I can't fire my external without also firing the on-board?

I have a 600D and 430EXII. I have been using it as a bounce flash from the hotshoe for a while, but not much wireless off-camera. I'm now moving into wireless off camera.

The 600D makes this (theoretically) simple by being wireless equipped, doing away with the need for a separate trigger. So far, so good.

I've done a couple of straightforward shoots without too much difficulty, just to get the feel of the controls and menus. I've combined the 430 off camera with a ringflash on camera with good effect.

However, I can't work out how to only fire the off-camera speedlight. From my (increasingly frustrated) experiments with the different menu settings and reading the manuals, it seems that;
* the on-board flash needs to be engaged (i.e. "up") in order to be able to fire any flashes at all; but
* if the on-board flash is up, it fires.
* the relevant (camera) menu show 3 modes that (pictorially at least) represent options for combining the on-board with external flash (ratio, both and external only) - but selecting the one that should be external only (i.e. only the external flash is pictured) still results in the on-board flash firing.

Am I missing something? It did occur to me that the on-board is firing a modelling flash only in the "external only" mode, but I don't know how to test this.

Any assistance welcome.

If you set the camera to fire the off camera flash only, the on board flash will fire at very low power to trigger the off camera flash. Most of the time the on board flash is too dim to affect the exposure of the image. You can test this by turning off the 430EX but set the camera for off camera flash only and see how little light the onboard flash puts out.

You must have missed the part in the manual where it says pulses of light from the popup is what controls the slave flashes. There is no radio transmitter in your camera.

CallumRD1 wrote in post #15502067
If you set the camera to fire the off camera flash only, the on board flash will fire at very low power to trigger the off camera flash. Most of the time the on board flash is too dim to affect the exposure of the image. You can test this by turning off the 430EX but set the camera for off camera flash only and see how little light the onboard flash puts out.

Ahh, that sounds reasonable. I did notice a difference in output from the onboard on some triggerings, but hadn't put it together with triggering the external.

And that's an easy test to conduct - I'll do that tonight.

Thanks for your prompt and helpful response.

dedsen wrote in post #15502179
You must have missed the part in the manual where it says pulses of light from the popup is what controls the slave flashes. There is no radio transmitter in your camera.

Actually, I knew it wasn't radio, and had worked out that it was an optical trigger (no help from the manual as to explicit statement of that fact, though) - but for some reason that now escapes me, I thought that the trigger was IR, not through triggering the flash.

I hear you about the Canon manuals. They like to hide important details in the small shaded boxes usually at the bottom of a page somewhere. Page 192 in the case of your camera.

im trying to figure out the best solution, as i also have a 600d (t3i). any recommendations? pocketwizard?

t3ichef wrote in post #15502475
im trying to figure out the best solution, as i also have a 600d (t3i). any recommendations? pocketwizard?

The Yongnuo YN-622C is getting good reviews. Just carefully check the compatibility section in CliveyBoy's YN-622 guide in his signature.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1212530