Tag: 550 EX

Canon 550EX Review/Eulogy

Jason3 Comments

Hardware Review/Eulogy – The Canon 550 EX

550ex_586x225
Ah, how I loved thee, the Canon 550 EX, with your 3 flash modes, ETTL, Manual and Multi mode.  You were especially wonderful because of how well the ETTL worked in conjunction with the Canon bodies.  Your typical standard hotshoe fit every Canon SLR from the first days of DSLR’s (I think)), and you worked beautifully both as a slave and as a master via the toggle just below the button panel.

Another especially nice feature you had was the variable power settings when in manual, where I was able to adjust you from full power down to 1/128th power.  YOu also were very kind in allowing me to adjust your zoom range from 24mm to 105mm for the range of output too.   Compatability with the ST-E2 and the infra-red line of sight was another added benefit, although the infra-red technology has dated you beyond use in the current spectrum of choices.

When it comes to working in master-slave modes, you were pretty rockin’ though.  The ability to adjust ratios from 1:1 all the way to +/- 1:8 was pretty sweet, as was the ability to  assign you to one of three different groups, A, B, or C.  Although I’ve never used you in the multi-mode, the options there seem quite nice as well.

The Flash exposure bracketing, and High Speed sync with later EOS models has been a nice feature for me too, which is why I’ve hung on to you as long as I have – provided I’ve got the batteries and power to support it!

However, it was your time to go as you did not have a full-360 degree rotation on the head (without a hack), and your vertical tilt only had 3 adjustments at 60, 75, and 90 degrees. You also went through your 4 AA batteries like a hot knife through butter without the accessory battery pack (pricey in its own right).

Additionally, at a smidge over 14 ounces without batteries, and your large size (3.1 x 5.4 x 4.4) you’ve taken up a lot of space in the gear bag.  YOur remote limitations also had their downside since I could only fire you with the ST-E2 or Canon proprietary cable.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Canon gear, but sometimes others had flashes that I would like to have been able to use or borrow and could have if only you had a PC-sync plug.  Sure, workarounds and jerry-rigged devices are out there (which I have ended up using), but the endless testing, mis-fires, and other tangential effects of a home-made brew had some less than desirable outputs.

Ahhh…550EX, I loved thee well – you shall work well as a secondary with your newer cousin, the 580 EX II when she arrives in another month or so!  But when she arrives, I shall bid thee farewell, relegating you to the dust mites of my camera bag.  Good thing your owner kept your vitals intact here

Until that day, I’ll shoot again tomorrow!  (Happy shooting everyone!)

Grab the Feed

Cactus, Trigger, Zebra, Oh My!

Jason6 Comments

Remember the old game of password where you said a related word to one on your card to get your partner to guess it?  Well, here goes:  What do the words cactus, trigger, and zebra all have in common?  If you answered “flash photography” you’d be right!  As you may have realized, that does mean that the podcast will not come out today – I simply didn’t have time to get all my thoughts and notes together.  So instead, here’s a review of sorts that I did just earlier this evening.

A while back I decided to ditch the Canon ST-E2 wireless trigger for a number of reasons – those being:

  1. It relied on line-of-sight
  2. It didn’t have a very good range
  3. It wouldn’t work with non-Canon gear

I, like many others, have been salivating over the new developments in radio trigger technology.  And, at my last job, I had access to multiple lights, strobes, and such for experimentation.  So, in order to do said experimentation, I decided to invest in some Cactus Triggers that I purchased off an online web vendor (I forget the vendor off the top of my head – search the archives and I am sure it’s there…).  Much to my chagrin though, it would not work with my Canon 550EX flash.  So, when I left my previous job, it was back to the ST-E2.  In order to spur some motivation to invest in some more serious lighting gear on my own, I decided to sell the ST-E2 to fund the purchase of some Cyber Syncs.

Long story short, I ended up with no off-camera method to trigger my one flash unit.  So, I was back on-camera.  Needless to say, ambient light photography was a large focus for that time period.  Well, after the economy stabilized a little for the household with my state job, I decided to invest in the Cyber Syncs – but as a measure of insurance, wanted to make sure the devices would work in my 550EX (the 550EX does not have a sync port).  So, a quick email to them revealed that a neat little device from the folks over at Flash Zebra would make the Cyber Syncs compatible.  A mere $14 later and the device arrived late last week (while I was in SC).  So, next month the Cyber Syncs will be making their way to my doorstep.

In the meantime, I have these Cactus triggers, and I thought with the inclusion of a sync port, perhaps I could jerry-rig something together.  With the sync port going out to what looks to be an RC-mini, and the receiver also going out to an RC-mini, I needed a way to join two RC-mini’s together.  A quick dig through my various buckets of cables and connectors revealed a dual mini that is normally used to connect to headphones to a single audio.  Worth a shot, since it’s only about $50 total invested.  I connected everything together to get this:

lightcables

On your left is the trigger that came from Cactus, to the RC male.  A reducer on that took it to an RC-mini male.  In the center is the well-hidden PC-sync device that came from Flash Zebra.  (For a better picture, see below…)  A female sync port on that was able to connect to the male sync port that was included with my Cactus gear.  That also went to an RC-mini male.  These are both connected on the right to the y-connector that you would typically see two headsets connect to the same audio source.  The technology is the same, so it’s worth a shot right?  (No pun intended…)

I fired off a test shot from the 40D and it worked!  So, how well would it work?  What kind of reliability would there be?  I took the flash into the next room and fired the trigger from a further distance away…about 20 feet.  Flash!  Then I took the trigger around the corner and fired it.  Flash!  How cool is that?  Another set of tests was needed.  One where radio waves wouldn’t bounce all over the place – outside!  If you recall, I interviewed Scott Eccleston from Weekly Photo Tips a while back, and a recent post of his armed me with a good testing method of the Cactus triggers.  Armed with the inspiration of this video, I enlisted the aid of my wife and took to the great outdoors.

I began with a fresh set of batteries in both the trigger and receiver, as well as the flash.  Starting from ten steps away from the flash, I tripped the shutter – flash!  Twenty paces – flash!  Thirty paces – flash!  Fourty paces – nada.  Hmmm…tried again – nada.  So, I moved back to 35 paces – still nada.  A couple steps closer and it flashed again.  About four more tests at this distance and I had 100% flash rate.  Starting back to my wife, I counted the paces, 1-2-3… all the way to 33 paces.  At an average gait of 3 feet per pace, that’s an outside range of 99 feet!  Considerably better than the ST-E2 and at a third of the price!

For posterity’ sake, and since I am in a very casual way reviewing the PC-sync adaptor from Flash Zebra, here’s a better shot of just that device.

zebra

Also for posterity sake, here’s a view of the trigger that attached to the hot shoe of the 550EX:

trigger2

Go soak your gear!

Jason5 Comments

It pays to review your web traffic periodically because I just learned a way that your bathtub can be used for photography!  Not only is it a good place to mellow out after a stressful shoot, but it also makes a heckuva softbox!  I was on a forum that had referenced the blog and a guy had some product that he placed in his tub.  I thought it was an interesting idea, and decided to give it a try.  As it turns out, the tub is a great place to put your gear!  Granted, not to soak it (sorry, but I had to tease the title that way), but to act as a great background and softbox combined in one.

Here’s a few sample shots.  For all the tech-types, these are pretty much straight out of camera (or sooc) – all I did was adjust the WB for Flash and adjust the ACR sharpening from 25 to 75.  All are resized to 650px wide for the blog.  Here’s the setup:  I took the Canon kit lens (18-55) on my 40D, threw on the 550EX, and set everything to default values.  Shutter at standard sync speed of 250, aperture at f8 and ISO at 100.  I powered the 550EX at it’s standard setting, on camera (relax strobists – I can hear you shuddering from here),  and started firing a few shots.  I pointed the flash to camera right and got this:

ruler1

Yup, that’s a God-awful shot, with a nasty shadow.  Perhaps I could ditch the shadow.  Since we’re not exactly using conventional wisdom here, let’s try it with the flash pointed straight at the subject:

ruler2

Hey!  That’s actually not too bad.  It’s not that great, and still definitely a “Meh” kind of shot as it’s still got something of a shadow.  So, I spun the flash to fire above me and bounce off the ceiling:

ruler3

Voila!  You know what?  For being a spur of the moment thing, and without a lot of pre-planning or preparation, that’s not bad at all.  And, it was shot in a bathtub!  Anyone else out there have a bathtub?  Try some shots in it for different items.  I used a tape measure, but what about a pen, or a microphone, or a printer, or even a lens?  I bet you could get some pretty cool results with very little setup!  Anyone else have some odd or unusual ways to get clean backgrounds and even lighting on the cheap?  Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback in the comments.  Feel free to link your own efforts there too!  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Cactus Confusion

Jason5 Comments

Well, I finally got the Cactus gear that I ordered online at GadgetInfinity last week.  I had ordered their wireless trigger/receiver combo set and an extra receiver for the purpose of getting two lights to fire.  I excitedly opened all the packaging and unwrapped it all, then – stop, hold the phones, and check this out – I read the directions!

Yes, that’s right, an admitted geek read directions to make sure I utilize them right.  After reading about these kinds of things on David Hobby’s Strobist site and over on the Flickr Colorado Strobist site, I wanted to make sure I don’t accidentally fry either my precious 40D or the cheapo 550EX because of improper usage.

Well, after reading through the massive 1/4 page sheet of instructions, I was confused so I sorted back through the gear and here’s what I have:

Cactus Gear

Cactus Gear

Cactus Gear

So, I am not sure what the one cable is for on the right of the trigger (transmitter).  Is that supposed to plug into the transmitter, or the transceiver?  If you look at the back of the transceiver, there’s a funky little plug there that looks as if it is made to accept the one female end to that spare cable.  Meanwhile, the other end looks to be another RCA mini, and the side receptacle on the transmitter is built to take an RCA mini.  Not sure I understand why, as the trigger would normally be connected to the hot shoe of your flash.

Finally, it looks as though in order to get these triggers to work with a Canon 550EX, I would need an adaptor cable of sorts that would change an RCA mini to a female version of that three-prong set on the 550.  Any ideas from those out in the blogosphere?

Lest I forget you, dear readers, here’s a brief bout of humor courtesy of What the Duck:

HAPPY HALOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Don’t get too hyped up on sugar – you’ll get camera shake!  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here on Monday!  Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help me sort out this wireless trigger confusion! 🙂

Usual becomes unusual

Jason3 Comments

Lighting Objects

The tutorial for this Tuesday, you may notice is not your typical Photoshop tip, trick, or tutorial. I took things outside of the desktop and into the real world to show you examples of thinking outside the box when it comes to lighting. By now we are all familiar with Strobist, and the methods he uses to encourage people to think about lighting and how to do things in an economically friendly way.

Today, I wanted to take a moment to share with you a few lighting ideas I’ve had and some of the effects they’ve produced. None of these home-made products cost me more than 15 cents! Anyway, I’ll let the tutorial stand alone, but did want to include the show notes:

Tune in to Strobist for anything and everything lighting you ever wanted to read – David Hobby is the lighting guru of the blog world!

David was interviewed recently on Studio Lighting, so now I’ve listened to their podcast, and it’s definitely one to return to. These guys just sound like they’re a lot of fun.

And the shots… you saw the montage up top, but here’s the individual shots from my diffused snoot:

Horizontal View

Vertical View

Angled View

So, there’s just a few examples of how to generate creative lighting by looking at usual objects in unusual ways. Tune in to the podcast to see what other stuff I’ve come up with. Because it was recorded outside of the computer though, I only have the Quicktime version. I am still looking into a decent Flash converter so I can put that together with the “intro” and “out-tro” clips, so if anyone has suggestions for that, I am all ears there too. Anyway, to close out, I’d like to pose another question: What have you come up with in the way of uses? Any everyday objects become part of your photo gear? Share ’em in the comments section!

Thursday Thoughts

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Well, I am still not back to 100% but am heading to bead early tonight.  Just a short thought on rechargeable batteries.  I bought some Energizer 2500 NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA’s for my 550 EX last fall when I bought the flash.  Having recently acquired an ST-E2, I was excited to put it to use.  It worked for a while, and then died rather quickly.  Thinking it was the batteries, I recharged them last night and tried again this evening with very little success (one flash then kaput.) Continue reading “Thursday Thoughts” →