10D pre-flash for exposure.....

[chops]

Is there any way of disabling this feature?

The reason I'm asking is because I have been given three Vivitar strobes that I now have mounted on their own tripod with a photocell slave sensor.

The problem is that they fire with the pre-flash, which in turn underexposes the picture. (the strobes fire before the pciture is taken). However, if I mount one of the flashes on the body, then everything works fine.

Thanks in advance! :wink:

[evilenglishman]

no you can't stop the pre-flash

[chops]

Yeah, I figured as much. I just thought I would ask. I thought maybe someone would have some neat little trick or something to get around it.

One more question... When you have either the 220, 420, oe 550EX flashes mounted, do they also fire a pre-flash?

[Jon]

You can set the 550 to full manual where it won't. The others are always in E-TTL mode, which uses the pre-flash in exposure determination.

[PacAce]

Yeah, I figured as much. I just thought I would ask. I thought maybe someone would have some neat little trick or something to get around it.

One more question... When you have either the 220, 420, oe 550EX flashes mounted, do they also fire a pre-flash?

Yes but you can set the 550EX to manual. Then it won't fire the pre-flash.

[PacAce]

Hey, Joh, you hit the Enter key a hair before I did. :lol:

[Jon]

Nice sunny day like this, what are we doing inside???

[PacAce]

Me, I was playing with my 10D and 550EX to make sure my response was accurate before hitting the Enter key (that's why you beat me by a hair :mrgreen: ). I'd sure hate to embarrass myself in front of all these people with the wrong response about the pre-flash. :mrgreen:

But you have a good point. What ARE we doing inside on a nice sunny day like today? :)

[Headcase650]

Do you suffer from "Pre-E-Flash-Ulation"

[wolf]

What you could do is buy a real cheap TTL flash to put on your 10D to fire the Vivitars.

[chops]

Thanks again guys!

After doing some playing around with these flashes, I'm starting to get some pretty decent results. Here's a few shots. (obviously, everything was shot in manual). :wink:

Oh yeah, BTW, the weather is crappy here today, so I'll just have to play inside. :cry:

This first one shows two of the three strobes, slaves and tripods.
http://chops.tzo.com/IMG_8679.jpg

http://chops.tzo.com/IMG_8706.jpg

http://chops.tzo.com/IMG_8754.jpg

[DocFrankenstein]

How did you get the vivitars to fire as slaves?

[chops]

How did you get the vivitars to fire as slaves?

I'm using some of these....

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=163363&is=REG

[vfilby]

I have one of those, not a name brand though. Cost about $10 off epray, likely from joe's photo auctions.

[chops]

I have one of those, not a name brand though. Cost about $10 off epray, likely from joe's photo auctions.

One of the perks of working at a camera store.... I got mine for around 4 bucks each. These little suckers work like a charm and can't be beat for the price.

There goes your wireless solution for Canon! LOL :lol:

[vfilby]

I have one of those, not a name brand though. Cost about $10 off epray, likely from joe's photo auctions.

One of the perks of working at a camera store.... I got mine for around 4 bucks each. These little suckers work like a charm and can't be beat for the price.

There goes your wireless solution for Canon! LOL :lol:

Yes for sure, the only drawback is you have to set all the light levels manually. Get a flash meter and off you go.

[chops]

I never used a light meter, and these pics of mine have been coming out perfect. All I do is look at the overall exposure and the histogram, and go from there. As you can see in the last picture, I do pretty good without a light meter.

I also like using the 10D in manual mode. It makes it more fun that way! :D

[vfilby]

I never used a light meter, and these pics of mine have been coming out perfect. All I do is look at the overall exposure and the histogram, and go from there. As you can see in the last picture, I do pretty good without a light meter.

I also like using the 10D in manual mode. It makes it more fun that way! :D

Actually, none of the pictures show up for me.

[chops]

I never used a light meter, and these pics of mine have been coming out perfect. All I do is look at the overall exposure and the histogram, and go from there. As you can see in the last picture, I do pretty good without a light meter.

I also like using the 10D in manual mode. It makes it more fun that way! :D

Actually, none of the pictures show up for me.

They show up perfectly fine for me. :?

[vfilby]

Operation times out while contacting chops.tzo.com every time.

[chops]

Operation times out while contacting chops.tzo.com every time.

Sorry. How about now? Can you see the pics?

[OviV]

As stated, Manual on the camera and Manual on the flash. Once you get the hang of it, you get pretty good at predicting camera settings.

Ovi

[vfilby]

Hey Chops,

I see them now, nice rig. I would like to see how these work in more standard portrait work, think you could do a test shot with them? Here is the low down: the two main flashes are going to act as main and fill. Put the fill light alittle to your right but on the same plane as the camera, about 3 feet away I think should do it. The fill will be half as bright as the main or 1 stop less. The main will be setup about 8-10 feet ti your left, and is one stop brighter than the fill. With this the light ration should be 3:1. Both lights pointing at the subject.

Now just drop the on camera flash as low as possible by using FEC, find a model and snap. The only purpose of the in camera flash is to trigger the slaves.

If you could do that it would be much apperciated, if not no worries.

Ceers,

[chops]

Hey Chops,

I see them now, nice rig. I would like to see how these work in more standard portrait work, think you could do a test shot with them? Here is the low down: the two main flashes are going to act as main and fill. Put the fill light alittle to your right but on the same plane as the camera, about 3 feet away I think should do it. The fill will be half as bright as the main or 1 stop less. The main will be setup about 8-10 feet ti your left, and is one stop brighter than the fill. With this the light ration should be 3:1. Both lights pointing at the subject.

Now just drop the on camera flash as low as possible by using FEC, find a model and snap. The only purpose of the in camera flash is to trigger the slaves.

If you could do that it would be much apperciated, if not no worries.

Ceers,

Well, like I said in my first post, I can't use the on-board flash because of the pre-flash.

[vfilby]

Sorry dude, from the pictures I assumed you found away around it.

Cheers,

[chops]

Sorry dude, from the pictures I assumed you found away around it.

Cheers,

Nah, it's cool. I just use one of the Vivitar flashes on the 10D, and slave the other two. It actually works out very good. However, I am going to buy another Vivitar flash just so I can have a total of three to move around seperately. I'm happy so far with the results I'm getting. :wink:

[Perfect_10]

Sorry dude, from the pictures I assumed you found away around it.

Cheers,

Nah, it's cool. I just use one of the Vivitar flashes on the 10D, and slave the other two. It actually works out very good. However, I am going to buy another Vivitar flash just so I can have a total of three to move around seperately. I'm happy so far with the results I'm getting. :wink:

What vivitar flashes are you using .. and what were the settings used for all 3 (the 2 side and the on-board) ?? What was the camera setting ??
I have yet to retry this sort of setup (I used to use an Epson camera and 3 x 285HV guns set to low power .. using a flash meter) .. I want to compare the histogram with the flash meter readout.