IR Hotshoe triger..

Robbo

Robbo

Messages
3,962
Edit My Images
Yes
I have just ead a little bit aobut these.

Has anyone had experience with them? I have a hotshoe with slave mode triggered by my camera onboard flash, will the IR trigger work to set the flash off to?

Thanks.
 
Hi,
Do you mean an IR remote, which can be used to trigger the shutter of your camera?

The 450d can be triggered by an IR remote without any extra devices needing to be plugged into it.
Any device which is plugged into the hotshoe, and set to trigger normally when the shutter is depressed should also trigger when the IR remote is pressed too.
The only item which might not, is any IR assist beam on a half-depress, but I think that would depend on there being a half-depress option on the IR remote.
 
Not for the camera no

I want to have my flashgun to fire with my camera, but needs to be wireless, so I can position my flash further away, I need it to be done without triggering it by my camera flash.

The IR trigger as I can tell sits on top on the camera and shoots it's beam on shoot, which the slave flash will pick up and fire?
 
I think what you are referring to is a small flash which sits on the camera but it has a filter in front of it so it only emits infra red light which will trigger ordinary light operated flash slave triggers.

If so, an easier method is to put a deep red filter in front of your camera's inbuilt flash. A piece of theatre lighting gel (or many layers of red and purple wrappers from Quality Street) would do it.

It would still put out a bit of visible light but with a deep enough filter, I don't think you would see it in the image.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
I think what you are referring to is a small flash which sits on the camera but it has a filter in front of it so it only emits infra red light which will trigger ordinary light operated flash slave triggers.

If so, an easier method is to put a deep red filter in front of your camera's inbuilt flash. A piece of theatre lighting gel (or many layers of red and purple wrappers from Quality Street) would do it.

It would still put out a bit of visible light but with a deep enough filter, I don't think you would see it in the image.


Steve.
Click to expand...


Boringly, he's right again ;)

But IR triggers only work with a good line-of-sight and turning your camera slightly away from the flash you want to trigger will mean it won't see the signal and it won't fire

They work well in studios though, providing there isn't lots of window light and again there's either line-of-sight or the studio is small enough for the signal to bounce around plenty and trigger the remote flash from anywhere

They also don't work where it's already very bright - i.e. outside or even in such as a conservatory

Basically, normal studio = ok - anywhere else = :(

Which is why radio triggers are more common, useful & reliable

I use Skyports, they have been 100% reliable and work up to 100 yards (more than enough IMO); Pocket Wizards are the 'industry standard', and come with a remortgage to pay for them :D; then there's the Fleabay ones, which may or may not work at all let alone reliably - some report good things, I paid £50 for a set and literally threw them away in frustration

HTH

DD
 
Steve Smith said:
If so, an easier method is to put a deep red filter in front of your camera's inbuilt flash. A piece of theatre lighting gel (or many layers of red and purple wrappers from Quality Street) would do it.
Click to expand...

I used to use a 35mm negative to do this - seemed to work well
 
Ahh ok, will the light not come out as red/purple though with the material or wrappers over the flash?

It will only really be used inside.

How much is a radio trigger roughly? I would google but I'm on my phone at work lol
 
Robbo said:
Ahh ok, will the light not come out as red/purple though with the material or wrappers over the flash?
Click to expand...

It will but will be at a much lower level than the actual flash so you shouldn't see it.

Ideally, you need a proper infra red filter. Ilford sell a gel filter to use with their infra red film which should do it.

Alternatively, you could contact Lee Filters and get hold of one of their sample books for theatrical lights. I think there's a request form on their website.

This has pieces of all of their gels about 3" x 1.25". You shoul be able to find something in there which works.

My Quality Street wrapper suggestion was just me thinking of the most convenient way to find something.... and with christmas coming up soon, there will be lots of those around!


Steve.
 
If it's only for inside and you have Canon gear the ST-E2 is the answer but it is expensive. Big advantage is E-TTLII and the ability to adjust ratios between groups of flash units.

Radio wireless triggers are 1/3 of the cost but manual control only. Usually better range with radio.
 
I will only be using it to control one flash unit, the canon st e2 is a bit much for what I was after price wise.

Can anyone recommend any other makes for radio triggers?

Thanks for all the help so far
 
If you do not need to keep the TTL part of things, i.e. are happy to set the flash settings on the flash manually, then an item like the following can be used:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-channel-Fla...ories_CameraFlashUnits_JN?hash=item4148e18b57


I have bought a similar item from a different seller, I have no idea what the seller above is like, it is just a link to the kind of item you want.
I bought a set for my 400d, it is OK for messing about with. For me, it takes several shots to get the correct output on the flash. Someone who knows what they are doing would probably get it almost always correct on the first shot.
 
Note:
On the set I bought, it wasn't put together all that great, I took it apart and fixed it.
There are also 3 and 4 receiver sets available on ebay, for much less than 3x that price
 
What flash gun do you have? A Canon? Model? Remote flash sync can be complicated and not all guns are straightforward. For example, if an ST-E2 master would work for you with a Canon gun (apart from the price) then a simple IR optical trigger may well not function. You would need radio. But some guns don't like some radio triggers either!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top