550EX and Studio lights

[jd_D60]

Anyone know if you can use on camera flash with PC Sync studio flash (such as Elinchrom).

I was thinking of adding another light for highlighs but curious whether the two could be used together.

john

[Dans_D60]

Yes you can. Be careful of sync polarity and voltage level. Canon recommends a maximum of 6 volts, but slighter is OK. I don’t use the Elinchrom but most new studio flash units are “digital” (6 volt limit) compatible. Many studio flash units will remote fire from other strobe units like the internal flash or a 550EX, so you may not even need the sync cable at all. Remember, external studio flash units are not E-TTL. You will need to set your camera and the internal flash (or 550EX) for manual exposure.
Dan
http://www.pettusphoto.com

[daveh]

Actually as long as you're using the PC cord, it is possible to fire the Canon flash in E-TTL if you prefer. Although it takes some thought sometimes to do the part manual / part E-TTL exposure planning. (It works best when the studio flash and the Canon flash are illuminating different parts of the image.)

[RajaBhat]

John:
If you can set your Camera/550EX to manual, and if you can bounce/point the flash away from the subject, studio flashes will work in slave mode and fire right with your 550. As you probably know, the entire E-TTL thing goes defunct as soon as you use studio flashes because of the pre-flash fired in E-TTL mode.
Raja