Question on external flashes

[DeHart05]

I have a canon 50d with a 430ex II speedlite flash. I have done some studying but have come up with no answers. HELP!!!

I was wondering if my camera is set up to fire the flash if it is off the camera?? I have seen photographers take pictures with an external flash off the camera and they did not appear to have a sending unit on the top of there camera. How do I do this??

[inkista]

With a 7D, another speedlight, radio triggers, or an optical slave.

Basically, you've been misinformed. The 50D does need something on the hotshoe to trigger a flash. The 7D is the only camera body in the Canon lineup that can "master" a slave flash with its built-in pop-up flash.

An optical slave is a possibility for using the 50D's pop-up flash as a "master", but it's not nearly as easy a road as most webpages would let you think, because Canon does not let us turn off eTTL in the pop-up flash, which means a pre-flash will gum up the works with most optical triggers. Added to which, most optical triggers don't work with Canon EX speedlights at all. And if you can get them to work, any random stranger popping off a flash can set off your lights.

The easiest, but most expensive way, to use your 430EX off-camera would be to get a 550EX, 580EX, 580EXII, or ST-E2 to be the "master". But you'd retain all on-camera function. However, distance and line-of-sight are vulnerabilities of the infrared-based signaling.

The cheapest way is probably to get a hotshoe-to-PC connector for the 430EX, and a PC sync cord, to connect the 50D to the flash via a sync connector. You'll lose eTTL and high speed sync, but you can fire the flash in Manual mode. Obviously, the downside here is that you're tethered by a cable.

The best compromise is probably to get a set of cheap radio triggers, like the Cactus V4 or Yongnuo RF-602 (~$40 for a Tx/Rx set), and put the transmitter on the camera hotshoe and the receiver on the 430EX's hotshoe. Again, you lose eTTL and high speed synch, but you can fire the flash in Manual mode. There is no line-of-sight requirement, and the distances will be larger than with Canon's infrared signaling.

[Raoul Isidro]

This is where Nikon shines in the flash department. An ancient camera like the D70 can trigger wireless flash with several SB600 or higher/later models as remote slaves just by popping up it's tiny inboard flash! how kewl is that!

[mattdm]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

This is where Nikon shines in the flash department. An ancient camera like the D70 can trigger wireless flash with several SB600 or higher/later models as remote slaves just by popping up it's tiny inboard flash! how kewl is that!

Pentax too — and even the entry-level cameras can do it, which is super-cool.

Nikon gets points for the SB-R200, though — wish Pentax had something like that. And Nikon's flash control system is definitely more comprehensive, with the ability to change the level of multiple wireless groups from the camera body.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

This is where Nikon shines in the flash department. An ancient camera like the D70 can trigger wireless flash with several SB600 or higher/later models as remote slaves just by popping up it's tiny inboard flash! how kewl is that!

About as cool as everybody else having entry level bodies that autofocus with all the current lenses in the lineup.

Originally Posted by mattdm

Pentax too — and even the entry-level cameras can do it, which is super-cool.

Yup. Better than Nikon's only-the-D70/80/90 tier and above.

And Nikon's flash control system is definitely more comprehensive, with the ability to change the level of multiple wireless groups from the camera body.

Which is what the 7D (and 1DMkIV) pop-up does. I have a feeling Canon's going to be playing catch-up over the next generation of camera bodies or so, but that eventually everything above the dRebels will pretty much have the same off-camera flash parity with Nikon.

It's like Canon's tilt-shifts finally pushing Nikon into making some 20 years later. 20 years later, we finally get some off-camera flash capability (and, hey, speedlights with PC ports!) in Canons. It's all good.

Guys, this isn't dpreview. Is the Canon-bashing and Brand-stumping you're doing actually of any help to the OP or answering their question?