Wireless Flash with non-Branded Strobes

[Skei]

Hello all,

I've just bought a 2 x 250W studio flash kit with built-in slaves, and am trying to use them with my Canon 60D's on-camera flash as a master. The strobes themselves are non Canon-make.

I've set my on-camera flash controls to E-TTL II, and enabled the wireless function to fire the off-camera flashes only. As expected, a pre-flash goes off from the on-camera when I shoot, and the strobes fire happily, as witnessed by the loud beep they make and the loud shriek of my poor victim-- errr, model, as she gets mercilessly blinded over and over again.

However, the resulting shots ( taken on Manual and keeping shutter speed, aperture and ISO the same ) do not contain any more light - it's as if the strobes hadn't gone off. I'm assuming the issue is something to do with them not syncing. I've tried reducing shutter speed down to 1/25s in the hopes that it would allow enough time to sync, but the same result occurs - there's no more light in the shot than when the strobe is switched off.

The strobe has two Slave positions - PREF and NOR. I'm not sure what the difference is, but changing this setting doesn't provide a better result.

Any thoughts whatsoever would be fantastic.

Thank you very much !
Quentin

 

[Dajuan]

The problem is likely that the pre-flash is triggering your strobes, not the actual flash that is illuminating the subject. Put your on camera flash in manual mode (eliminates the pre-flash) and give that a try.

 

[Skei]

Hi Dajuan,

Thanks for the prompt answer. That's made the difference ! Thanks very much.

Am I to assume this means that my strobes aren't capable of E-TTL II ? This isn't so much of an issue as I can control exposure, however, does it mean that I'm stuck controlling my strobes with a direct flash instead of being able to use a preflash simply to launch the strobes ?

Thanks very much,
Quentin

 

[Kerbouchard]

Hi Dajuan,

Thanks for the prompt answer. That's made the difference ! Thanks very much.

Am I to assume this means that my strobes aren't capable of E-TTL II ? This isn't so much of an issue as I can control exposure, however, does it mean that I'm stuck controlling my strobes with a direct flash instead of being able to use a preflash simply to launch the strobes ?

Thanks very much,
Quentin

Yeah, pretty much. The optical slaves in your strobes are designed to go off as close to it's trigger as possible. In this case, it's the pre-flash from your Canon flash. Since the shutter isn't open when the speed flash fires, your strobe will be firing before the shutter is open. Some strobes have options for ignoring a pre-flash, but most do not.

For now, you are pretty much stuck shooting with manual flash, both on camera and off. I think the Canon 60D has a PC sync port, so you could go with a wired option or a wireless option. The cords are pretty cheap if you're willing to go with the wired setup. For wireless, you can spend anywhere from $60 bucks to hundreds of bucks depending on what all options you want.

But, if you are going to set your wireless feature to fire strobes only, why not just dial your flash power all the way down in manual? It wouldn't contribute to the exposure and should get you are around your current issue.

 

[Skei]

Thanks, Kerbouchard. The strobes came with a wireless trigger, though I'm not sure as to quality or reliability, so I was hoping the on-camera flash would work. Still, I've ordered some batteries for the wireless to give it a try, and a hotshoe adaptor for my PC-sync-less 60D, so I now have three options in case it all goes wrong.

Regarding your last suggestion of turning down the flash power - I'm testing that out now. Thanks very much for your great input !

Quentin


EDIT : That works perfectly. Thanks again, Kerbouchard, I'm very happy with that.

Q