ST-E2 Distance

[drisley]

What sort of distance are people getting outdoors with the ST-E2 and Canon flashes?

I want to shoot full body shots outdoors at about 135mm - 200mm, and have the flash about 5-6 ft away from the model. Will the IR of the ST-E2 offer enough reach?

[thebrewer]

yes, 5-6 feet works fine for me. I have heard of the sun blocking out the IR signals, but have not encountered this problem.


Rich

[Dream Merchant]

I think it varies a little. I tried it on an overcast day and found that I can get only about 20-25' uninterrupted and direct line of sight instead of the advertised slightly more than 33'.

When I tried 'bouncing' the IR beam to the flash, the range was severely limited ... less than 15'. A lot also depends on the 'angle' that transmiter and receiver are set at - very slightly off and your range/arc of coverage acutely diminishes.

One way to 'increase' the useable range/angle of the ST-E2 is to hook up the flash to a long sync cord, hook that to an optical slave (that will work with your flash) and place the optical slave closer to you, and closer to the angle parameters of your line of fire/transmitter. However, you have to tape up the four pins at the back to prevent IR pre-flash firing that will set off your flash prematurely.

Hope this helps.

[Titus213]

I've had issues at under 15 feet with bright light outdoors. It seems to get real fussy about where it's pointed and where the receiver on the flash is pointed. The ST-E2 was not mine and because of the issues I didn't buy one. I do use a 550EX to trip my 430EX and can get very good distance outdoors with that setup, much further and more reliable than the ST-E2. But lots of extra weight on the camera.

[drisley]

Wow, thanks for that info.
What I am really looking for is being able to use a strobe outdoors at wide apertures, like F2.8.
I do have a ND filter for my lenses, which SHOULD do the trick, but it's an 8 stop ND, so sometimes I think it may be too much. I guess it's time to experiment! :)