Advise needed

fullthrottle

So I am in need of some advise so sorry if this is not the right forum for this or not. Anyway I have a 5D mrk iii and recently brought the canon 600ex-rt flash as i could not find a 580ex ii in my area. My question is this, I want to use this flash off camera and was wondering what one would need to do this?? What type of cord could i use? I have pocket wizards but i find they are bit bulky.. Also i do not have the funds to go out and buy the ST-E3 RT transmitter..

I brought this question up to a worker at Henrys, a canadian photography store and he had said you didn't need anything just the camera...though i really find this hard to believe but i was wondering if anyone on here maybe able to shed some light to this...Thanks

ziggy53

I don't think that the Canon 5D MKIII has any sort of intrinsic wireless flash capability, either optical or radio wireless flash, so I think that if you want E-TTL you will want at the very least a Yongnuo ST-E2 wireless optical transmitter (commander/controller), which I believe that the Speedlite 600EX-RT can slave against. (It's my understanding that the 600EX-RT can work with both optical and radio wireless flash protocols.)

Yes, there are off-camera cords available, but the shorter versions are only really good for a flash on a flash bracket, and the quality longer off-camera cords are priced similar to the above wireless optical transmitter.

http://ocfgear.com/cords-for-canon-ettl/ettl-cord-extra-long/
http://www.paramountcords.com/products.asp?cat=93

The 600EX-RT has a Manual mode as well as an Auto mode. You could use any number of radio trigger/slave units with those modes, and some of the more advanced radio trigger/slaves allow remote manual power control. Prices vary from extremely economical for the simpler sets to medium expensive for the more advanced units.

Pretty much everything else gets pricey.

fullthrottle

Thanks for the info Ziggy, I had a gut the guy at the store was bullshitting me or just plain didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Again thanks for the info I think I"m going to take a look into one of those Yongnuo ST-E2.