Using two canon flashes - technical question

[GoldenBokeh]

Hi ,
I'm planning to photograph an event using two flashes- a canon 580ex and a 320ex.
One will be on the camera and the other in the hand (yep, I like Nikola Tamindzic)

The thing is that the 320ex has a cool led light the turns on automatically in low light and the 580ex has the AF assist beam , that actually works worse than the led light on the 320ex. I was planning to use the off camera flash as key, so it'll be on full power , so I wanted the 320ex to be on the camera and 580 in my hand – but then realized that I cant…

The 320 is slave only. So does anyone knows if I can put a 320ex on a canon 5d mark 3 and use a cable to connect the 580ex? Or any other suggestion will be great.

 

[cynicaster]

So if I understand you, you're wondering if you can get around the 320-slave-only problem by firing both flashes directly from the camera? If there is a hot-shoe adapter that allows for that, I've never heard of it.

If you're set on having a flash on the camera and hand-holding the other, I'm assuming that's because you want to be able to walk around, otherwise you'd just have both flashes set up on stands, right? Have you considered finding an assistant?

If you must use the 580 as the hand-held speedlight, then use your pop-up as master and fill.

I think your best bet is to just use the 580 on-camera as master and hand-hold the 320.

 

[pgriz]

What's your camera? If it is a T4i (650) or a 7D, the built-in flash can be used as the wireless commander.

 

[Buckster]

You should be able to cable connect with a male to male pc sync cable. The 5DMKIII and 580EX both have female pc sync ports on them.

If for some reason the 5DMKIII only allows for using either the hot shoe or the pc sync port (I don't think that's the case, but I don't own that body), you could always use a pc sync hot shoe adapter on the hot shoe, 320EX on top of that, and a pc cord from the adapter to the 580EX.

Or you could get a set of Yongnuo RF-603C triggers, put one on the hot shoe, put the 320EX on top of that and put the 580EX on the other trigger wherever - in your other hand or on a stick or held by an assistant or on a stroboframe or whatever - no cable necessary.

I don't think any of these will allow for eTTL, but they'll get the job done.