external s50 flash

[phidong]

Do any of you guys know an external flash that'd work with the S50 or had any experience w/ an external flash w/ a non G/DSLR Canon?

thanks

[lcfred]

Please I need this information Too...

Thanks for any help!

[maxd]

I'm interested in using an external flash with my S50 too.
Does anybody know something about a Optical Slave Trigger for Hot Shoe Flash?
I've found some for sale on eBay (type 'slave trigger'in the research field) and I'm wondering if I can use it to take shots with my S50 and my Nikon SB-20 flash.
That triggers have a standard hot shoe seat on the top, so allow you to use every type of flash (with a hot shoe) as an external unit.
The slave trigger triggers the flash attached to it the moment it "sees" the first flash light from the main flash of the camera.
I've read on the advertisement that the S45/S50 fires a pre-flash just micro-seconds before the main flash to set the white balance and other camera settings before the picture is taken. This pre-flash will also trigger off the slave units prematurely, but they say that if you work on the manual settings in flash mode, you may use the S45/S50 with the slave trigger. I don't understand how exactly I should do on manual flash settings. Are they talking about setting the synchro flash on the second courtain? Did anybody have an experience with S45/S50 with some optical slave trigger or can anybody help me about this topic?

[billh101]

I have a similar reply on a different thread for the A70, but it'll work the same if you can't connect a separate flash to your camera. I have used my A70 with my Nikon SB-26 flash as a slave. Now the SB-26 has a slave built in, but it'll be the same situation if you hook it up to a separate slave sensor to trigger it. You'll just have to match the settings between the flash and camera. That preflash will probably be a problem, so if you can go manual without that, you'll be better off. On my setup, I put the camera on 1/60 f5.6 and set my flash for ISO 50 and f5.6. I was in a dark room (at night with the lights off), maybe 15 feet from my subject and my big flash lit the entire room up perfectly. The distance and settings were right for this power of flash, so it worked. You'll probably have to play with it to get things right. Of course, the SB-26 has the advantage that I can set just about anything you can imagine on that flash as far as the power/exposure compensation, etc. It was really kind of a hassle to set it all up to take a picture, it would be good in more a controlled environment when you have time to mess with it. I'm still going to experiment with using the automatic sensor on the flash and still going manual on the camera. That may make it a little easier and move feasible for snapshots. Then I need a little flash bracket so I don't have to hold the flash up with my left hand, and I'll be set.
Bill

[maxd]

Last week I got my slave trigger on eBay for $ 14.
As far as I can see after my first shots, due to the pre-flash I can use the trigger with my S50 only in manual mode (no pre-flash in this mode). In order to make things easyer I set the camera on 1/60 f4.0, then the only thing I have to do is check the distance of the subject and select the right amount of light emitted by the external flash (full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16) following the reference chart on the back of it. I can do this because my Nikon SB-20 flash has an in-built power compensation, but if your flash have not one you can change the camera aperture setting to fit the right exposure.
The only complain I have about the trigger is that it doesn't 'see' the main flash if you put it on the side of the camera, so you can't mount it on a flash bracket; but I fixed the problem placing a small reflection screen near the photosensor (I used a piece of tinfoil).
For those who own a big flash and want to improve the possibilities of the 'short coverage' inbuilt flash of their camera (now I can take shots up to 50 ft. and even more ), this trigger is a cheap way to reach the goal (if you accept the term of playing in manual mode and if you can exclude the pre-flash of your camera).

NOTE for S50 owners: according to DPReview, the PowerShot S50 is at least one stop faster than the other cameras at the same indicated sensitivity. This means that the S50 set to ISO 50 is as sensitive as the other cameras at ISO 100.
Don't forget that issue when you are working with an external flash and you have to choose the right exposure values from the flash reference chart.

I posted some comparative sample picture at:
http://www.photozo.com/album/showgallery.php?cat=3073&ppuser=516

[stopbath]

I'll have to get me one of those slaves. I've got a A70, and an old Nikon flash kicking about (with power and aperture control) not doing anything.

[stduc]

stopbath wrote:
I'll have to get me one of those slaves. I've got a A70, and an old Nikon flash kicking about (with power and aperture control) not doing anything.

The A70 has no pre-flash so a simple slave trigger works just fine. I have had great success using a 10 year old flash gun. I seem to get the best results setting the A70 to manual mode ISO 50, forced flash at lowest power and f8 and 1/250 sec. I Leave the exposure control up to the flash gun. At close range (3-6 feet (ish)) I set the flash gun to ISO 100 otherwise it over-exposes the shot due to the extra flash from the camera that it knows nothing about! At longer ranges I set the gun to ISO 50. At f8 you certainly get nice sharp pictures and no red eye. The bar that came with the gun works just fine to jopin the two together.