420ex

Cannoneer · Mar 20, 2013

Recently purchased a used 420ex for my xti . 420ex has built in wireless slave receiiver but my xti has no built in transmitter. Im browsing in ebay at he moment for some cheap on the budget wireless trigger kits. I was thingking of either the ishiloot pt-04 or tue yongnuo . Anyone know of any cheep transmitter the would work with the built in 420ex receiver with out have to clip on additional recriver on the flash . Thanks in advance hope thisvmade sense.

cynicaster · Mar 21, 2013

I can’t help you with specific products because I haven’t used any radio triggers (yet), but when making your decision, I’d urge you to make sure you look at whether the system is capable of E-TTL or not. If not, you’ll have to manually set the power of the external flash. That might be totally fine (or preferred) for you, but nonetheless you should be aware of what you’re buying. Obviously, the E-TTL capable systems are more expensive, all else being equal.

Have you tried running a forum search for “wireless trigger”? I remember reading a thread on this exact topic last week that contained lots of good info.

dutcheagle · Mar 21, 2013

Cannoneer said:
Recently purchased a used 420ex for my xti . 420ex has built in wireless slave receiiver but my xti has no built in transmitter. Im browsing in ebay at he moment for some cheap on the budget wireless trigger kits. I was thingking of either the ishiloot pt-04 or tue yongnuo . Anyone know of any cheep transmitter the would work with the built in 420ex receiver with out have to clip on additional recriver on the flash . Thanks in advance hope thisvmade sense.

To use your 420EX and a wireless trigger consider buying the Yongnuo YN-622C to keep TTL functionality, seems to work with that flash. See for a nice doc here on google docs. (This is not my document) Total cost for two transceivers is about $80 for the possibilities it gives you this looks like a great deal Links in the doc. (I have the old Yongnuo 603s they work great too but still manual.)

You are not able to trigger the flash without a slave, build into the latest Canon popup flashes or a master Flash like the 580EX II. A transceiver takes over the role of the master and slave functionality.

Cannoneer · Mar 21, 2013

dutcheagle said:
To use your 420EX and a wireless trigger consider buying the Yongnuo YN-622C to keep TTL functionality, seems to work with that flash. See for a nice doc here on google docs. (This is not my document) Total cost for two transceivers is about $80 for the possibilities it gives you this looks like a great deal Links in the doc. (I have the old Yongnuo 603s they work great too but still manual.)

You are not able to trigger the flash without a slave, build into the latest Canon popup flashes or a master Flash like the 580EX II. A transceiver takes over the role of the master and slave functionality.

Nice thanks alot mate. One last question . The 420ex is an automati only flash. Is there ttransceievers that will allow me to give me some manual freedom

Big Mike · Mar 21, 2013

The 'built in' wireless functionality of the 420EX is limited to Canon's wireless system, which uses light pulses from a 'Master' unit. There is nothing 'radio' about it.
So if you want to trigger it, off camera, you would need a Canon Master unit (550EX, 580EX, ST-E2 etc.).
You may find that some off-brand flashed might work, as they have been reverse engineered from Canon units, made to work with Canon's wireless system.

The other way to fire your flash 'off-camera' would be to get a radio trigger set....that comes with both a transmitter and a receiver. You put the transmitter on the camera and the receiver goes on/at the flash. This is the most common way to do it.
The problem with this system, is that unless you have rather expensive/advanced triggers, they will only tell the flash when to fire, not how power to use. So you have to manually figure out and set the flash power/exposure etc. Even that is not too hard, once you figure it out....but the last issue is that with the 420EX, it's a pain because that particular model doesn't have any manual power controls. So if you fire it with a simple radio trigger, it will fire at full power every time. You can still work with that, it's just not as convenient.

If you are really just looking for a flash to use off-camera. You would be better off with a different model, one that has manual power adjustments. Wouldn't have to be a Canon.

dutcheagle · Mar 21, 2013

Cannoneer said:
dutcheagle said:

To use your 420EX and a wireless trigger consider buying the Yongnuo YN-622C to keep TTL functionality, seems to work with that flash. See for a nice doc here on google docs. (This is not my document) Total cost for two transceivers is about $80 for the possibilities it gives you this looks like a great deal Links in the doc. (I have the old Yongnuo 603s they work great too but still manual.)

You are not able to trigger the flash without a slave, build into the latest Canon popup flashes or a master Flash like the 580EX II. A transceiver takes over the role of the master and slave functionality.

Click to expand...

Nice thanks alot mate. One last question . The 420ex is an automati only flash. Is there ttransceievers that will allow me to give me some manual freedom

Because your flash is TTL only there is no way to use it in manual mode that is why you need TTL radio triggers, manual only triggers will not work in combination with your flash. Also read the doc I linked in my previous post and find your camera and flash so you know what it can and cannot do. These radio triggers (Yongnuo YN 622C) are a good investment as they can be used with the next camera or the next flash you are buying and they even sync manual. (But as said not with your flash.)

Full flash only like Big Mike said is very cumbersome and I would not even go there.