Wireless Canon Speelite not working outside?

Graham Cracker

I have the Canon STE2 Speedlite Transmitter for Canon 580EX II and the 580EXII flash. I have used this multiple times outside for portrait shoots and worked great. I am now heading back into football season and attempting to mount my flash upside down on my monopod to avoid ghost eyes or red eyes. When I tried the set-up inside the transmitter worked perfect. When I went outside to shoot a subject 15 yards away it would not fire the flash. Brought it back in and it worked. I tried it a second time outside, still no flash. Do these run off of an infrared signal and thus outside had nothing to "bounce" off of? Any suggestions are welcomed as the first football scrimmage is tomorrow night. Thanks Patrick :scratch

ziggy53

Yes, both Canon and Nikon wireless flash control is optical and requires line-of-sight for outdoor use. I have used aluminum foil and white paper to form a reflector to help with outdoor use.

For future reference RF master/slave sets are far more reliable outdoors. I use simple 16 channel RF units with great success. I just run the remote flashes in manual mode and they work reliably and with little fuss.

jeffreaux2

You need line of sight indoors and out. You are only getting a lucky bounce indoors with the infra red signal.

The red window on front of the STE2 has to be able to "see" the red window at the front of the flash.


The best solution for what you are trying to rig would be a Canon Off Camera Shoe Cord. It will allow ETTL control and should be sufficiently long to stretch down the monopod. I think around 2 feet in length.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/498744-REG/Canon_1950B001_OC_E3_Off_Camera_Shoe.html

There are ways to extend this also.


http://www.diyphotography.net/the-strobist-corner-extending-your-ttl-flash-cord

or

http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157594546073354/

colourbox

If you need an ETTL cord longer than Canon's, you can get it from flashzebra:
http://flashzebra.com/ttlcords/ettlcords/index.shtml

I don't have one, but a friend of mine does and says it works great. And yes, if you are using the IR wireless flash transmitter and don't pay strict attention to whether the Speedlite's IR receiver is actually turned to an angle that can "see" the infrared signal from the transmitter, you'll lose shots.

rwells

This setup works great, and 100% reliable.

From the Dgrin Tutorials: Sport Shooting at Night Using Flash

Graham Cracker

rwells wrote: »

This setup works great, and 100% reliable.

From the Dgrin Tutorials: Sport Shooting at Night Using Flash

Thanks to all. I purchased two canon cords and it worked perfect. Only issue was I put it too far down the monopod and first go round looks like in a cave. Every where the turf was torn up it casts a shadow like a stalagmite every where. Good thing it was a scrimmage for photographer as well. thanks for the help. Patrick