Mounting 550ex to light stand need synch info?

[Headcase650]

Heres my set up, 550ex mounted to flash bracket above 300d, both in manual mode. I have 2 vivitar 283 on slave shoes pointed into umbrellas. Actually works pretty well.

Heres what I want, the 550ex on light stand pointed into umbrella as main light, one vivitar into the other umbrella as fill and one vivitar as a hair or background light or behind the subject to creat a halo around the subject.

I need a way to synch the 550ex with the 300d in manual mode as I have no need for e-ttl in this set up and the off camera shoe cord is only a few inches long.

My thoughts were a wein safe hotshoe sycnh for the camera, a 16 foot synch cord so I could move freely with the camera and a synchable slave shoe for the 550ex on the light stand.

I know where to get the safe synch for the camera but I dont know what shoe for the flash or what cord to get. Can some one help me out?

Links to the product at B+H would be great.

I looked at the wein slave shoe with a PC terminal but I dont think I can run a cord from the safe synch tot he PC terminal or can I? If I can what cord would it be?

Thanks,

Adrian

[scottbergerphoto]

You will have great difficulty using the 550EX in this manner unless you are willing to buy some Pocket Wizards. Here's why:
1. The 550EX won't recycle with a Wein slave or peanut slave. You can't use it.
2. The 550EX hot shoe won't fit a Wein safe sync.
3. You need to get a custom cord from www.paramountcords.com (http://www.paramountcords.com) ,with a Canon hot shoe mount on one end and a Pocket Wizard mini plug on the other end and use a set of PW's.
Regards,
Scott

[DaveG]

Heres my set up, 550ex mounted to flash bracket above 300d, both in manual mode. I have 2 vivitar 283 on slave shoes pointed into umbrellas. Actually works pretty well.

Heres what I want, the 550ex on light stand pointed into umbrella as main light, one vivitar into the other umbrella as fill and one vivitar as a hair or background light or behind the subject to creat a halo around the subject.

I need a way to synch the 550ex with the 300d in manual mode as I have no need for e-ttl in this set up and the off camera shoe cord is only a few inches long.

My thoughts were a wein safe hotshoe sycnh for the camera, a 16 foot synch cord so I could move freely with the camera and a synchable slave shoe for the 550ex on the light stand.

I know where to get the safe synch for the camera but I dont know what shoe for the flash or what cord to get. Can some one help me out?

Links to the product at B+H would be great.

I looked at the wein slave shoe with a PC terminal but I dont think I can run a cord from the safe synch tot he PC terminal or can I? If I can what cord would it be?

Thanks,

Adrian

After you get this all done - assuming that you can, which is unlikley - what have you accomplished? You have used the 550 as the main light so you have perhaps picked up 2/3 of a stop more power than you have right now.

I'd leave the 550 on manual and on the bracket. Now I assume that the bracket is such that the flash is directly over the lens. The 550 is now the fill light, which by definition has to be within 20 degrees of the camera position anyway. A 283 into an umbrella is your main light and then you can place the other 283 behind the subject to get the rim light you were thinking about.

The extra power that you'd get from the 550 is negligible, but the expense and complexity to make it work doesn't make sense.

If you were looking to spend some money perhaps buy a Vivitar 285 which has variable manual power settings built in, where the 283 has only full manual. There was a variable manual sensor for the 283 but I think that they would be hard to come by now.

If you REALLY need more power and can plug things in, buy a small cheap 250 w/s monolight.