How to use 580 Speedlite as slave with in built flash?

Hi there!

I am having trouble with using my 580 Speedlite as a slave to my 40D. I want to trigger the 580 through the cameras built in flash. The porblem is that I cant find out what settings I need to put my camera on and olso the the external flash. I have tried a lot of different combinations, but the blitz just wont seem to go off! (Have tried to read the manual).

Thanks a lot for all answers!

As far as I know it wont work as the built in flash sends out a pre flash that will trigger your flash at the wrong time , the bigger problem is that you will need a optical slave unit on your remote flash as your built in flash wont sent out a radio or IR signal .

So you mean that Canon 40D cant trigger an external flash with its in built flash?

Which also means that I have to buy pocketwizard or a PC cable?

I know you can do it with nikon cameras.. A guy told me you could also do it with Canon, but maybe not?

Nikon and (at least some) Pentax DSLRs can do it. My Pentax K10D did it, and I thought it was pretty cool. One thing I miss since I switched to Canon. Not sure if it's a hardware limitation, but that's always been a downside of Canon with regard to flash capabilities.

Mr. Canon wrote in post #6311177
So you mean that Canon 40D cant trigger an external flash with its in built flash?

Which also means that I have to buy pocketwizard or a PC cable?

That is affirmative!

You can also buy an STE-2 remote trigger to fire your flash in ETTL mode.

Will not work on your canon.... I use the Wireless function on my D300 and SB-800 all the time and it Rocks!

Yep will not work on a Canon.
Nikon does it which is a GREAT idea !!!!!

Hellooooooo CANON !!!!

Dang...

Thats crap, cause pocket wazzards are sooo expencive!

Thanks anyway

Yes Nikon has the advantage in this area. Most people buy two 580EX's, and use one to control the other, retaining auto functions. If you want to shoot manual with radio slaves consider skyports or the AlienBee cybersyncs, they're both reliable and a lot cheaper than PWs.

To be honest, just pick up an optical trigger if you want to fire your flash with a built in flash.

elysium wrote in post #6315760
To be honest, just pick up an optical trigger if you want to fire your flash with a built in flash.

Not good. The built in flash will ALWAYS fire a preflash. An optical trigger will then fire your off-camera slave flash at the wrong time.

msowsun wrote in post #6315965
Not good. The built in flash will ALWAYS fire a preflash. An optical trigger will then fire your off camera flash at the wrong time.

Makes sense. Rarely get sun in the UK

scorpio_e wrote in post #6311983
Yep will not work on a Canon.
Nikon does it which is a GREAT idea !!!!!

Hellooooooo CANON !!!!

Just wait a few years and Canon will have something like this. Right now they don't license/own the patent which would allow them to do this. If you can't wait, get an 580EX/AF-1 58C/ST-E2 as master trigger or pick one of the camera vendors listed in previous posts.

msowsun wrote in post #6315965
Not good. The built in flash will ALWAYS fire a preflash. An optical trigger will then fire your off-camera slave flash at the wrong time.

There are several possibilities to make use of a small cheap slave trigger despite the preflash.

1. Use a slave flash trigger which skips the preflash and triggers the external flash on the second flash (i think these can be bought for ~30$?).

2. Use a (ordinary) slave flash trigger which triggers on the first flash and always FIRST use the FEL-button on the camera to trigger the preflash. The slave will go off as well, but when the picture is taken afterwards, the camera will NOT preflash.

3. Use another flash (any cheap flash found somewhere) connected with a pc-cord to the camera and the simple slave trigger on the other flash. This gives two flashes off-camera, one with pc-cord and the other triggered with the slave trigger.

Unfortunatelly all of these options disables the ETTL measurements and flash output must be adjusted manually.

Regards,
Lars