Slave Speedlite tips

When using the Canon wireless flash system people work in one of two incompatible ways. They put the slaves in manual and set the power on the slaves individually, or they leave the slaves in E-TTL and then use either manual or E-TTL II on the master flash.

If you set the power of the slaves individually in true pure 'strobist' style then you have precise control and can in effect have more than the standard 3 groups of flashes. One flash at 1/128, one at 1/32, one at 1/4 and another at 1/2 power is all possible. Indeed this is the only way to work if you need this level of difference in power outputs. Problem is that to change the power levels you need to go round to each individual slave and make the change.

If you leave the slaves in E-TTL and assign them to the groups A, B and C; then from the on camera master flash such as the Speedlite 550EX, 580EX or 580EX II you determine the settings of each of the flashes in the slave groups. The only important thing is to note or remember which slave is in which group. For ease if you put A slaves to camera left, B slaves to camera right and the C as a background or hair light you don't go far wrong. You can have more than one slave in the same group if needed. 

Put the master flash in manual and then you can set the power level of each A, B and C group of slaves from the master. Leave the master in E-TTL II and use the ratio controls to balance A:B and the flash exposure compensation to adjust the strength of group C. 

In this second approach with the slaves assigned groups and left in E-TTL it makes it possible for a group of photographers to work in either style. The all manual strobist photographer can set the power output for his shots by adapting the power on his master flash, and other photographers can use E-TTL II with ratio control for theirs. Just recently on a model shoot outside we tried exactly this setup, and everyone got the results they needed. The slaves simply take the information from the master that communicated with them last and do what they are told switching from manual power outputs to E-TTL II outputs and even high speed sync as necessary.

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New Pocket Wizards

It seems Pocket Wizards have been looking on a Radio Poppers with envy and decided they don't want an upstart moving in on their market. So, they have just announced new products for wireless E-TTL II control of Canon flashguns. 

It seems it's a whole new system for radio flash control with units called the MiniTT1 (transmitter) and FlexTT5 (transceiver). 

Currently it's only for Canon users and it allows wireless control up to 8fps. 

From the Pocket Wizard Website: 

The New Shape of Wireless Freedom

The smallest PocketWizard radio ever, the MiniTT1™ Transmitter locks onto the camera’s hot shoe supporting an on-camera flash with its own hot shoe while working with remote PocketWizard units. Remotes can be one or more PocketWizard FlexTT5™ Transceivers connected to Canon E-TTL II flashes or any PocketWizard Receiver for triggering flash or remote cameras.

The MiniTT1 Transmitter is easy to use; just slide in place and begin to shoot. The new PocketWizard ControlTL™ System interprets the complex E-TTL II data being sent through the camera’s hot shoe and digitally transmits it in a reliable radio signal. Change the flash compensation dial on the camera, and those commands pass seamlessly through the system to your remote flash. Adjust your shutter speed, aperture or ISO and the system corrects for those changes. A ratio command set on the flash or command unit passes through the MiniTT1 to set the remotes. PocketWizard ControlTL radio communication allows you to shoot farther, faster, around corners, through walls even at high noon in bright daylight. Now you can deploy a wireless flash system wherever you want, without infrared limitations, in seconds.

Use the MiniTT1 for standard triggering with any PocketWizard Receiver including the FlexTT5, PlusII or MultiMAX. When used this way with a digital camera, you can take advantage of PocketWizard’s HyperSync Technology that allows up to 1/500th of a second camera sync with many camera/strobe set-ups. HyperSync allows you to advance the timing of your flash trigger so that faster then X-sync speeds can be achieved.
Need more speed? Push your ControlTL system beyond 1/500th and go into FP/High-Speed sync mode automatically. No buttons to press or settings to change other then your shutter speed will give you flash sync all the way to 1/8000th.

A new PocketWizard Utility program is provided to support the MiniTT1 via a USB port. The Utility allows you to configure your channel settings, dial in your HyperSync timing, adjust your sleep-mode timers and update your product to the latest firmware.
The PocketWizard MiniTT1 Transmitter is the start of a new era in wireless trigger control.

AVAILABILITY: For Canon, March 1st. For Nikon, Q2, 2009. US & Canadian Markets. Contact your local Distributor for availability in other markets.

From their just posted Instruction Manual:

ControlTL: PocketWizard’s newest firmware platform taps into the camera’s digital communications
to enable an entirely new level of remote flash capabilities through our proven radio system, beginning with remote TTL for Canon E-TTL II flash systems with Slide-n-Shoot Simplicity.
HyperSync - Achieve better than X-sync with many
cameras and flashes – up to 1/500th second.
FP/High-Speed Sync: Need more speed? Push
beyond 1/500th and go into FP/High-Speed sync mode
automatically. No buttons to press or settings to change
other than your shutter speed will give you flash sync
all the way to 1/8000th.
Power Tracking: When working in E-TTL II, you can
change any of your control settings on your flash or
camera and the system adjusts for those changes.
Eight Frames per second: Never before have you
been able to shoot remote E-TTL II at this speed.
Nothing else comes close.
Low Profile Design: The FlexTT5 lies flat to stay out of
the way and uses a flip-up antenna for additional range
when needed. The MiniTT1, with an internal antenna,
weighs in at 2.3 oz. and is the smallest PocketWizard
ever.

It seems things are hotting up in the wireless flash world. Hit the comments with your thoughts on it all. 

UPDATE: They've also posted a video on youtube showing some of the features. 

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Canon E-TTL II flash: why you should use Canon lenses

Could your choice of lens can cause instability in the flash metering of your camera?

If you use Canon lenses they talk to your camera body providing all kinds of information to help the camera determine the correct shutter speed to reduce camera shake, the maximum and minimum aperture of the lens and also in many cases the distance to the subject. This communication is Canon's own protocol, and whilst third parties have re-engineered it with some success did they get all the information right?

So how does the lens affect the flash?

Canon's E-TTL II flash metering added the use of distance information to the calculation of the required flash output power where the lens provides distance info. Some older Canon lenses don't provide distance information so the algorithm has to work without this valuable information to retain compatibility. Consider what happens if some third party lenses appear to provide distance information, but actually don't provide it in the way Canon expects it. Could be as simple as Canon lenses tell the distance in meters, Sigma maybe in feet. So Canon lens says subject is 4 meters away, approximately 13 feet. Sigma may say 4 feet away or 1.2 meters! The camera just gets 4. You can guess how this info may make the flash exposure wrong. It could be worse though; what if the Sigma always said the lens was focussed at 4 meters. Sometimes it would be right, sometimes wrong giving inconsistent results. With under exposure, over exposure and correct exposure at different subject distances.

We've heard several times of the two Canon EOS users with the same flash, same camera and different lenses having random flash exposures on the non-Canon brand lenses. What's more swapping lenses moves the problem too.

With exclusively Canon lenses on hand this is a tough one to prove, but we welcome your feedback in the comments.

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