Studio strobe and 600D, early trigger :(

Hey all

I am trying to trigger a studio strobe with the 600D flash or a wireless speedlite430exII

In both cases, and with both flash outputs set to manual, the camera still fires the flash twice, once before the shutter opens, and once to expose.

why is it still firing twice if I haven't selected E-TTL II mode? this double flash is obviously triggering the strobe early.

Any work arounds? I do have a set of cheep wireless triggers, but this would mean loosing the built in functionality of the 600D to wirelessly trigger the speedlite, plus I dont want to buy a hotshoe sync for the wireless trigger.

What are you using to trigger the off camera strobes?

ideally, the off camera strobe would be triggered by flash and the speedlite by wireless from the 600D.

Nevermind, I skipped it in your post. I don't believe you can disable the preflash in the t3i. I don't onw one but I do recall reading that before. Your best bet may be a wireless remote trigger.

3rd party wireless triggers all round you think?

shame you cant disable the pre-flash, surely it has no function if you are setting manual power to both the on camera and any remote speedlites?

I may try a blackout clip over the on camera flash....

marcwilliams88 wrote in post #13409536
3rd party wireless triggers all round you think?

shame you cant disable the pre-flash, surely it has no function if you are setting manual power to both the on camera and any remote speedlites?

I may try a blackout clip over the on camera flash....

The on camera flash is what triggers the remote flash. What you could do is try to lower the power and sort of flag off the slave of the studio flash and the flash on camera to a point where the it won't trigger the studio strobe but will trigger the 430. Probably impossible to do in a small room, though.

You could get away with one remote on the 430. In tight enough quarters it will trigger the other one, but I'd get one for each eventually.

I thought of something else that might work as well.........I can't test it so it's only theory. Compose your shot, hit the FEL button which will fire a pre-flash and fire your strobes. Wait long enough for your strobes to recycle then take your shot. I know that with my 5DII and 580EX II, it doesn't fire another pre-flash.

You cant disable or retard the preflash as thats what fires the 430ex. Wireless triggers are your best bet, or put the 430ex in the hotshoe and set it to M mode so there is no preflash.

Thanks all, the 600D has inbuilt wireless (like the 5D) to trigger the speed lights. Just so you're aware, this is a new function compared to the 550D (T2i)

Just did a quick test by blocking the on camera flash (using an ipod sock), the inbuilt wireless successfully triggered the 430exII and the subsequent flash from that triggered the studio strobe.

for the moment I have a work around

When you switch the Canon flashes to manual you eliminate the pre-flash that is used for metering the flash power. You still have a pre-flash pulse to command the slave to fire. If you strobe has the option to ignore the first pulse and fire on the second you might get it to work that way.
Personally just get wireless triggers and end the problem.

marcwilliams88 wrote in post #13409584
Thanks all, the 600D has inbuilt wireless (like the 5D) to trigger the speed lights. Just so you're aware, this is a new function compared to the 550D (T2i)

Just did a quick test by blocking the on camera flash (using an ipod sock), the inbuilt wireless successfully triggered the 430exII and the subsequent flash from that triggered the studio strobe.

for the moment I have a work around

we were aware, but it still uses a preflash to communicate with the 430ex, its not a radio trigger. I'm glad you found a workaround, but that might be less successful if you have to move your lights or you are setup in a room where the preflash bounces off surrounding surfaces to the strobes trigger.

marcwilliams88 wrote in post #13409584
Thanks all, the 600D has inbuilt wireless (like the 5D) to trigger the speed lights.

This might be a typo but the 5D does not even have a popup flash, much less flash control capability.
At this point only the T3i, the 7D and the 60D have this feature.

dedsen wrote in post #13412834
This might be a typo but the 5D does not even have a popup flash, much less flash control capability.
At this point only the T3i, the 7D and the 60D have this feature.

Thank you for the correction.

And the fruits of my labour (work around)