let everyone know. Thanks again!

[bigb]

beau,

 

think you have the description backwards...

 

1st curtain synch will fire at the opening of the shutter, hence the object in motion

will be "frozen" at the beginning of the shot with their trail of "blur" in front of the

object...otherwords, they are frozen and then their "streak of blur" continues on.

 

2nd curtain synch will fire at the closing of the shutter, thus the blur will be properly

behind the object with it being "frozen" at the end of the shot.

 

my 2 cents...

 

bigb