Trouble shooting My 580 ex II isn't flashing in slave mode!

[c2thew]

ok so what am i doing wrong?

the flash setting is: ch1, master on ettl m zoom 24mm.

it's not firing! i've cycled through ALL channels and ratio commands but none of them fire when my camera fires.

i'm currently shooting with a canon s5 P&S. is there a wireless signal on dslrs that is sent when shooting with flash to trigger the slave mode?

i also tried master mode. nothing. HELP!

[c2thew]

hmm so i thought about this a little more and realized that in order for the 580ex ii to fire, it needs an optical flash adapter?!? i thought that canon has a built in optic infrared sensor in the camera?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Flash-Slave-Trigger-Hot-Shoe-Adapter-Sync-Optical_W0QQitemZ120344644822QQihZ002QQcategoryZ30 084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Titus213]

Might work with a 580EX II but normally the EX series of flashes don't play well with optical triggers. You might try triggering off the PC port on that flash.

Trying to trigger an optical slave with the on-board flash will have the added problem of the pre-flash and the on-board flash can not be put in manual mode.

[PacAce]

ok so what am i doing wrong?

the flash setting is: ch1, master on ettl m zoom 24mm.

it's not firing! i've cycled through ALL channels and ratio commands but none of them fire when my camera fires.

i'm currently shooting with a canon s5 P&S. is there a wireless signal on dslrs that is sent when shooting with flash to trigger the slave mode?

i also tried master mode. nothing. HELP!

Do you have the flash mounted in the hot shoe of the S5 IS? If not, try doing that. Of course, with the 580EX in the hot shoe as the master, you'll need another EX flash off-camera to fire as the slave. Do you only have one external flash? If so, then you can forget about doing any kind of EX wireless remote shooting with it.

[c2thew]

current situation is this
1) 1 580 ex ii
2) i was hoping that the flash could be triggered just by "seeing" another flash go off. that way, i can just set the flash on it's included stand, and then move the flash accordingly yet still triggering the flash with my built in flash.

I have a older camera flash that has an optical slave mode built in. whenever it sees a flash, it fires. that's what i was trying to do. but for some reason "slave" means buy another 430 ex flash. that's dumb.

[PacAce]

current situation is this
1) 1 580 ex ii
2) i was hoping that the flash could be triggered just by "seeing" another flash go off. that way, i can just set the flash on it's included stand, and then move the flash accordingly yet still triggering the flash with my built in flash.

I have a older camera flash that has an optical slave mode built in. whenever it sees a flash, it fires. that's what i was trying to do. but for some reason "slave" means buy another 430 ex flash. that's dumb.

The 580EX II or any other EX flash does not have a built-in optical slave trigger which will make it fire just by the sight of another flash. You can, however, get a compatible optical slave unit and attach it to an EX flash to trigger it optically.

The EX slaves work by interpreting the commands sent to it by an EX master. That means that you need at least two EX flashes (or an ST-E2 and an EX flash) to make this master/slave thing work. The built-in flash on Canon cameras cannot be used as a master so you need something like the 580EX or the ST-E2, connected to the hotshoe, to serve as the master. And another EX flash to serve as the slave.

[c2thew]

thanks for the explanation. looks like i'm going to have to check on the auction site for some cheap cactus triggers.