Julian Loke wrote:
> > "F. Craig Callahan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > It would seem that there's no way to have the 420EX fire at a
> > different intensity than the 550EX used to trigger it ...
>
> Hi Craig,
>
> That statement is not correct. The WETTL master can control the
> output of three groups of slaves.
>
> The Elan 7E brochure and the 550EX manual are more informative
> about wireless flash and ratio control. There is even a recent
> photo.net thread about this topic:
> http://www.photo.net/bboard/q%2Dand%2Da%2Dfetch%2Dmsg?msg%5Fid=001QD3
Hi Julian,
I'm not disagreeing with you in any way, but. . . . :-)
That discussion is somewhat less than enlightening, don't you think? There seems
to be a substantial proportion of speculation, along with �tests� that consist
of trying to evaluate flash intensity �by eye� rather than on film. There also
seems to be some clearly incorrect information: for example, one contributor
keeps talking about using the flash compensation function of the camera to
control the ratio of external flash units, but the manual for the 550EX says
nothing about this that I can see, while it does say that the compensations on
the flash itself override any settings made on the body (of the EOS 3 at any
rate), and explicitly says to set exposure compensation on the 550EX itself.
Regarding the manual for the 550EX: as it was written before the 420EX was
introduced (or even designed??), it of course is referring to other 550EX units
used as slaves. So the question arises, can the 550EX (or the ST-E2) emulate the
flash-control functions of the Elan 7/EOS 30 when used as a control unit for one
or more 420EX units? Will a 420EX respond to the ratio commands transmitted by a
550EX in the same way another 550EX would? This becomes important since with the
Elan 7, as with the EOS 3, setting flash exposure compensation on the 550EX
overrides any settings made on the body (this is in the Elan 7 manual). The
Elan7 brochure shows examples of 420EX units used as slaves, but says nothing
about ratio control.
Anyway, these are the sorts of questions this discussion raises for me�I don't
have answers, or even opinions! Although I'm not in a position to be thinking
about buying another flash anytime soon, it's good to understand the options,
and as it stands now I see few reasons to choose a 420EX over a 550EX as a
second flash unit (and the ST-E2 doesn't seem cost-effective since you spend all
that money and still have only a single light source).
Craig
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