Slave flash for S3 IS

Hey all,

Just getting started in the hobby. Much of what I want to do is portraits and glamour stuff in a studio (with candid action shots around town).

I just bought an S3 IS to learn with (I never seemed to be able to save eniugh for a rebel. or EOS..kids braces and new brakes for truck always got in the way, but they will come eventually). So anyway, I know that the mounted flash on the S3 can cause some harsh shadows. If I were to start buying studio style flashes, is there a method for making them slave to the flash on the S3? (Totally newbie question, I know, but I'm still trying to learn all of the various equipment.)

Wein, among other companies, makes a "Digital Slave", available at most better camera stores or B&H (which is a better camera store, don't misunderstand me).

I got a cheapo one from ebay and it works really well once I figured it out

If you set your flash to manual power there is no pre-flash so any optical slavwe will work. A special "digital-slave" would be required if you had your camera flash in "Auto" mode because the camera puts out a short pre-flash to check how bringht the main flash needs to be, this pre flash would trigger a non-digital slave too soon. You can set the on-camera flash to auto or manual in Av but the flash is manual only in M. For studio work you would probably have everything on manual so any slave will do you nicely. If you need a better flash for out and about then use an good old "Auto Flash" (not TTL or any dedicated flash). An auto flash adjusts its output as it fires, you just set the ISO and f/stop on the flash to match the setting on the camera and it does the rest. If you cannnot get a slave auto-flash you can buy an optical sensor to trigger it, remember you still need your on camera flash to be seen by the slave so it knows when to fire.

MaxZoom wrote in post #2562341
If you set your flash to manual power there is no pre-flash so any optical slavwe will work. A special "digital-slave" would be required if you had your camera flash in "Auto" mode because the camera puts out a short pre-flash to check how bringht the main flash needs to be, this pre flash would trigger a non-digital slave too soon. You can set the on-camera flash to auto or manual in Av but the flash is manual only in M. For studio work you would probably have everything on manual so any slave will do you nicely. If you need a better flash for out and about then use an good old "Auto Flash" (not TTL or any dedicated flash). An auto flash adjusts its output as it fires, you just set the ISO and f/stop on the flash to match the setting on the camera and it does the rest. If you cannnot get a slave auto-flash you can buy an optical sensor to trigger it, remember you still need your on camera flash to be seen by the slave so it knows when to fire.

Would this also work for the S1?

If it has Manual flash it doesn't need to pre-flash since it trusts your judgement to get the flash level right. So if you can set the flash to Manual on the S1, you're good.