Question for Pocket wizard users.

I have the 5D II, and the Flex TT5 and Mini TT1, I also have a Metz 58 AF 2 but I can't seem to get it to work in ETTL but it works in manual flash mode which is great, but is there a way to use it in ETTL? also I have a Nikon SB-900 speedlight, if I get a Nikon Flex TT5 can I fire the flash with my Canon Mini TT1? thanks.

Spartan, you may have already receievd the reply to this in your research...but in case not here's a partial answer anyway:
a) Metz 58 - sorry i've no experience with Metz flashes, but ETTL is canon's "frequency" if you will. I could be wrong, but i believe that "frequency" only works with canon flashes. (E-TTL II algorithm is proprietary to Canon). Anyone want to confirm that no other ETTL system can or can't be fired by Canon's ETTL system? So you are limited to manual flash with the Metz.

b) Fire a Nikon Flash & Flex with a Canon coded Mini - YES! but, you have to put both the Nikon Flex TT5 and the Canon Mini TT1 on a standard channel.

But remember

• Standard channels don't work with ETTL or i-TTL. So you would be limited to Manual Flash like this
  
• Manual Flash has no exposure mechanism to judge how much flash is needed... you have to use either a light meter, guess after trial and error - a lot of trial and error, or
  
• you could put your Canon Flash in c.fn 5-3 (Auto-External-Manual Mode.) In this case the flash has its own metering system and you learn to work with it). I dont have SB-900, but it also has a Auto External-Manual mode, so it can be fired on the flex the same way.
  

Canon ETTL is proprietary.

Metz pretty much invented TTL (the predecessor to ETTL) back in the day when you could buy a Metz pro flash and a camera specific component that read the light off the film at the instant you pressed the shutter and give you a perfect exposure.

I shot that way with a Hasselblad for many years. They worked wonderfully.

Thanks all figured out, the metz can only be fired in full manual with the pocket wizards in basic trigger mode, the metz is actually a very good flash but I am buying the new 600 EX RT and the ST E3

I would have jumped on canon's new radio triggered flash system as well had it been available when i was buying flashes. Nice choice.

K.C. wrote in post #14227910
Metz pretty much invented TTL (the predecessor to ETTL) .

I do not think this to be accurate.

I believe the original patents for off the film metering necessary for TTL control were from Minolta, but I am positive the first consumer product to market was the Olympus OM-2 35mm SLR. This was about 1976 (or so).

Also those TTL systems relied on light reflected from the image plane and are not "design" predecessors to ETTL. They were developed earlier and in that sense they are predecessors. But they are not "design" predecessors. The TTL systems you cite relied on light reflecting off the image plane (film) so exposure control was real time as exposure occurred.

Current digital image sensors reflect light very poorly, so exposure control from light reflected from the image plane is not currently feasible. So ETTL (and iTTL and other variants) have a pre-exposure flash that occurs before the actual exposure and is metered in the viewing prism with the mirror still in the viewing position. The ETTL metering approach is radically different than the TTL systems you cite and in my mind are not not "design" predecessors.

The TTL systems you cite were also use for both ambient and flash control. Current ETTL control is only for flash.

Enjoy! Lon

FlashZebra wrote in post #14230087
I do not think this to be accurate.

Perhaps if you re-read my post ?

'pretty much invented' is what I said, because they were the largest selling and most widely used TTL flash in the pro market.

SONY invented the walkman. Apple is the largest seller of personal music listening devices. So a logical statement would be Apple pretty much invented the market.