ST-E2 Outside?

How well will a ST-E2 work outside? I'm looking at putting together a two flash macro setup with the flashes on flexible brackets. Currently, I have a 430ex and I'm thinking a 580ex added to the setup is going to get too heavy. So, I was thinking of picking up an inexpensive 420ex and the ST-E2 (which I would not mind having anyway for indoor non-macro work). My question is how well does the ST-E2 work outside (macro shooting)? How critical will sensor alignment have to be, etc?

I think that it depends on the environment you will be doing you macro work in. My ST-E2 works fairly well if I have the sensor pointing toward the camera and the sun is not directly on either sensor(reciever or transmitter).

If you are shooting in a shady area or you can control the amount of daylight/sun on your location it will probably work well. The closer the distance is between the flash and ST-E2 the better.

In standard photographic work, I've used mine up to about 20' and it's worked okay. As long as the sensor can see either direct or reflected IR from the ST-E2 it should work.

Tony...

I have just done this sort of thing but it has only been a couple of days so I have not used it outside (we are getting as wee bit of rain in Vancouver right now). I used two 430's as the 580 would have been too much weight. I made a simple bracket from a flat of aluminum with a slot down the middle and two very small ball heads on quick release cams to hold the flashes. I put a wooden hand grip in the middle. So far the flash works very well inside. If we get a bit of a break from the rain (and I simultaneously have a bit of time) I will give it a try outside but this will still not be in sunlight as I will have to wait several months for that. I don't anticipate any problems at macro distances.

Outside in the shade ST-E2 works fine - it is not great in sunlight. Inside is excellent - seems to bounce off the walls.580EX is supposed to have greater range. I refer to general shooting not macro. I used a heavy 580EX before!

I also have used mine outside in shade up to about 20 feet with good results. Obviously this is not a macro usage.

Barry

Well I tried it (gloomy day though) and at macro distances it works fine even with the flash sensors facing down (but not parallel to the ground). I would say the senors were about 30 degrees from flat so facing the subject it should work even further back. With the bracket it is a handful but he 180 is a handfull all by itself with 5d plus grip. I can handhold but I will be getting stronger by doing it and am sure I will be wanting my monopod after a half hour.

Your 100 should make the whole deal easier on the arms and I would say the 30d without grip would make you mobile for some time. The ring flashes are a bit expensive (esp. in canada) and unless you do lots of macro sort of limited. You need a couple of 430 to do general stuff anyway so if you start there you can still use the ringflashes is you really want to do heaps of macro work. I will stick with the 430's from what I can tell now so I must be happy with it. I plan to do some work with small pets with this set up.

Hope this helped with what you were wondering about.