I'm stupid help! connect 580 to 20D cord

I'm taking a photography class and I have an assignment where I need your help. I was given an unbrella from the school to use and I really have never used one before. the project is to use your speedlight with it so I need to get a few things. I have a light stand already but I need a long PC cord to go from my 20D to my 580EX.. I dont want to go out and get some expensive wireless setup to make this work. Does anyone know if I can get a cable that will run from my 20D to my 580 so that it will fire? I need it to be at least 4ft. I know I need a unbrella bracket for the light stand as well.. I'm just basically so darn confused to all the things I need to get this to work.. Can someone please help?

Buy yourself an elcheapo flash of any description (check voltage compitability first) and then use that as your master and set your 580 to ask as a slave.

Or use your cable to go from the 20D to some kind of hot shoe adapter (like a wein safe sync) mounted on a tripod, then the 580 mounts on the hot shoe adapter.

Good ideas guys.. But, I specifically want to purchase a long pc cable that goes from my 20D to my 580EX .. Does a cable like this exist? I know I will need a hotshop adaptor to attach to my flash for the pc cable to plug into to. The problem I see is finding one that will give me 4ft between my camera and flash.. Help??

I'm talking about something like this, It mounts on a tripod, the 580 mounts on the adapter. So the flash can be as far as your PC cable allows.

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The finding a long enough sync cable shouldn't be a problem - check ebay

I have to assume that you will be firing your flash without using the E-TTLII technology from your 580EX. Which means that if you are going to connect it to your 20D using "normal" wiring, you will need either use a flashmeter, and if you don't have one, some experimenting about proper exposure.

As far as wiring goes, the best is to talk to a Canon salesperson, because non E-TTL wiring exists for your flash and camera, but it's best to know before you buy. It's always possible to connect two Off-Camera shoe Cord 2 - back to back that will give you approximately 4 feet (not much), but it's expensive wiring ($90.00 canadian each).

I do use an umbrella set-up for my casting shots and portraits. I have a 550EX through a see-through white umbrella, I set my 580EX on my camera as a fill-in, to trigger the umbrella one, and occasionaly another 430EZ with a light cell for backgroung or hair light. Works quite well. Easy to set-up, and go.

Thanks for the tip..Your setup is cool, but you have to have 2 580ex to do that.. You cant trigger 580EX with the pop up flash.. I do have a sunpak 4000 but it wont trigger the 580.. Why is it so hard to make this work it really shouldnt be. My request should be a common one. Who wouldnt want a quick and easy way to use their flash off camera without all the hassle and expense. You have to admit I have a point?

You could make your own extension for the off shoe cord. There's couple thread going on this forum to show the how-to.

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Here are the links to the threads on extending your Off Shoe 2 as Lotto suggested.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=123662
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=117659

You might need somthng like this for your umbrella.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …EG&addedTroughT​ype=search

Works pretty well. I just modified mine last week.

Interesting dilemna. I have a bunch of flashes, none work together with another. So, I'm interested in this set up. That set up above with another slave opposite side of the camera should be fine.

If you want a custom PC to hot shoe cable then Paramount Cords is one outlet for these:

http://www.paramountco​rds.com/products.asp?c​at=18

You could 'cobble' something similar together. However, the Paramount products are very robust and use a plastic hot shoe rather than a metal one. A metal shoe can cause the 580EX not to fire (been there, cobbled, didn't work ). I now use their Pocket Wizard cords and they work a treat - they're not incredibly cheap but they do the job admirably. Obviously you'll be working with a fully manual system - but if I'm using Speedlites to add some additional off-camera lighting, I've found that this will often give a more predictable result than using Canon's flash metering systems

Some people will frown on using Speedlites for this sort of thing and I certainly wouldn't recommend buying them for studio-type work as they are too expensive and not really designed for the job. However, if you've already got Speedlites, then they can easily be turned into a very portable and easily set-up location lighting system.

---- Gavin

Thanks guys this is all so helpful !! I cant believe how difficult canon makes this simple request. Well, I have done my research and I think I'm going to just bite the bullet and purchase some pocket wizards. I'm going to be getting some studio lights in the future so having the pocket wizards should be very useful for those. Also, I'm going to spend quite a bit if I get off shoe cords or any other contraption for that matter. So, I guess I will take the plunge with the wizards. I know I will need some strange adaptor so I can hook the 580 up to the wizard but I can get that at my local camera store. Again, thanks for all the brilliant ideas and links you are a true blessing!


Eric

Canon figures you'll want to use E-TTL with their flashes, so you'd be using either an ST-E2, a 550EX or a 580EX on-camera as the trigger. You could buy a "digital-aware" slave adapter for the 580EX and use the pop-up flash to trigger it.