trigerring off camera flash...

[adiknaim]

i have a starblitz n metz (duno wat model) flash. i attached either to an optical trigger.

so i tried to trigger them with the in-built flash of my K100DS, but i noticed that it underexposes, which means the light from the external flash is not exposed... nt sure y... whichever shutter speed oso lyk that.. any settings on camera i can adjust so that the light on my flash is captured?

thx in advance...

[darrrrrrrrrr]

Does your optical trigger have any different modes? If it doesn't it's probably a "dumb" slave trigger, ie. it will trigger the flash on the first flash it sees. The popup flash is a PTTL flash so the pre-flash will set off the slaves. No matter what shutter speed you use, the picture will still be under, as the slaves are firing before the shutter is opened.

How about mounting one of the flashes on the hotshoe, set to manual power and the single flash should trigger the other off-camera flash properly. Or get rid of the optical trigger and get a smarter one like the HS-02 which can ignore the PTTL pre-flash, or a radio trigger like the Cactus.

[adiknaim]

its a dumb trigger as u mentioned.. haiz.. nw i understand.. means its triggered when the pre-flash is "seen"...

yah, wat u suggested is wat my current set up is lor.. use one on my cam to trigger the other...

thanks for other suggestions.. im actually tempted to try out radio triggers, but that will wait.. haha..

[longko]

Originally Posted by adiknaim its a dumb trigger as u mentioned.. haiz.. nw i understand.. means its triggered when the pre-flash is "seen"... yah, wat u suggested is wat my current set up is lor.. use one on my cam to trigger the other... thanks for other suggestions.. im actually tempted to try out radio triggers, but that will wait.. haha..

Not all lost. Use the one with low trigger voltage (think below 25V should be safe) and use that to trigger the peanut (optical slave trigger). Cos manual flash on K100DS will only flash once as it doesn't support P-TTL

[Gengh]

Just wondering if this is a possible workaround for this problem.

I noticed that if you use the 2 sec timer, the built-in flash will fire once when the shutter button is pressed (I assume this is the pre-flash for PTTL), and a second time for the actual exposure. So effectively you have kind of separated the PTTL pre-flash from the actual flash, possibly enough for a wireless slave to respond to both the pre-flash and the actual flash. Of course if the slave needs to fire at near full power and can't recharge in 2 sec then this is not useful...

Has anyone tried this with the K100D or K100DS, with a "dumb" slave flash? I tried it with the AF360 in slave mode 2 and it works (ie it fires twice), but I'm afraid that the AF360 is too "smart" and not reflective of the simple wireless slave flash.

[longko]

Originally Posted by Gengh Just wondering if this is a possible workaround for this problem. I noticed that if you use the 2 sec timer, the built-in flash will fire once when the shutter button is pressed (I assume this is the pre-flash for PTTL), and a second time for the actual exposure. So effectively you have kind of separated the PTTL pre-flash from the actual flash, possibly enough for a wireless slave to respond to both the pre-flash and the actual flash. Of course if the slave needs to fire at near full power and can't recharge in 2 sec then this is not useful... Has anyone tried this with the K100D or K100DS, with a "dumb" slave flash? I tried it with the AF360 in slave mode 2 and it works (ie it fires twice), but I'm afraid that the AF360 is too "smart" and not reflective of the simple wireless slave flash.

If it's non-moving subject then can work, else after u start the timer no more AF, unless u MF^^;

[Gengh]

Originally Posted by longko If it's non-moving subject then can work, else after u start the timer no more AF, unless u MF^^;

Oh, it's just a workaround, for this I was only thinking of still life. One thing at a time.

If adiknaim is trying to use the slave flash for still life, maybe this will solve his problems?

[darrrrrrrrrr]

Originally Posted by longko Not all lost. Use the one with low trigger voltage (think below 25V should be safe) and use that to trigger the peanut (optical slave trigger). Cos manual flash on K100DS will only flash once as it doesn't support P-TTL

TS already has a pair of manual flashes and his current set-up is to use one of them as a simple trigger flash.

I believe what he wants to do now is to liberate the one on the hotshoe for more creative lighting options with 2 off-cam flashes.

Gengh, that's quite an ingenious solution, I never thought of it before because I rarely use the timer function with flash. Anyway, how about covering up the popup flash for the pre-flash then uncover it for the one 2 secs later?



Ok I just tried out the timer method and if you cover the pop-up well enough then all should work fine. A little cumbersome though.

[adiknaim]

hey.. thanks for the suggestions Gengh and darr.. i shall try it out and feedback later on...

[adiknaim]

haha...back.. juz tried it.. yep.. it works as suggested... but ya, a bit troublesome.. but guess i shall have to stick wif that for now till i can afford a radio trigger or sumthing.. thanks guys!

[Gengh]

Cool, thanks guys for confirming that it works! I was wondering for a while but had no way to confirm it.