EOS-1DS Mark III & Speedlite 550EX: Trouble setting up high-speed sync

[Steve_B]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me on this. I have ordered an as new used 600EX-RT in case this can't be resolved. If it can I have a back up flash gun. I haven't had the DS1 that long (I got it with fewer than 300 shutter releases!) and still delving into the menus discovering what it can do. Of course it has a fast flash synch speed and to that end I also bought a mint CP-E2 external power pack for the flash so it can keep up if shooting at high frame rates. In my research I found that the flash needed to be on E-TTL and find the 'H' symbol in the display to initiate what I wanted to do. Easy! No.

 I pressed the CF button on the flash and tried to cycle the menu to get E-TTL and the 'H'. Wouldn't do it. Reading the instruction book I found that the flash parameters can be controlled from the camera menu which I thought pretty good, and tried that approach. And though I found the screen for changing the flash settings, and everything was switched on, it was asking me to connect the flash and turn it on (Which it was). I then randomly pressed the CF button and the other flash display buttons until it popped up in the camera screen where I could change to E-TTL.. Great. But I still can't get the 'H' setting. (This is when I thought the flash is maybe faulty)

Needless to say, I cannot yet get high speed shutter/flash release even with the power pack attached to keep up with recharging the flash. All ideas and advice gratefully recieved.

[deebatman316]

Press the + and - buttons at the same time to enable HSS. HSS is not exclusive to E-TTL it can be used with Manual Flash and Multi Flash. That button combo will cycle through First Curtain sync (default mode), 2nd/ Rear Curtain Sync and then High Speed Sync. The 550EX is too old to be controlled from the camera’s menu screen. On a camera released in or after 2007. You must make all setting changes on the speedlite itself. Flash Exposure Compensation can be either set on the camera or the speedlite. Note if set on both the camera and speedlite. The speedlite’s setting overrides the camera’s. The External Speedlite Control Menu only works with speedlites released from 2008 onward. Using an older speedlite on a newer camera such as yours. When you try to set things from the camera’s menu screen. It will report that the speedlite is turned off or incompatible. Your speedlite is working correctly and there is no problem with it. You’ll just have to set stuff on the speedlite itself. Which isn’t a problem because your speedlite has a full set of controls on it.