Help please ?

[QX56]

I got 2 alienbees strobe (B1600) it came with 1 transmit and 2 receiver ....and I also had 580EXII and 430EX .

My question is : How can i set the 580 and 430 slave with the strobe ?

If I going to buy 2 more receiver ( http://alienbees.com/rft1.html ) connect to the other 2 flash and they should all work together .

Anyone had this kind of set up ?

[poloman]

The receivers are AC powered. You would need a hot shoe with a sync cord connection to trigger your 430. The same may be true for your 580. I think the easiest way to go would be to use optical triggers for your Canon flashes.
You could use your 580 on your camera set on manual mode to trigger your ABs optically.

[QX56]

The receivers are AC powered. You would need a hot shoe with a sync cord connection to trigger your 430. The same may be true for your 580. I think the easiest way to go would be to use optical triggers for your Canon flashes.
You could use your 580 on your camera set on manual mode to trigger your ABs optically.

Oh ...you are right I didn't look closer at the receiver ...they are AC .

And how did I set my 580 to trigger the AB set ? Is the 580 manual show how to set up like that ?

Thanks .

[bwolford]

If you are in studio and you camera mount the 580, your can trigger everything. It will trigger the 430 via infrared and the bees have sensors that will detect the 580 flash and fire. Hmm, you may have to put the 580 in manual mode and I'm not sure if it will still trigger the 430... Does anyone know if the infrared will still trigger? The idea is to turn the preflash off, but still trigger the 430 and ABs. I know I can trigger my AB with my 430 in manual mode...

[QX56]

If you are in studio and you camera mount the 580, your can trigger everything. It will trigger the 430 via infrared and the bees have sensors that will detect the 580 flash and fire. Hmm, you may have to put the 580 in manual mode and I'm not sure if it will still trigger the 430... Does anyone know if the infrared will still trigger? The idea is to turn the preflash off, but still trigger the 430 and ABs. I know I can trigger my AB with my 430 in manual mode...

OK thanks ...I'll try later both 580 and 430 .

[FlashZebra]

You can work one of the two Canon flash units into the studio mix pretty easily, but getting the second one is a lot harder.

The path of least resistance is to just run a cord to either the 430EX or 580EX and set it to manual.

The flash burst from the 580EX will trigger the built in optical slaves on the Alien Bees.

If you could get the signal from the Alien Bee radio slave to the 580EX that would also work. A hotshoe adapter with a miniphone jack and a long mono miniphone extension cord (M/F) would do the trick.

You would just plug the Alien Bee radio slave into one of the Alien Bee units to get the AC (like you would normally), but run the sync from the unit to the 580EX using the long extension cord and not to the Alien Bee unit where the AC power was originating.

Enjoy! Lon

[FlashZebra]

If you are in studio and you camera mount the 580, your can trigger everything. It will trigger the 430 via infrared and the bees have sensors that will detect the 580 flash and fire. Hmm, you may have to put the 580 in manual mode and I'm not sure if it will still trigger the 430... Does anyone know if the infrared will still trigger? The idea is to turn the preflash off, but still trigger the 430 and ABs. I know I can trigger my AB with my 430 in manual mode...
This will not work, the "infared" signal to the 430 will also trigger the optical slaves on the Alien Bee too early. The optical slaves do not care if it is infrared or visible.

On very low power settings on the Alien Bee units this MIGHT work as the Alien Bees will be able to provide a flash for both the IR signal to the 430EX and the exposure flash burst, but on higher power setting on the Alien Bees, they will not be able to recycle nearly fast enough.

Enjoy! Lon

[Lotto]

I use a Bees, master 580Ex, slave 430EX, and one set of radio trigger together often. If you are going to use one radio receivers for each Speedlite in manual mode, and AB optical slaves will work fine with EX together.

I use the manual master/slave system and the 430 as hairlight, I like the fact I can control the 430 on a boom from the master 580. But there's a problem when the AB (or any optical slave) is added to mix, the Bee's optical sensor would fire the strobe as soon as it sees the command flash from the 580. Since the slave 430 is also depending the command flash to know when to fire and at what power level, and now it sees "2" commanding flashes. What happens is that most of time, the slave 430 would refuse to fire.

There are few ways to work around this problem. For the AB strobes, I found the easiest way is to put some simi transparent tapes on top of their optical sensors. When I add enought layers (they are very sensitive), the AB will fire on the real flash fromt the 580 instead of the command flash. So one receiver would fire all 3 lights.

Attached pic shows how I tape up the sensor on the AB.

[bwolford]

This will not work, the "infared" signal to the 430 will also trigger the optical slaves on the Alien Bee too early. The optical slaves do not care if it is infrared or visible.

On very low power settings on the Alien Bee units this MIGHT work as the Alien Bees will be able to provide a flash for both the IR signal to the 430EX and the exposure flash burst, but on higher power setting on the Alien Bees, they will not be able to recycle nearly fast enough.

Enjoy! Lon

Hmm, I wasn't sure about the infrared. Good to know for future reference. Do you know if the 30D has a PC terminal? perhaps he can use the remote triggers he already has and the 580 without buying anything else. If not, do you know if there are hot shoe adapters with a PC or 1/4" port that also allow ettl and other signal to get to the on camera flash? Just trying to think of a low cost way to make what he has work.