Economical slave flashes to use with Canon Speedlite 580EX II?

[jsml]

Would like some slave flashes to use with my Canon 7D and Speedlite 580EX II without paying the price for more 580EXiis.

Does anyone have any experience mixing and matching and any tips for what slaves to get?
Would the Canon Speedlite 270EX II be a good choice? It does mention wireless features...

 

[gsgary]

Lots on here use Vivitar 385hv, get some cheap triggers and your set

 

[tyler_h]

270ex ii is fairly low powered. If you were going on-brand I'd say 430ex ii (not sure on this but the original might do what you want too).

Otherwise there are a tonne of cheap slaves to pair with cheap triggers. There are tonnes on eBay.

 

[CreativeLight]

I have been using the Cactus V4 remotes for sometime now and find them quite good. The version V5 has some additional features as well. Have not had any delivery problems as well.

Gadget Infinity

 

[Mike_E]

One thing to remember when using slave flashes is that some have a suspend feature. IOW they go to sleep if you don't use them soon enough and won't fire unless you trigger the whole lot once and then wait for them all to recycle.

Just saying.

 

[Big Mike]

Would like some slave flashes to use with my Canon 7D and Speedlite 580EX II without paying the price for more 580EXiis.

Does anyone have any experience mixing and matching and any tips for what slaves to get?
Would the Canon Speedlite 270EX II be a good choice? It does mention wireless features...

If you want flashes that will work with your wireless E-TTL system, then I think you'll want to stick with 580EX or 430EX units. There might be some off-brand units that are compatible, but I'm not sure how well they will integrate into the system.

But if you just want other flashes that will fire, but need to be set manually (no E-TTL), then just about any flash will do...and you will want radio or optical triggers to fire them.

 

[Tiberius47]

270ex ii is fairly low powered. If you were going on-brand I'd say 430ex ii (not sure on this but the original might do what you want too).

Otherwise there are a tonne of cheap slaves to pair with cheap triggers. There are tonnes on eBay.

My flash set up is a 580 II as a master, a 580 I as a slave in a softbox and two 430 IIs. It works very well. Check out my signature for a link to a wireless flash tutorial.

(Now why isn't it showing my signature?)

 

[analog.universe]

If you don't need the e-ttl, I really like my LumoPro LP160s. I fire mine with Cactus V5's, but they'll also trigger optically off your 580.

 

[Destin]

If you can live without ttl, I suggest running yongnuo yn460 II flashes. They can be found on eBay for $40-45 each from China. I've had 4 of them for about 6 months now, and they do a great job for what I need. I also have a nikon sb-600, and I do like it better than the yongnuos. But considering that I can but 5-6 yongnuos for the price of one sb-600, they are a great value. I trigger mine with yongnuo Ctr-301p radio triggers

 

[Robin Usagani]

550EX

 

[Josh66]

One thing to remember when using slave flashes is that some have a suspend feature. IOW they go to sleep if you don't use them soon enough and won't fire unless you trigger the whole lot once and then wait for them all to recycle.

Just saying.

That can usually be disabled. Read the manual.