2nd flash and a way to trigger it???

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stuartg

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Stuart
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I'm starting to do a lot more people and portrait photography but at the moment I'm a bit limited by just one flashgun.

I have a Canon 50D and a 430 EX flash. I could get a second 430 and set it to slave but this is gonna cost about £200 or so.
Does anyone know of a more reasonable way of buying and triggering a second flash gun?

I have heard of one that is set off by the flash of your current flash unit so there is no need for extra triggers. Does anyone know what they are called and roughly want the cost is?

Or any other alternative solutions that are out there that people use?
 
Several ways of doing it Stuart.

One is to use a Canon ST-E2 controller on camera and two Canon flashguns. Not cheap.
Then you could use radio triggers of which there are many and the price range is huge, from PT-04 triggers off ebay to Pocketwizards.

The other way is to use a flash with an optical trigger. This can be quite cost effective. I bought some Vivitar HV flashes and plugged some optical triggers into them and they work a treat.

Optical tends to be more limited in range, needs line of sight and can be flakey in sunlight. Radio tends to be more reliable.

Hope that helps.
 
andrewc said:
I used a 550EX and a 430EX. 550 as master, 430 as slave with either 550EX on camera, or off camera with cactus triggers. Since upgraded both to 580EX2's and the 7D has a flash controller built in
Click to expand...

Sounds a nice combination but stuggling for cash at the mo. I'm now the proud father of a little 5 week old girl ;o) Hence more of the portrait stuff.
A 7D would certainly be a solution but one that is a long way off at the mo ;o)
Thanks though as a 2nd hand 550 may be an option.
 
For the 430EX to work in slave mode it must be triggered by a master unit, that is either an ST-E2 (cheapest) or a 580EX/II or 550EX gun (or one of the top end third party guns). You will retain full E-TTL auto this way also.

You also can't use an optical slave to fire the 430 off the built-in flash as you cannot disable the pre-flash which will fire the 430 too early. I think the 430EX also suffers from SRC lock up which is another reason you can't use an optical slave.

However, help is at hand with a Yongnuo RF-602 trigger set for £28 from Flash In The Pan here, post #2 http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=157807 He also does cheap manual Yongnuo guns that seem to be good and excellent value. PM him for more info. This will be manual operation only.

Another way is to use a dedicated extension cord which FITP also sells, which will retain E-TTL auto. You can join two cords together to get more length and I think you can buy extra long ones too off ebay.
 
I have a 5D11 and a 550EX speedlight which I would like to use off camera.

I also have a couple of Bowens flash heads which I use with a cheap ebay infa red set-up to fire one which fires the other.

Would the Yongnuo RF-602 fire my 550EX off camera and if I purchased an extra receiver, could I also use it to fire the Bowens? If it does, how would they connect to the Bowens?

In fact, would I need two receivers or could I just use the one as i do now with the infa red doofa?

Thanks
P.S. I am looking at two set-ups, one for the 550EX and one for the Bowens, NOT using them all at the same time.
 
david1701 said:
the same trigger that fires the 550 will have a plug in cable that fires the bowens (jack /mini jack)
Click to expand...

Yes.

I have a set of cactus triggers which worked well for playing with two flashes off camera, but I also fire my interfit studio heads using the short PC sync cable that they came with and a headphone jack converter socket to get from the short size to the bigger size I needed.
 
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