trying to trigger a 550 as slave.

I have 2 800 watt alien bees and a 550 flash. I set my 550 to slave hoping the alien bees will trigger it as a backlight and nothing...i have even tried messing with the channels. Any suggestions.

Maybe I missed something in the manual but I don't recall the 550EX having any kind of generic optical slave ability.

I don't have a 550,.. so I should stay out of this,. but I'm a busybody too

It was my understanding that the 550 could be master or slave to only another 550ex or another proprietary Canon trigger. It uses the Infa red transmitter/reciever to trigger the slaves,.. not the flash itself.

I could be wrong?

im sure you guys are right....so i need to trigger the 550 and that will trigger the alien bees....man this is getting complicated.

The others are correct. The 550EX will operate as a master to another 550EX, or it can operate as a slave to another master 550EX, or it can operate as a slave to the ST-2E transmitter. All of that coupling is wireless, and the 550EX is not triggered optically by non-Canon units.

---Bob Gross---