Posted: 12/14/2010 7:42:22 PM EDT
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This is a note to the 7D owners out there that may not know this. I sure didn't until tonight.
One of my friends shoots Nikon and was bragging about how he could wirelessly control the flashes off camera without a master flash. The camera's built-in flash acted like the master. Well I thought that this was pretty cool and was researching wirelessly shooting slaves on Canon trying to see what the cheapest way to get control was. Well I then learned that it is possible with the 7D only to shoot with a slave as the camera being a master. Five minutes later and this is awesome.  It's a flash menu setting - you pop-up the flash - you can set it to shoot the pop-up and the slave or just the slave - then set your flash and you're golden.
I thought someone may find this helpful if they're like me and didn't know this. |
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If you've never tried it and have a shoe mount flash that supports being remote controlled, do it!
It gives you a lot better control over your lighting, and I'm not sure about the canons, but on nikons you can control multiple flashes. I'm only using a SB600 right now, but plan to get another one, and eventually add in a SB900 to the kit. |
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Quoted:
Wireless control of flash with the built-in flash was one of the biggest selling points when the 7D was originally announced. I didn't own a flash up until a few months ago so I didn't really pay attention to that when I got the camera (focused on FPS and ISO for sports). Flash has changed my look at things portrait wise though! Quoted:
If you've never tried it and have a shoe mount flash that supports being remote controlled, do it! It gives you a lot better control over your lighting, and I'm not sure about the canons, but on nikons you can control multiple flashes. I'm only using a SB600 right now, but plan to get another one, and eventually add in a SB900 to the kit. I'm not sure on the 7D, but I don't know why it wouldn't work with several flashes. I knew the benefits and had a cheap poverty wizard setup off of eBay that I ran an off-camera Vivitar off of, but it was a pain. Just shooting stuff around here makes it look a lot better when you can angle the light off of being straight on or bounced. |
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Quoted: You and your fancy shmancy camera... meanwhile I'm limping along with my sucky T2i...  I've got a T1i... Guess I'm a caveman.  I don't have an off-camera flash yet (but I was looking at the 430 EX II units). What's the best, easiest, cheapest (etc) way to get into wireless off-camera flashes? I know Canon sells a transmitter that connects to the hot shoe on your camera, but I don't know if there's an easier way. |
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Quoted:
I don't have an off-camera flash yet (but I was looking at the 430 EX II units). What's the best, easiest, cheapest (etc) way to get into wireless off-camera flashes? I know Canon sells a transmitter that connects to the hot shoe on your camera, but I don't know if there's an easier way. Best, cheap, and easy aren't going to go together. If you want wireless and it has to be cheap, you can go with the Chinese made eBay (e.g. Yonguo, Cactus) triggers. I've never used them, but people seem to like them. I've seen them in use and they're ok. I've seen quite a few failures to fire, though, particularly in multi light setups (3 or more). The Canon ST-E2 is the wireless hot-shoe device that will trigger the 580 EX II and 430 EX II flashes. But it runs for $250 which is kind of high to me for an optical trigger. You can get a pair of PocketWizard Plus II for $300 which is just slightly more than the ST-E2 and you can use them with Speedlites and studio strobes (get cables from Flash Zebra). And with the PW you don't need line of sight since they're radio triggers. Though the ST-E2 gives you TTL which the PW Plus II won't. But you can opt to go with PW MiniTT1/FlexTT5 which is more expensive, but gives you TTL and HSS over wireless if you want to use TTL and not manual flash. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I don't have an off-camera flash yet (but I was looking at the 430 EX II units). What's the best, easiest, cheapest (etc) way to get into wireless off-camera flashes? I know Canon sells a transmitter that connects to the hot shoe on your camera, but I don't know if there's an easier way. Best, cheap, and easy aren't going to go together. If you want wireless and it has to be cheap, you can go with the Chinese made eBay (e.g. Yonguo, Cactus) triggers. I've never used them, but people seem to like them. I've seen them in use and they're ok. I've seen quite a few failures to fire, though, particularly in multi light setups (3 or more). The Canon ST-E2 is the wireless hot-shoe device that will trigger the 580 EX II and 430 EX II flashes. But it runs for $250 which is kind of high to me for an optical trigger. You can get a pair of PocketWizard Plus II for $300 which is just slightly more than the ST-E2 and you can use them with Speedlites and studio strobes (get cables from Flash Zebra). And with the PW you don't need line of sight since they're radio triggers. Though the ST-E2 gives you TTL which the PW Plus II won't. But you can opt to go with PW MiniTT1/FlexTT5 which is more expensive, but gives you TTL and HSS over wireless if you want to use TTL and not manual flash. I have a set of Yonguo triggers I got off of eBay for around $20. In terms of remote shooting they work great - probably 95%+ success rate. I didn't buy them for the off-camera flash, but I ended up using them with a Vivitar as I said above. That wasn't so great - probably only worked 80% of the time and got frustrating real fast. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Wireless control of flash with the built-in flash was one of the biggest selling points when the 7D was originally announced. I didn't own a flash up until a few months ago so I didn't really pay attention to that when I got the camera (focused on FPS and ISO for sports). Flash has changed my look at things portrait wise though! Quoted:
If you've never tried it and have a shoe mount flash that supports being remote controlled, do it! It gives you a lot better control over your lighting, and I'm not sure about the canons, but on nikons you can control multiple flashes. I'm only using a SB600 right now, but plan to get another one, and eventually add in a SB900 to the kit. I'm not sure on the 7D, but I don't know why it wouldn't work with several flashes. I knew the benefits and had a cheap poverty wizard setup off of eBay that I ran an off-camera Vivitar off of, but it was a pain. Just shooting stuff around here makes it look a lot better when you can angle the light off of being straight on or bounced. The 7D will fire unlimited E-TTL flashes! This camera is sweet! Canon EOS 7D Built in flash controller |