Canon off camera 2nd curtain flash fires both curtains!?

I have the 750D and using Phottix Stato transmitter and receiver with a 430EX ii flash. When I set the transmitter to 2nd curtain and the flash to 2nd curtain with a 2 sec shutter speed I get a light flash out of the speedlight on the 1st curtain then a brighter flash out of the speedlight on the 2nd curtain. I tested this a bunch of times with setting just the transmitter to 2nd curtain and not the 430Ex ii and it does the same thing. It did work with no flash on the 1st curtain and flash on the 2nd a couple times but I can't seem to recreate it to know what I did or what it did to do that.

Has anyone encountered this? I can't find anything online that talks about this happening.

Thanks in advance.

Your are getting ONE flash. The first burst is the ETTL-II exposure evaluation emission. It is a test flash. It tells the camera/flash how much light to put out for the second EXPOSURE burst, which exposes your shot. Want ONE burst? Set the flash to manual and determine output on your own. Learn root-2 math. You'll need it, quickly.

I am in manual mode on the flash..the camera does show ettl ii and when I switch it to manual it just goes back to ettl ii. Any idea?

" .. it just goes back to ettl ii .. "

When, exactly. On first shutter button pressure?

Bassat should be correct but ^^ sounds odd. Try cleaning the Strato Tx's contacts, both top & bottom, & reseating.

jamesbuddyrogers wrote in post #18067337
I have the 750D and using Phottix Stato transmitter and receiver with a 430EX ii flash. When I set the transmitter to 2nd curtain and the flash to 2nd curtain with a 2 sec shutter speed I get a light flash out of the speedlight on the 1st curtain then a brighter flash out of the speedlight on the 2nd curtain. I tested this a bunch of times with setting just the transmitter to 2nd curtain and not the 430Ex ii and it does the same thing. It did work with no flash on the 1st curtain and flash on the 2nd a couple times but I can't seem to recreate it to know what I did or what it did to do that.

Has anyone encountered this? I can't find anything online that talks about this happening.

Thanks in advance.

I've never used Phottix. I use Yongnuo controllers. In order for everything to work properly, I believe you should let the Phottix device control the flash. DO NOT set the FLASH to 2nd curtain. Let the CONTROLLER do that.

You have the camera in MANUAL mode? Correct.
You have the flash in MANUAL mode? Not correct. Clear all settings from the flash. Let the controller control the flash. Do NOT put the flash in slave mode. Let the controller control the flash.

I just tried my set up. Manual flash, Manual camera, second curtain (selected at the controller, via the camera). 6D/580EX II works as expected. Flash emits ONE burst, immediately before the shutter closes.

Perhaps post some photos of you set up and settings.

What I mean is in the camera I switch ettl to manual in external flash settings and when I go back to external flash setting the camera is still on ettl. It's the shutter itself stuck. It's a brand new camera.

@Bassat I will check and try what you mentioned and let you know.

Really appreciate you guys taking the time to reply and help me out

I don't know about Strato but Phottix Odin, which I have, does unique way on transmitting info to the slave flash, that is even the mode is set in M mode in the transmitter, the slave flash is always, and has to be set in ettl mode.
In other word, Odin use ettl signal to control slave flash in manual mode. How can Odin do that, I don't know. Odin users knows this.

http://flashhavoc.com …-odin-ttl-trigger-review/

NOTE - One simple thing that does catch people out quite often, is simply knowing that the flash units must be set to TTL for the Odin to work (even if just using manual power levels).

Here are some photos. I try to set the cameras external flash setting to manual and set it .. but as you see in the second picture it still shows ETTL. I feel like an idiot! Stilll getting the 2 flash bursts.

Flash is set to ETTL and the transmitter is what is set to 2nd curtain.

Thanks again for taking the time to help. Clearly I am doing something wrong.

" .. when I go back to external flash setting the camera is still on ettl .. "

Did you press 'Set' after entering Manual for flash?

yes i press set. If I take the transmitter off and put a flash on the camera i can easily toggle between ETTL and Manual modes. For some reason the transmitter on the camera doesn't let me .. hmmm

Second screen looks funny to me. With YN-TX on camera, I don't believe having a choice of master output or not is even possible. It looks funny.

It appears on 'disable' With this I can't set enable. Same thing as trying to switch from ETTL to manual. Turns out I had to disable wireless to not have this screen. However, it is still in ETTL mode and unable to be set to manual. I have emailed Phottix about this. I don't see why this should be so difficult. ugh.

jamesbuddyrogers wrote in post #18067731
It appears on 'disable' With this I can't set enable. Same thing as trying to switch from ETTL to manual. Turns out I had to disable wireless to not have this screen. However, it is still in ETTL mode and unable to be set to manual. I have emailed Phottix about this. I don't see why this should be so difficult. ugh.

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forum: Flash and Studio Lighting

OK, thanks. That explains it. I just expected the CHOICE to be disabled. This does not help with your problem.

I'm at a total loss and if I can figure this out I am going to make a 'how to' video for dummies like me! It has to be possible. Firing fine in ETTL .. just getting camera set to manual is something I can't figure out.