Flash and Film body...

Candid Arts

So I have a 580 EXII that I use as my main flash, and a 420 EX when I do a Master/Slave set up. When I mount my 580 on my EOS 1 (1-gen pro level 35mm body camera) and turn the wireless on to trigger the 420, it's like the camera disables the wireless and reverts it back to ETTl or M mode (depending on what I had it on before I switched the wireless on, I think). Since the wireless function is in the flash itself (right?) why is the film body disabling the wireless function of the 580? I first thought it was just because the EOS 1 is so old, but then was like, wait, duh, the wireless function is apart of the flash not the camera body... So I got stumped.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Art Scott

My Konica Minolta 7D's have a feature in the menu of the camera to allow wireless or not......NO film camera has this.....Your canon EOS DSLR may have it integrated permanently so you do not need to turn it on or off....also the flahes your using are light years a head of the film cam......do the contacts on the bottom of the flash EXACTLY match those in the camera flash shoe???
There could be a problem if they do not match exactly......

Candid Arts

Art Scott wrote:

My Konica Minolta 7D's have a feature in the menu of the camera to allow wireless or not......NO film camera has this.....Your canon EOS DSLR may have it integrated permanently so you do not need to turn it on or off....also the flahes your using are light years a head of the film cam......do the contacts on the bottom of the flash EXACTLY match those in the camera flash shoe???
There could be a problem if they do not match exactly......

I'll look into the menu thing. The contacts do match up exactly, the flash otherwise works fully functionally, just disables the wireless function if I have it turned on.

Art Scott

Candid Arts wrote:

I'll look into the menu thing. The contacts do match up exactly, the flash otherwise works fully functionally, just disables the wireless function if I have it turned on.

That be because on of the flashes contacts is making a direct ground to the metal shoe of the camera.....that is proabably the contact for the wireless and maybe some other functions you have not noticed yet as not working.........

Candid Arts

Art Scott wrote:

That be because on of the flashes contacts is making a direct ground to the metal shoe of the camera.....that is proabably the contact for the wireless and maybe some other functions you have not noticed yet as not working.........

So you think the camera might be grounding out one of the contacts on the flash or vice versa? The camera and flash are both ETTL though, so wouldn't the contacts be for the same purposes with obviously the flashes contacts can do more because of the new awesome features?

ziggy53

Candid Arts wrote:

... I first thought it was just because the EOS 1 is so old, but then was like, wait, duh, the wireless function is apart of the flash not the camera body... So I got stumped.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The Canon EOS 1 series film camera does not use the same exposure system and an EX series flash should resort to A-TTL operation, and probably a simplifies A-TTL at that. I am not at all surprised to hear that wireless E-TTL is not functioning with a remote flash.

In order to get a fully functioning E-TTL II system you need:

Compatible flashes, used in "direct" orientation
Comaptible body
Compatible lenses

Anything less and you get a subset of features.

Specifically in the case of A-TTL there is no preflash and I believe that the wireless feature of E-TTL flashes relies on a preflash for setting the output and ratios of the respective flashes.

Art Scott

I knew we'd hear from Ziggy53 very soon.....or at least was hoping so, since I am not versed in Canon......I was stabbing best i could .........