A few newb lighting questions

[Deucebiggins]

I have a Speedlite 430exII flash and Impact ex100a strobe. (Use with Canon XTi)

1. When I have my 430 on camera and my strobe is not connected to my camera, the strobe fires when my 430 fires. How does this happen?

2. The XTi does not have a PC plug so how can I fire my strobe wireless? ...Without using my 430 or at least without my 430 producing light.

3. I have read you can use PocketWizards to fire wireless. When you do so do you need a transmitter on camera and a receiver on the flash or will just a transmitter fire the flash?

Sorry these are probably simple things, but this stuff is confusing.

Thank you,

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by Deucebiggins

1. When I have my 430 on camera and my strobe is not connected to my camera, the strobe fires when my 430 fires. How does this happen?

It has an optical slave (i.e. trigger by light instead of wireless).

Originally Posted by Deucebiggins

2. The XTi does not have a PC plug so how can I fire my strobe wireless? ...Without using my 430 or at least without my 430 producing light.

You can get a hot shoe adapter with PC socket.

Originally Posted by Deucebiggins

3. I have read you can use PocketWizards to fire wireless. When you do so do you need a transmitter on camera and a receiver on the flash or will just a transmitter fire the flash?

Transmitter on camera, receiver on each flash.

[Deucebiggins]

Thank you!

[inkista]

Depending on the reliability you want, you could probably get away with getting a Cactus V4 radio trigger set and an extra receiver. Then, put the transmitter on the camera hotshoe, put one receiver on the 430EX hotshoe, and connect the second receiver to the strobe via its sync port. You may have to pick up a 1/8" to 1/4" plug adapter from Radio Shack.

If you want better reliability/build, going with Cybersyncs is probably a better bet. You would need a hotshoe-to-PC adapter for the 430EX to hook up the Cybersync, but that's about it.

Both the V4s and the Cybersyncs cost considerably less than PocketWizards.