5D-II and Canon OC-E3 off camera cord

I just picked up a clone OC-E3 cord at less than half the price of the Canon OC-E3 cord. The clone cord works perfectly with my 40D and my two flashes, the 430EX-II & 580EX-II.

However, on my 5D-II with either flash and the clone cord, the flash will trigger, but ETTL doesn't work, and I can not access the flash settings menu on the 5D-II. I get an error message that says the power is off and it can't talk to the flash. Without the cord, either flash directly in the camera hot shoe works fine.

So...for those of you with a 5D-II and the OEM CANON OC-E3 - does the OC-E3 work with the 5D-II?

While I suspect I may have a bad clone cord, I'm not 100% certain. The fact that the 5D-II doesn't work well with the new Pocket Wizards and other comments about how the 5D-II handles flash differently that previous EOS cameras, makes me wonder if the 5D-II is the problem. I did a quick search of my PDF version of the 5D-II manual and there is nothing about the OC-E3 cord in the manual.

This is most likely much ado about a bad clone cord, but if someone with the Canon OC-E3 and a 5D-II and the EX flashes would check it out and let me know, I'd be in your debt. Thanks!!

Just tested with the OC-2 and it's working

Hi Kalle - thanks for the response. I thought that there was no reason it should not work since its a simple electrical circuit. After looking at it a little closer it appears its an issue with how the clone cord works with *my* 5D-II shoe. If I do NOT engage the locking mechanism, and push down on the rear (camera rear) of clone cord in the 5D-II hot shoe, then it will communicate with the flash and allow all of the flash menu settings and ETTL works just fine. Interesting. Engaging the cord locking mechanism actually lifted the contacts off the camera hot shoe contact points.

Sooo...I took a closer look at the 5D-II hotshoe and compared it to my 40D hot shoe. I noticed that the two little "ramped metal spring leafs" (sorry for the awful description - but that seemed to be the best way to describe it) in the lower left and right side of the hot shoe on my 5D-II were pretty much laying flat - even with the flash off. On the 40D these little spring leafs ramp up from the back to the front of the flash shoe. So I "adjusted" the spring leafs on my 5D-II to match the 40D ramps and now the cord connects and works properly on the 5D-II.

Another great mystery solved!

Interesting.

The vast majority of knock-off cords are garbage. There are tales all over of them falling apart in the middle of a shoot, breaking and allowing the flash to fall to the floor, etc.

Sorry, I don't mean to knock your cord, but be careful.

I've heard that about knock-off cords, but the $70 price tag for the Canon brand cord is a nuts. The primary reason I bought this cord was to use it with my 40D which I carry with me pretty much everywhere. I wanted the ability to get the flash away from the camera on occasion, but I didn't want to carry 2 PW's around. For as infrequently as I'll use it, this cheapo cord should be fine.

It will also be used between a PW FlexTT5 and a 580EX-II, to extend the range of the PW's and it works just fine in that configuration too.

All good. Just wanted to make you aware that they can and do fail, and people have had an expensive flash hit the floor for not wanting to spend the extra. I'm all for third-party accessories, since Canon over-charges for most of them, but I've yet to see a cheaper off-camera flash cord that's made as well as the OC-E3.