Optical triggers only fire 430EX once. Sunpak 383 works fine

[keith204]

I have a set of 2 optical triggers, and the 430EX flash has to be turned off, then back on, for the flash to fire upon next optical trigger. The sunpak 383 works fine.

I tried putting the 430 in manual...but that still didn't do the trick.

Any ideas?

 

[Big Mike]

This is a common problem with Canon flash units. Regular optical triggers can be troublesome and the work around is to turn the unit off and on again...which is a pain in the @ss.

I think I've heard of some optical triggers that work better with Canon units but they would, of course, be more expensive.

Even the cheap radio triggers seem to have problems with Canon units. I have a cheap radio trigger that is a 2nd generation and is supposed to work better with Canon units. I don't have to turn the flash off each time...but it randomly fires, sometimes fires twice and sometimes not at all....it works perfectly on my cheap non-canon flash units.

I guess the solution would be to just get a cheap non-canon (Sunpak or Vivitar etc) flash and use that.

 

[Mike_E]

I believe the problem is the flash going to standby. I sometimes have this issue with my Sb 600. It generally means that I need fresh batterys but just triggering the flash and then taking another shot just after seems to do the trick for me.

 

[keith204]

mike E, the flash hasn't necessarily gone into standby i don't think. I wait til the ready light turns red, and i fire. which doesn't really take long (1-2 seconds in full 1/1 power).

when i ordered the optical triggers, i also ordered a set of ebay radio triggers. They work exceptionally well for both of my flashes, so I will more than likely just use them. I am super happy to be getting into this lighting stuff! it's super fun! I like how you can really play with exposures and things, and really bring out the subject from the background...or really make the background overpower the subject. It's a lot of fun.