unfair canon flash?

Hi,

Equipment:
A = Canon 5D
B = 550EX in manual mode
C = sensor shoe (a fflash shoe with a sensor able to detects external flash stroke and is supposed to triger any flash standing on it)
D = cheap flash in manual mode (it hardly can do anything else

Test:
B on A and D on C work fine. The 550EX can trigger the cheap flash.
D on A and B on C dont work.

Conclusion:
Looks like "Sir" "CAAAAnon" dont like to sit on a cheap flash shoe

I guess its highly engineered brain has detected that I wanted to save my bucks by replacing Canon's overpriced IR transmission by a $7 sensor shoe and thus decided not to work BY PURPOSE to punish me not having enough money to put in their stuff.

If my though were true, This is purely disgusting. I mean, how can an engeneer build a perfectly versatile equipment, and then run it with a software that will force the equipment to refuse to work in special situations for commercial reasons?

I hope I'm wrong because I love Canon cameras and lenses. But... well... what happend then? and how can I make it working?

OK. It could be that, but could it possibly be that your $7 sensor shoe is worth, well.. $7 and you are getting about $7 worth of service out of it?

Benandbobbi wrote in post #2983137
OK. It could be that, but could it possibly be that your $7 sensor shoe is worth, well.. $7 and you are getting about $7 worth of service out of it?

Remember that my $7 shoe can trigger my $30flash.
Means that for more than 10 times this price tag, the 550EX lost the ability to get triggered by a cheap shoe . Fortunately, I have more French than English slang, which save you some good words .

Still thinking I made something wrong BTW, whut where?

You are quite correct in your conclusion (at least about what works and what doesn't). There are a number of threads here about that same subject. There are evidently some optical slaves, 'C', that do work with Canon gear. It has been explained but is beyond me. Check this out...

http://www.photography​-on-the.net …&highlight=opti​cal+slaves

It's hard to say whether the inability of EX Speedlites to work with most optical slaves is by design or by accident.

But it's part of the reason I don't own any EX Speedlites (yet).

The 580EX II, with its sync socket, supposedly will be compatible with optical slave attachments. Considering the alternatives at a fraction of the cost, it really doesn't add much to the value of the unit.

Since using your 550EX on the hotshoe and the cheap components as a slave seems to work, I'm not sure why this is a big issue.

The cheap flash should work on your 5D plenty fine...
I've been using an old rollei flash on my 1D2 without a problem.
550EX is problematic when it comes to optical triggers. Sometimes it will trigger once, then needs to be reset.
I don't see the issue either...

Curtis N wrote in post #2983441
It's hard to say whether the inability of EX Speedlites to work with most optical slaves is by design or by accident.

But it's part of the reason I don't own any EX Speedlites (yet).

The 580EX II, with its sync socket, supposedly will be compatible with optical slave attachments. Considering the alternatives at a fraction of the cost, it really doesn't add much to the value of the unit.

Since using your 550EX on the hotshoe and the cheap components as a slave seems to work, I'm not sure why this is a big issue.

It may be by accident actually. If I short-circuit the center pin of my 550EX with a peaice of metal, this actually triggers the flash and the 550EX's brain is okay with my metal pin . My current explanation is that the cheap component does not offer a good-enough short circuit to trigger the Canon Flash.

This selectiveness eventualy might have been done by purpose...
Olivier

The problem with most optical triggers is that the trigger current is too high or too low in Canon flashes (don't remember which) so the unit stays triggered. Removing and re-attaching the trigger works in that case (for one flash )

This sounds a lot like what is happening with my 580ex and my HiViz photogate trigger. From talking to a few people about it, it seems that the Canon flashes leak current and prevent the trigger's circuit from closing and resetting. This is probably what is happening with the optical triggers too.