Canon Wireless Flash

A quick question for everyone for a tutorial I am writing.

How many of you use the wireless flash system that Canon has built into their speedlites? And for those of you who do, what devices do you use as your controller and receiver?

Do you mean the optical system or the radio system? I gave up on the optical system when radio triggers became sophisticated enough to supplant the canon system. The canon radio version are just too poor a value to go there.

gonzogolf wrote in post #19095923
Do you mean the optical system or the radio system? I gave up on the optical system when radio triggers became sophisticated enough to supplant the canon system. The canon radio version are just too poor a value to go there.

What limitations have you found with them?

Tiberius wrote in post #19095944
What limitations have you found with them?

The interface wasnt particularly friendly, you were limited to line of sight, and outdoors performance was spotty. I used both a 580exIi and an ste2 as a master and while it would work it's a poor substitute for radio triggers like the godox or YN622C options.

I have a pair of 600rt flashes, a 430rt flash, and the RT shoe mount controller. These are very flexible for lighting. Great for on-site portrait sessions. Prior to that I had the Canon 580 flash and controller that were optically controlled. They were much more limited than the newer radio flashes.

gonzogolf wrote in post #19096060
The interface wasnt particularly friendly, you were limited to line of sight, and outdoors performance was spotty. I used both a 580exIi and an ste2 as a master and while it would work it's a poor substitute for radio triggers like the godox or YN622C options.

I'm talking about the radio system in the Canon flashes, not the optical.

Tiberius wrote in post #19097072
I'm talking about the radio system in the Canon flashes, not the optical.

Then the biggest limitation is value. They are too expensive compared to the competition. You can get more power, or more flashes without sacrificing functionality by going 3rd party.

gonzogolf wrote in post #19097074
Then the biggest limitation is value. They are too expensive compared to the competition. You can get more power, or more flashes without sacrificing functionality by going 3rd party.

3rd party...that brings you to the downside of many flashes from not-traditional-named-flashes, mostly made in China and sometimes private labeld by retailers. They oftan have Sales (distribution), but they fail to offer post-warranty Support for their products. Sometimes retailers who private label stuff offer some type of extra-cost post-warranty 'support' but which is still not spare parts or repairs.

Some 3rd party brands had tremendous popularity for a while, and then users started having reliability issues...and with no Service/Parts the lustre wore off that brand.

One has to consider if they can tolerate lack of support, and reliability issues vs. paying more for better reliability and post-warranty parts and repair service.

• One perspective is "Brand X is so cheap, I simply buy a new one...and still save money from buying Big Name brand'"
  
• Others cannot tolerate that same point of view.
  

Wilt wrote in post #19097891
3rd party...that brings you to the downside of many flashes from not-traditional-named-flashes, mostly made in China and sometimes private labeld by retailers. They oftan have Sales (distribution), but they fail to offer post-warranty Support for their products. Sometimes retailers who private label stuff offer some type of extra-cost post-warranty 'support' but which is still not spare parts or repairs.

Some 3rd party brands had tremendous popularity for a while, and then users started having reliability issues...and with no Service/Parts the lustre wore off that brand.

One has to consider if they can tolerate lack of support, and reliability issues vs. paying more for better reliability and post-warranty parts and repair service.

• One perspective is "Brand X is so cheap, I simply buy a new one...and still save money from buying Big Name brand'"
  
• Others cannot tolerate that same point of view.
  

Choices.

Say what you want but at $499 each its not particularly a good value given the I can buy 3 godox for that price and have a full kit. If you buy through adorama you get US support and the damn things are much more reliable than you suggest.

Tiberius wrote in post #19095906
A quick question for everyone for a tutorial I am writing.

How many of you use the wireless flash system that Canon has built into their speedlites? And for those of you who do, what devices do you use as your controller and receiver?

Tiber.
The ST-E3 RT Transmitter is your Controller (Radio)
The 600 EX-RT Speedlite has built in Receiver For ST-E3 RT Radio Signal.
No need for additional receiver.
Have been one of the first to go all in on the Canon 600 EX-RT and ST-E3 RT Transmitter System when first announced in 2012. Have used them in almost every situation that they are capable of. Now up to 5 600’s and 2 Transmitters, they have allowed many opportunities. Whether one light in a Westcott Apollo or triangle of light in Group Mode, these keep working and working.
Yes there are cheaper options now, but when you are on a job or not, I want dependability plain and simple.
And I will be purchasing at least two more 600’s and an ST-E3 RT in the near future to leave at our other location.
One of the best investments I made financially and how having these lights improved my learning of “Lighting”
Highly recommend the Canon system.

gonzogolf wrote in post #19098111
Say what you want but at $499 each its not particularly a good value given the I can buy 3 godox for that price and have a full kit. If you buy through adorama you get US support and the damn things are much more reliable than you suggest.

Merely pointing out the other side of the coin. I do NOT inject my opinion about which is the right solution, as different strokes are better for different circumstances!

Keep in mind if your hotfoot breaks, you can send it in for repair if it is a Canon, but you throw the flash away and buy a new one in some aftermarket offerings

Nick5 wrote in post #19098214
Tiber.
The ST-E3 RT Transmitter is your Controller (Radio)
The 600 EX-RT Speedlite has built in Receiver For ST-E3 RT Radio Signal.
No need for additional receiver.

I know that, I was asking if people used the 600 or the 430 mk III as their receiver. And I believer the 430 mk III can be used as a controller as well.

Glad to hear you've found them very reliable. Have you found any weaknesses in the system at all?

Tiberius wrote in post #19098985
I know that, I was asking if people used the 600 or the 430 mk III as their receiver. And I believer the 430 mk III can be used as a controller as well.

Glad to hear you've found them very reliable. Have you found any weaknesses in the system at all?

A feature missing in the design feature set is no Second Curtain Sync from the ST-E3 RT Transmitter. Why..... I don’t know.
The other is Controlling the Zoom function of Off Camera Flash from the ST-E3 RT or 600 on Camera Hot Shoe.
Will not Zoom the OCF.
In the Transmitter, as you know, no AF Assist beam, hence why multiple 600’s as it does have the AF Assist and then you can decide if you want that ON Camera Flash unit to provide light, Or no light, just a Big Transmitter with AF Assist.
I only use Ni-MH batteries, like the Eneloop or Powerex. Also use Canon or Bolt External Battery packs which power the Flash Pop of light and the four batteries in the 600 to power the LCD. Use these when shooting “Step and Release”, Weddings or any other Studio situations like headshots Etc.
Turn them on, check your location status for Channel strength and they simply do the job.

Canon has announced the EL-1 as their new top model. It fixes a few shortcomings of the 600 EX-II RT. But the value is debatable, since the cost is about twice that of the EX 600 model.

My wife and I don't do much with flash, but we do have one activity that requires it. We're slowly digitizing family photographs and documents. We use a tripod on a table with the camera pointed straight down. We put a flash with a diffuser on another tripod off to the side for illumination. It works well -- no glare, excellent lighting. Between the camera and the flash we've been using a long 3rd-party cable. We last did some digitizing last June, and all worked fine. We're going to do some more now, so I set things up. There was a problem. For some reason, the cable fires the flash, but the signal to turn the flash off does not get back to the flash. So any photos we take are totally over exposed. I have a 2' Canon cable, and it worked fine but it's not long enough. I tried different flashes, but the 3rd-party cable just didn't work. Canon doesn't seem to make a cable longer than 2', and I didn't want to go 3rd-party again.

My wife and I each have a 430EX III RT, so I looked into wireless transmitters. It looked like the Canon ST-E3-RT would take the place of the cable. I checked my local camera store, and they had one in stock. My "local" store is an hour away (mostly freeway), and I like to drive. My dog and I hopped in the truck, and we were back a couple of hours later with the transmitter. I read enough of the manual to get the transmitter configured with one 430RT. I verified that the flash fired, and then put the camera and flash back on their tripods. I took some test shots, and they were all exposed perfectly!

Yes, at $299 the transmitter is expensive. But considering the pain I went through this morning trying to get the cable to work, the ST-E3-RT was worth every penny. I'm already looking forward to new photo opportunities given the ability to place one or both of our flashes anywhere I want.