60D Won't Trigger Xit xt700e External Flash

[davebaer]

Hey guys! Brand new to the forums and also a new Canon user. 

I have the 60D with an Xit xt700e flash. It's supposed to be able to be triggered externally but I can't get it to work. It works fine on the hotshoe but not off. I've tried numerous tutorials and the instructions(which read like broken engrish) to no avail. If it's in the hotshoe I can access the External Flash Function Setting but not the External Flash C.Fn Setting as it gives me this error - "The menu cannot be displayed...Incompatible flash or flash's power is turned off." - and the flash is clearly on. 

The flash mode is TTL but the camera setting is E-TTL II. Does this make any difference? There is a TTL mode in the camera's External Flash Function Setting but it's grayed out and I cannot change the mode to it. In fact, no matter what mode I choose, it stays in E-TTL II, it won't let me change to any other mode.

I'm at a loss here. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

[hsbn]

You can only access and change the C.Fn if it is a Canon flash, not third party one. Thus the message "incompatible flash".
You can only trigger Canon flash wirelessly using built-in flash commander in the 60D. With 3rd party flash, you'll need some type of radio trigger such as pocket wizzard.

[davebaer]

hsbn: Thanks for the reply. That eases my mind about the C.Fn feature. 

As for the flash triggering remotely, I got it to work. I changed the mode to S1 and it works fine now. I did this before and it didn't work, but, for some reason, it is now. The only thing is that it needs to be in direct sight with the camera flash in order to trigger. If it's obstructed, it doesn't work. 

[diverhank]

S1 will only give you manual, right? Did you try S2? If it works for S1, it should work for S2 and this is for ETTL.

[davebaer]

It works in S2 also, but still needs the on-board flash to trigger. I would like it to trigger without any camera flash.

[Skirball]

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@davebaer wrote:

It works in S2 also, but still needs the on-board flash to trigger. I would like it to trigger without any camera flash.

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Are you talking having the external flash physically off the camera?  If so the only choice would be an optical trigger (using the camera's flash), or as HSBN says, get radio triggers.  You can pick up some Yongnuo triggers for real cheap.  The RF-602s will only set you back $25, but they only work manually.  The 622s have TTL if your flash supports it, but those are about $80 for a set.

[davebaer]

Thanks for all the info guys! Guess I have a few options there. I'm loving this camera. Sure beats the one on my Galaxy SIII. haha!

[hsbn]

Still if you have some extra $, get a radio trigger. It's more reliable.