Wireless Control of 550EX

Do I need to buy the ST-E2 module in order to fire my 550EX remotely? Is there a way to have it fire using Alien Bee's? It seems to me that I shold just be able to put the flash on Slave mode and it should work. Am I thinking properly? I will try later this evening but thought I would ask here as well. It would be nice to use it for a hair light.

Thanks,
Tim

Fundamentally, you need either one STE2 or one other 550EX to act as a wireless master at or near the camera. There is no optical slave function, like you might find on studio strobes. If you have one remote 550EX, then it will be the wireless slave.

Don't confuse wireless master and slave with optical master and slave.

---Bob Gross---

That is exactly what I was doing, thanks for clearing that up. Do you know if the Pocket Wizards are capable of firing the 550EX? That is a wireless master/slave setup, correct?


Tim

You will need either a ST-E2 or another 550EX (or 580EX) to trigger your 550 using the Canon Wireless TTL. The cheaper way to go is to get a 420EX and use THAT as the slave with your 550 as the Master.

The Canon Wireless TTL slave system is vastly different from the other forms of slaves. Your Alien Bees probably have optical slaves built in. They simply grab a little light from another flash, convert it to electrical energy and set off the flash to which they are attached. The biggest problem with optical slaves is that anyone else in the the room with a flash will trigger your strobes, so it's use is limited to areas where you can control other people's flashes.

Radio slaves work like optical slaves from the perspective that all they do is trip the flash. They are impervious to Aunt Gertrude's point and shoot flash, they can have an extreme range and don't have to be in line of sight.

But both optical and radio slaves are dumb. You have to pre-set the strobe to out put the way you want (full power, half power, and so forth) although you could select an Automatic setting with a small portable flash like a Vivitar 283. But to change the settings you'd have to walk up to the flash to make adjustments. Alien Bee and other strobe manufacturers make remote control systems that let you control outlying flashes but these are tied together with cables, and if you use those cables why not synch cords as well? the reality is that you set up radio/optical slaved flashes and either live with it or physically change the settings.

The Canon Wireless TTL slave system is more complicated. There are two flash pops emitted when you use E-TTL and have you have the Master enabled. The first one is very weak and it's an informational pulse that is sending out instructions to the slaves on how to behave. You can control the output of all the Canon Wireless TTL slaved flashes, from the Master flash position - which is almost certainly the camera position . You can choose lighting ratios and change them without touching the slaved flash.

The biggest downside of the C/W TTL is that the slaves MUST be in line of sight, or in a very small room to take advantage of reflections.

Since the Alien Bees - and all other non Canon flashes - lack that first informational pulse they will NOT trigger the 550 or 420.

You can use a Pocket Wizard set to fire 550EX's. To do that you will need to purchase a female Hot Shoe to Pocket Wizard miniplug cable for each 550EX from www.paramountcords.com, and a Pocket Wizard Receiver for each 550EX, and the 550's will all be in Manual. There is no Master in that set up other then a Pocket Wizard transmitter. It's alot cheaper and easier to use an extra 550EX or STE2 as a master and the rest as slaves. Then you can use Wireless ETTL, and Wireless Manual.
I currently use two 550EX's(A-master-fill light, B-slave-Key light) and a 420EX(C-slave-background) in a wireless ETTL portable kit. I use ratios, (A:B):C of (1:3):-1 to +1
Scott

I must be doing something wrong. I have the ST-E2 on the camera and my 550ex on an L-bracket beside the camera and it fires just fine in E-TTL.

(No emoticon for scratching my head)
I don't think anyone said you couldn't use an STE2 or 550EX as a wireless master for ETTL. You can not however do that with a Pocket Wizard set up. Wireless ETTL will only work with a 550EX, 580EX or STE2 as Master.
Scott

Scott, what I sense here is that there is still a certain degree of confusion among some users. They confuse Canon IR wireless with radio with optical slaving. Canon, all by itself, only goes one way (IR wireless). Each type of flash coupling has its pros and cons.

---Bob Gross---

Bob I don't think the Canon system is IR (infrared). I think that it's visible light in that first pulse.

My information is that it is visible, but it is down at what they call near-IR.

Humans can see some of it, but the equipment sees more of it.

---Bob Gross---

Can someone help me I have 2 550's but i can't get one to act like a slave. what am i doing wrong? i have one set to master and one set to slave, but the slave won't go off when the master flashes?

Make sure that :
1. The 550 on the camera is set to Master.
2. The 550 off camera is set to Slave.
3. The red plastic in front of the Slave faces the Master and is flashing.
4. Both should be set to ETTL or M.
Scott

And make sure that you have the slaved flash set to the "B" group. The Master will default to "A".

It will also work if the Slave is set to Group A. In fact, if you want to set FEC separately and directly on each 550EX, they both must be set to Group A. I figured this out after being on the phone with Canon Tech Support for 2 hours. For example, you can put each on Group A, set the Master on the camera to -2FEC and set the Slave as a Key Light to +1 FEC. If on the other hand, you want to do Master controlled Ratios, then the Master and Slave must be on different Groups.
There is a further explanation here:
https://photography-on-the.net …ad.php?t=45256&​highlight=
Scott

ok thanks ill try it. i think i had both on A
I think one of the 550 flashes I just purchased is not working correctly i am unable to change the mode? any suggestions on what may be preventing this or is it broken?