topic 600ex ii as on-camera master in Speedlite Flashes

600ex ii as on-camera master

coachboz68 — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 20:36:39 GMT

I have been a canon user for ~12 years, but almost exclusively sports. when not sports, natural light only. Now interested in venturing into off-camera flash photography. My first quesiton is basic and painfully newbie.

If I use the 600ex ii as an on-camera master in optical transmission mode to fire my 580ex ii, can I have it such that the 600 itself does not fire, but only triggers the off-camera 580? Or does the on-camera always HAVE to fire even if acting as a master?

In addition, one may naturally ask why spend all that money on a 600 when I can just get an transmitter for the 580 off camera. Well, I'm just learning this stuff, but I have two daughters who are doing photography who will inherit my 580 and I don't see them doing off-camera for a good while, so I may as well get the 600 now and play with off-camera before giving the 580 to them. Then I'll get a transmitter for the 600. Body is a 1DX II.

Thanks!

Billy

Re: 600ex ii as on-camera master

kvbarkley — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 21:25:28 GMT

No, you can choose to have the master fire to help the exposure or not, or any level in beteeen.

Re: 600ex ii as on-camera master

coachboz68 — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 15:41:48 GMT

Thank you!

Also, if anyone has good resources on speedlite off-camera usage for newbies, would appreciate the references.

thanks!

Re: 600ex ii as on-camera master

kvbarkley — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 23:39:40 GMT

The best resource is Syl Arena's Speedliter's handbook, but sadly it is out of print. Only e-reader and used versions are reasonably priced.