3rd Party lenses and 580EX - Are they compatible?

cyoung

I just ordered a 580EX from B&H, and was reading up on the 580 and TTL-II.

One source says: http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/ettl2.html

Now that article never mentioned 3rd Party lenses like Tamron's or Sigma's, etc. So does that mean those lenses will use E-TTL and the lenses that return distance uses E-TTL II? Because NONE of my lenses seem to be listed. argh.....

Anyone have a 580ex and a Tamron or Sigma that they used together? Call me a newbie:dunno but I'm confused now :scratch

Mongrel

short answer....YES....
Any Canon compatible flash (Canon, Sigma, etc.) and any Canon mount lens (Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina) are 'ETTL' and 'ETTL II' *friendly* WHEN USED on an ETTL or ETTL II body.

However, there are certain advanced features and ETTL II tweaks that are only available when using ETTL II BODIES and the 580EX and 430EX flash units (better white balance is one of them I believe). Canon lenses that report distance information from the AF circuitry give the fullest ETTL II experience when used with compatible bodies and flash units. As far as I know, third party lenses do not report this information to the flash system.

I think Bob Atkins has a pretty decent article on the ETTL and ETTL II flash systems on his web page, but here is another article to check out:

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

I found the above article to be quite informative in understanding Canon's flash systems.

Hope this helps,

Mongrel

cmason

cyoung wrote:

I just ordered a 580EX from B&H, and was reading up on the 580 and TTL-II.

One source says: http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/ettl2.html

Now that article never mentioned 3rd Party lenses like Tamron's or Sigma's, etc. So does that mean those lenses will use E-TTL and the lenses that return distance uses E-TTL II? Because NONE of my lenses seem to be listed. argh.....

Anyone have a 580ex and a Tamron or Sigma that they used together? Call me a newbie but I'm confused now

The lens communicates focal length, apeture, etc to the camera, which takes that info to calculate E-TTL parameters. As long as the lens is compatible with the camera, including the autofocus...I suspect it is compatible with the flash, since the camera is communicating with the flash.

cyoung

Thanks for all the info Mongrel. I was thinking of reading that site and then replying......but I'm still reading it! lots of good info there

cmason wrote:

The lens communicates focal length, apeture, etc to the camera, which takes that info to calculate E-TTL parameters. As long as the lens is compatible with the camera, including the autofocus...I suspect it is compatible with the flash, since the camera is communicating with the flash.