Auto / Manual zoom on speedlite for event shoots

[vinnybear]

For shooting events, I use my flash straight up with a custom bounce card. I want the zoom on the flash to stay at 35mm (to spread as wide as possible on the bounce card), but I am shooting with a 28-75mm lens, and as I zoom in/out, the flash zooms in/out (as it is supposed to), even though I have manually set the zoom to 35mm. Does you know if there is a camera setting or flash setting/behaviour that will prevent the flash from zooming along with the lens?

 

[tirediron]

Might help if you told us what model camera and speedlight. With many if you switch them to full manual mode you can adjust the zoom setting by rear panel controls but it will not respond to the focal length of the lens changing.

 

[vinnybear]

sorry about that; canon 60D, meike mk951.
part of the trouble is that i like to use ttl for this kind of shooting +2 ECV

 

[tirediron]

I'm afraid I only speak a very little Canon, and definitely not enough to help you, however there are some very knowledgable Canonites here, and I'm sure one of them will be by shortly.

 

[Big Mike]

A Canon flash on a Canon body will default to the 50mm zoom setting whenever the flash isn't pointed forward. You can override it by manually choosing the zoom via the flash controls.

It sounds like Meike didn't get it quite right when they reversed engineered a Canon flash to make their own knock-off.

 

[vinnybear]

i feel you Big Mike, and i would def prefer canon original speedlite, and will probably upgrade to one or two of them later this year, but for now i have to find a way to make this work.