I couple weeks ago I bought the Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2. I'd just finished reading Lighting 101 over at Strobist (which if you haven't read, you need to stop reading this and go read that instead) and was itching to get my flash off the camera and start lighting stuff remotely.
I have an old Speedlite 420ex from about 8 years ago. So all I really needed was the transmitter. Pocket Wizard definately offers more flexibility, but I decided to go with the ST-E2 as a cheap way to get started with my existing flash. (the old 420ex has no manual mode, though its replacement, the 430ex does)
Also, I was shooting my sister's wedding the following weekend and I was not comfortable learning manual flash in the time I had to prepare. I wanted to leave it up to ETTL flash metering and tweak the power with the flash ex comp controls on the camera. While a little hit or miss, this is a technique I am comfortable with, and a wedding is not the place to cut your teeth on a new lighting technique.
The ST-E2 unit itself takes one CR5 lithium battery which is not included in the box. This was annoying because I didn't figure this out until I got home and tried to test the thing. There is support for two channels, A and B, and you can set ratios between the channels from 8:1 to 1:8. This means you can do cool things like make your fill flash less powerful than the main flash, or vary the intensity of backlighting and stuff like that.
The ST-E2 uses IR to tell the flash to fire, and I was a little worried about the line of sight requirement. In the manual Canon has a cute diagram of two flashes lighting a penguin. (don't ask me why they chose a penguin) The diagram makes it clear that you need line of site from the transmitter to your flashes, and that your flashes can't be more then 8 meters away. But they do mention that indoors the IR signal can bounce off walls so line of sight might not always be required. I'm happy to report that this is accurate, actually it's an understatement.
In my tests it seems that you can put the flash pretty much anywhere in the room, and point the camerea in pretty much any direction in the same room. The flash always fires. I have even had good success shooting into a room from down a long hall, even though the flash was completely hidden from the camera. At the wedding, which was outdoors, I put two flashes on opposite sides of the dance floor. The dance floor was outdoors under a large white tent, and the same IR signal bouncing off of stuff rule applied. While under the tent I was able to point the camera in pretty much any direction and the flashes still fired. Cool!
Outdoors in an open area is a different story though. You really do need line of sight, and the angle from the transmitter to the flash can't be too sharp. Canon's penguin diagram holds true here.
All in all, I've been very happy with the results. After sweating it out with hot lights in the studio for years, and using bounce flash on camera outside of the studio, I feel like I've been given a new lighting gift. Why didn't I try this sooner?!
I have an old Speedlite 420ex from about 8 years ago. So all I really needed was the transmitter. Pocket Wizard definately offers more flexibility, but I decided to go with the ST-E2 as a cheap way to get started with my existing flash. (the old 420ex has no manual mode, though its replacement, the 430ex does)
Also, I was shooting my sister's wedding the following weekend and I was not comfortable learning manual flash in the time I had to prepare. I wanted to leave it up to ETTL flash metering and tweak the power with the flash ex comp controls on the camera. While a little hit or miss, this is a technique I am comfortable with, and a wedding is not the place to cut your teeth on a new lighting technique.
The ST-E2 unit itself takes one CR5 lithium battery which is not included in the box. This was annoying because I didn't figure this out until I got home and tried to test the thing. There is support for two channels, A and B, and you can set ratios between the channels from 8:1 to 1:8. This means you can do cool things like make your fill flash less powerful than the main flash, or vary the intensity of backlighting and stuff like that.
The ST-E2 uses IR to tell the flash to fire, and I was a little worried about the line of sight requirement. In the manual Canon has a cute diagram of two flashes lighting a penguin. (don't ask me why they chose a penguin) The diagram makes it clear that you need line of site from the transmitter to your flashes, and that your flashes can't be more then 8 meters away. But they do mention that indoors the IR signal can bounce off walls so line of sight might not always be required. I'm happy to report that this is accurate, actually it's an understatement.
In my tests it seems that you can put the flash pretty much anywhere in the room, and point the camerea in pretty much any direction in the same room. The flash always fires. I have even had good success shooting into a room from down a long hall, even though the flash was completely hidden from the camera. At the wedding, which was outdoors, I put two flashes on opposite sides of the dance floor. The dance floor was outdoors under a large white tent, and the same IR signal bouncing off of stuff rule applied. While under the tent I was able to point the camera in pretty much any direction and the flashes still fired. Cool!
Outdoors in an open area is a different story though. You really do need line of sight, and the angle from the transmitter to the flash can't be too sharp. Canon's penguin diagram holds true here.
All in all, I've been very happy with the results. After sweating it out with hot lights in the studio for years, and using bounce flash on camera outside of the studio, I feel like I've been given a new lighting gift. Why didn't I try this sooner?!
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