580 exII on 2nd curtain sync to trigger strobe

Does anyone know whether or not this will work?

I will be shooting at night, ISO 100 or 200, around f/11, and a second or two exposure.

Idea is to just use the ocf to optically trigger the strobe at the end of the exposure. I'm just not sure if the shutter will stay open long enough after the flash goes off so that I don't catch the shutter in the images.

2nd curtain will still have an ettl preflash which would optically fire the strobe before the shutter is open. You could shoot manual flash at a very low power so it would be enough to trigger the flash, but still not add any exposure to the image.

Ok I thought when SCS was active the 580 grayed out the manual but it doesn't. So yes you can trigger the strobe optically in SCS, but you also need to shoot in manual flash mode.

Another option in theory is if your exposure is long enough, you could shoot in ETTL, this doesn't make much sence BTW, the strobe would fire during the preflash. Then if it had enough time to recycle due to a several second long exposure, it could then fire again when the SCS fires.

doidinho wrote in post #15466449
Idea is to just use the ocf to optically trigger the strobe at the end of the exposure.

Your description is a little vague. If the 580EX is on the hotshoe in manual flash mode, no problem. If it's off-camera, triggered by another flash unit via the Canon Wireless Flash system, then there will be a command flash that may prematurely trigger the strobe.

Curtis N wrote in post #15468083
Your description is a little vague. If the 580EX is on the hotshoe in manual flash mode, no problem. If it's off-camera, triggered by another flash unit via the Canon Wireless Flash system, then there will be a command flash that may prematurely trigger the strobe.

I meant on camera flash by ocf, perhaps not the best acronym.

All I want to know is whether or not the shutter will start to close before the optically triggered flash goes off though.

I have PW Multimax's you can borrow for the shoot. Pretty sure you can set a delay time for both flashes to go off at a specific time during the exposure.

doidinho wrote in post #15468529
All I want to know is whether or not the shutter will start to close before the optically triggered flash goes off though.

A strobe triggered by its built-in slave sensor will fire at basically the same time the master flash fires. Whether it's done firing before the second curtain starts to close is another story. That will depend on the flash duration, which is a matter of the make/model of the strobe and its power setting.

Should be fine. Canon's second-curtain firing signal goes out well before the second curtain begins to close, Nikon's too. Can be a problem if you want to minimise any ambient in front of the subject, though it's usually less visible at longer shutter speeds. You can tighten up the timing with PW Mini/Flex or Multimax.