Want to try off camera lighting but which system?

Check Syl Arena's blog www.pixsylated.com for canon ttl thoughts

I'm figuring you're already familiar with David Hobby's Strobist site it you've bought into Lumopro.

If you want to just dip a toe in the water, manual is significantly less expensive.

Hi,

" .. So what direction should I go - Canon TTL or Full Manual Fuji (or Canon)? .. "

There is a third option to consider - which is M flash, but remotely adjusted M flash. ie with the M power fractions set from the camera position. This functionality is usually a subset under a TTL capable tech.

Remember it's easy to dumb down but less easy to smart up. Pixel make the best pc 'out' adapter for your T4i - but pc connections are pretty flakey/unreliable.

Consider starting by using 'Canon Wireless Light/IR type' from your T4i and controlling an off-cam Phottix 'Mitros' flash. This would get you started without shutting any doors - the Mitros 'speaks' Canon Wireless - but is also a brill simple M unit too. But later if you want full ETTL, HSS smarts over Radio, then simply add a Phottix Odin Radio link down the line.

Or - Yongnuo offer their Yn 603 Mark IIs (simple M but good) or their Yn 622Cs (ETTL, HSS etc) but make sure your Speedlites are fully compatible if going with latter.

There's a lot to read, but the Flashhavoc site has good info. Good luck!

TTL is great for run-and-gun photography. But that will rarely be off camera! When shopping for a manual strobe, check if it supports remote control (not just triggering). The main drawback to my low budget manual light is that I have to hop back and forth to the light for adjustments. But otherwise manual control is really a breeze.

Kelly Cook

If you are like David Hobby was, a photojournalist, then using on-camera flash or having an off-camera flash behind a small 24" umbrella on a stick and using TTL makes sense because the subject to flash distance isn't fixed.

If your off-camera is on a stand then chances are that the subject to flash distance is fixed and the last thing you want to use is TTL. Every time the background changes, the subject clothes change, or you change the ratio of background to subject by moving closer or further or zooming then the TTL exposure will change. Correcting every exposure one at a time is a post processing nightmare.

If you go to manual power control on your off-camera flash then every exposure is the same as long as the subject to flash distance stays the same. Even if the exposure is off a bit you can correct the exposure on one image then simply copy the change to all the other images in batch mode.

I recommend the Yongnuo YN-568EX II flash for you. It will allow you to shoot with your 650D in E-TTL mode if your subject to flash distance is constantly changing and in manual power control mode if the subject to flash distance is fixed. You can trigger the off-camera flash in E-TTL via the camera's built-in flash or via smart RF triggers. In Manual mode you can trigger it via the camera's built-in flash, via a sync cord, or via RF triggers.

You may be able to use this flash in manual power mode on your Fuji. Unless Fuji uses the same hot-shoe contacts arrangement and the same TTL triggers as Canon then only manual power control will work, no TTL.

RF triggers like the Yongnuo RF-603C are dumb "fire only" triggers but are cheap. The Canon version may also work on your Fuji camera.

Smart RF triggers like the Yongnuo YN-622C will give you complete control of the off-camera YN-568 II, in either E-TTL or Manual mode, right from the back of the 650D camera.

Speedlights.net | Yongnuo YN-468 Flash Review

Speedlights.net | Yongnuo YN-468II E-TTL Speedlite Flash “Mark 2″ (E-TTL II on-camera only)

I would get one good TTL flash for the Canon. There will always be a need for one good TTL flash. This can also be used as a manual flash for either system. As you build your system, you can then add dumb flashes from that point on.

Incidentally, the higher canon flashes (as well as others) have an AUTO flash mode. This uses the sensor on the front of the flash to accurately expose the scene without TTL. This would also work with Either system.

Auto-Thyristor style Auto - known in 'Canon speak' as - External A & External M, is available only from the discontinued 580ExII and both current 600Ex units.

Hopefully this functionality works as it should from both 600Ex versions, but the 580ExII had a calibration issue - or at least a very large proportion did. They are entirely useable but many/most had a 2 stop under-exposure mis-calibration. Fortunately they had an iso setting of 25 - so if you set that on the Speedlite while the camera was actually on iso 100, all was well (& pro-rata up the scale). Both my 580ExIIs are so afflicted - and I've heard of many others similarly. But presumably this has been addressed on the current units (& this over Canon Wireless RT type added too).

Several Metz units offer Auto-thyristor A tech too.

antares103 said:

I would get one good TTL flash for the Canon. There will always be a need for one good TTL flash. This can also be used as a manual flash for either system. As you build your system, you can then add dumb flashes from that point on.

Click to expand...

Good advice. Of course the Canon 430EX II and 600EX RT are good E-TTL flash units, but expensive ones. That is why I recommended the Yongnuo YN-568EX II. It isn't as rugged as the Canon flash units but it is a great bargain priced E-TTL flash for amateurs.

antares103 said:

Incidentally, the higher canon flashes (as well as others) have an AUTO flash mode. This uses the sensor on the front of the flash to accurately expose the scene without TTL. This would also work with Either system.

Click to expand...

As ScratchDisk said, this is the Auto-Tthyrister system. This system was developed and popular before TTL. The problem with it is the same as with TTL, every change in the brightness of the background or subject will result in a change in the amount of flash power, and thus a change in the exposure of the image.

If you change the ratio of subject to background by changing the subject to camera distance or changing the focal length of a zoom lens then TTL can cause the subject exposure to change even though the subject lighting hasn't changed.

Think of what would happen if you were using an off-camera TTL flash at a fixed subject to flash distance to take a photo of a blond bride in a white dress against a dark background. If you take a full length portrait then the camera will see a lot of dark background and a small subject in white. Because the camera sees so much black TTL will increase the amount of light from the flash to make the total image equal 50% gray. The wall will become dark gray, not black, and the bride will be overexposed.

Now if you zoom in for a head shot the camera will see a lot of white dress, a face, blond hair, and only a small amount of dark background so TTL will decrease the flash power to make the total image equal 50% gray. The bride's face and hair will be underexposed, the white dress will become gray, and the background goes completely black.

The Auto-Thyrister system will actually work better than TTL if the subject to flash distance is fixed but the camera to subject distance or focal length is constantly changing. The ratio of subject to background isn't important any more since the light reflected from the subject and background is now being sensed by the flash, not the camera's TTL system.

With the flash set to the same ISO as the camera you adjust the camera's aperture until you get the right exposure. You then happily fire away and you will get the same exposure every time even though you change the ratio of subject to background.

With Auto-Thyriester if you want to shoot at a specific aperture then you do what Scratchdisk said to do if the flash calibration is off. You fix the camera's ISO and aperture then adjust the Auto-Thyrister set flash power by changing the ISO value being used by the flash.

You would do the same thing if the Auto-Thyrister set flash power was too low or too high because the subject and/or background was too light (e.g. white clothing or background) or too dark (e.g. black clothing or background), throwing off the reflected light measurement by the Auto-Thyrister circuit. Just change the ISO value used by the flash until you get the right exposure.