Interesting Discovery - Canon Wireless system

[MarkChap]

Now this may be widely known and I may not be the first to make this discovery.

I discovered that you can control the manual output level of a slave (430 EXII in my case) from a master (580 EXII in my case) even when the master is not attached to the camera, as in fired by my el cheapo radio triggers.

That is set the 580 as Master, attached radio receiver, set 430 as Slave with OUT radio trigger attached and the 580 controls the 430

Now this is going to add some versatility to my set up, I was thinking that I really needed at least 1 more receiver that I now no longer really need.

As I said, this could well be common knowledge, although I had not come across it before

[Fantasyphoto]

Thanks Mark, I just purchased some strobist gear including an el cheapo trigger.

Haven't had a chance to try it yet but I will borrow my wife's 430 and try it with my 580. I was planning to use the old light trigger which I managed to find stashed away in an old box.

[HerveyBayShutterBug]

Mark i believe you can also set the camera's built in flash as the master and then both your 430 and 580 's as slaves as well. It just keeps getting better and better.

Loving this new 7D and the 580.

Martin

[MarkChap]

Martin,
The 7D is the ONLY camera in Canons line up at the moment that can use the built in flash as a master

[HerveyBayShutterBug]

Ahso...........Thanks Mark. Didn't realize that. It's all new to me and there's a lotta reading in the manuals.

Martin

[DAdeGroot]

Now this may be widely known and I may not be the first to make this discovery.

I discovered that you can control the manual output level of a slave (430 EXII in my case) from a master (580 EXII in my case) even when the master is not attached to the camera, as in fired by my el cheapo radio triggers.

I suspected that was the case, but have never tried it, as I have sufficient radio triggers to go around. Handy to know though :)

[Brodie]

Yes you can have a slave operating without a radio trigger. The Canon speedlights are triggered by flash and not infrared or radio signals. So its the light that actually triggers them.

So you can save on radio triggers this way, but you will lose reliability and range. I managed to trigger 3 studio lights, a 580EX, 2 x 430 EX's all using just one pocket wizard on the camera and one pocket wizard attached to the 580. (i think).