pocket wizzards with my 580ex flash

editing post for removal.

the pocket wizards do come with the cable. ETTL won't work though - fyi.

Ghostfly wrote in post #6226743
the pocket wizards do come with the cable. ETTL won't work though - fyi.

I'm new to all this flash stuff...so will the flash not do TTL because of this certain pocket wizard? And how can you tell what will work?

The only current way to wirelessly fire TTL strobes is with another 580EX II, a Canon transmitter, or Radio Poppers.

TTL isn't always the way to go though. Manual can have some benefits once you learn enough to set them.

find the lighting 101 tutorial on the right hand side in one of the drop downs at www.strobist.com

The cord that comes with the PW will work with your 580EX II. The PW runs either off the Hot Shoe or a PC sync of your camera. As was mentioned there is no ETTL with Pocket Wizard.

Jack

That's right. One for the camera and one for the flash (and one for each additional flash you might add).

as many flashes as you want!..
i believe..

You may want to look into radio poppers.

Then again with one 580EX II on camera acting as a master, you can trigger other canon (580, 430, 420) flashes in ETTL mode. These are optical slaves so distance is limited as is that they need to be line of sight.

Jack

or you could buy another 580EX for that money (or a couple of 430EXs) and fire them with your current 580EX off camera.

limited to line of sight, but from what I've read, they work really well indoors, bouncing all over the place so still very flexible.

tomdlgns wrote in post #6232531
hmmmm, it looks like ETTL works with the radio poppers.

Radio Poppers only work with TTL. They will not fire any non TTL flash. Pocket Wizards or any other standard radio trigger will fire any strobe that has some kind of external port/shoe to fire from, Canon, Nikon, Metz, Phoenix, Alien Bees, Elinchrom, Calumet, Pro Foto, etc..

Keep that in mind.

read strobist.com and learn to light manually. It's not as hard as you think.

tomdlgns wrote in post #6233626
lol, damn, this isnt confusing, but there are a lot of options. i hate that.

Ghostfly wrote in post #6234261
read strobist.com and learn to light manually. It's not as hard as you think.

agreed

No. Set power of flash (1/1 to 1/128th power) - shoot manually. adjust aperture and shutter to get desired artistic effect. you contol the look of the picture.

Here is an extreme example:

http://www.tcgeistphot​ography.com …photo=h2B59F5D5​#727315925

This picture was taken in bright sunlight at 11 am on my deck.

tomdlgns wrote in post #6234385
so when you say light manually, are you referring to setting the +/- number in the flash?

i already do that now.

In a sense, you're controlling the output of the flash in this manner, however it's not really a "manual" setting in that you're still using the ETTL function of the flash to determine your exposure.

For absolute control, it's much easier to use a flash with adjustable power settings and a flash meter. This lets you adjust the precise amount of light you want. However ETTL does have it's advantages under certain conditions.