Pop up flash to trigger external flash?

Is there such a thing as a pop up flash triggering an external flash? both of them flashing? just curious.

thanks

Doesn't work with most optical triggers because the preflash always fires with the popup. At least with the XTi. I tried.

Yep, you can get an optical slave which comes built in to most modern studio lights or you can plug into the hotshoe of a normal flash.

One thing to worry about is that your pop up flash will typically actually fire a few test pulses to guage the power needed and then fire the main pulse. Currently most optical slaves will react to the first test pulses which will cause the external flash to go off before the shutter opens.

Some more recently optical slaves are able to account for this or program them to ignore the first few flashes.

Also using a canon camera you can use FEL to fire the test pulses early and then fire the proper flash when you press the shutter, you would have to wait for the external flashes to recycle in this case. Or in some cameras you can control the on camera flash in manual mode and then it dosn't bother with the test flashes.

A better option is radio triggers, then you arn't bound by the line of sight limitations that optical systems are.

There is a Work around with optical triggers on the Slave flash , you press the * button to set off the preflash half press the shutter button then wait for the flash to recycle then take your shot , It's messy and a wast of time in my book .


David

I did that with my 400D. I set the Elinchrom pre-flash function to fire the strobes on second flash. This way, I fired the strobes using my on camera Flash with no problems

thanks guys. I was hoping that my camera has a built in radio or something and buy an external flash and use them both for maximal lighting.

johnj2803 wrote in post #8239324
thanks guys. I was hoping that my camera has a built in radio or something and buy an external flash and use them both for maximal lighting.

Oh yeah, that will come when they install the "coffee and doughnuts" button
you will just need to set a custom function!

but seriously that may not be too far away, there are modules that can transmit your images via WiFi to a work station for on the spot processing.
there is no reason the same thing could not be done for controlling a flash system. ( the new PW units are close to what you want, and maybe the Radio Poppers; all it would take is a supply agreement )
the problem is most of it will have proprietary system requirements.

Or you could sell all your Canon gear (blasphemy!) and buy Nikon. Some of their bodies have the built in flash triggers - optical of some sort I believe.

Titus213 wrote in post #8241796
Or you could sell all your Canon gear (blasphemy!) and buy Nikon. Some of their bodies have the built in flash triggers - optical of some sort I believe.

like wat model?