Wireless problems

[stilbiteman]

I have two new Canon Flashguns.
I have a 580EX II and a 430EX and intended to use the 580EX II as the wireless master and the other gun as the slave.
I have set everything up according to the instructions but notice that the 430EX flashes AFTER the master flashgun!!
This is no good!
The delay by human eye can be as much as, I guess, 0.25 of a second.
The images I am taking using my Canon EOS 5D require me to set it to manual sometimes as fast as 1000th of a second!
The delay is no good at all! Help? :(

[alwaysonephotography]

I think I can help you but you need to do a couple things differently. Forget looking at the flashes and trying to figure anything out. After you press the shutter button, using Canon's wireless system the master flash will first fire a series of flashes to communicate to the slave flash(es). This happens before the shutter even opens. Then the flash(es) will fire again when the shutter is open. And on top of that if you are working in High Speed Sync mode the flash(es) will fire several times while the shutter is open. In nutshell, there is whole LOT of flashing going on in a very very very short time period. So trying to look at it and puzzle it out with just your eyes is a waste of time. You need to evaluate the playback of the image captured instead.

All that said. My guess is you need to put the master in high speed sync mode (see your manual). If I understand you right you have the camera shutter speed set to 1/1000. If this is true then the master flash has to be set to high speed sync.

Also, once you set it to high speed sync, I just leave mine there. The canon system is smart enough to NOT use HSS when you drop your shutter speed below your camera X-sync speed. 1/200 on the 5D, I believe.

[alwaysonephotography]

I think I can help you but you need to do a couple things differently. Forget looking at the flashes and trying to figure anything out. After you press the shutter button, using Canon's wireless system the master flash will first fire a series of flashes to communicate to the slave flash(es). This happens before the shutter even opens. Then the flash(es) will fire again when the shutter is open. And on top of that if you are working in High Speed Sync mode the flash(es) will fire several times while the shutter is open. In nutshell, there is whole LOT of flashing going on in a very very very short time period. So trying to look at it and puzzle it out with just your eyes is a waste of time. You need to evaluate the playback of the image captured instead.

All that said. My guess is you need to put the master in high speed sync mode (see your manual). If I understand you right you have the camera shutter speed set to 1/1000. If this is true then the master flash has to be set to high speed sync.

Also, once you set it to high speed sync, I just leave mine there. The canon system is smart enough to NOT use HSS when you drop your shutter speed below your camera X-sync speed. 1/200 on the 5D, I believe.