Can't change speedlight settings

[crockny]

I'm attempting to get my 580EXII off camera ... I

I have a unversal hotshoe and wire setup ... but sometimes when I attempt to adjust the settings on the slave (I managed to set it to slave!) by following the manual the speedlight is not doing what the manual says it will do - I'm attempting to adjust the speedlight disconnected from the camera ... for example changing the mode (M flashes but won't cycle through modes) or setting cfn options ... no cfn numbers come up to choose from ...

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?  Does it need to be on the camera?  The wire hookup won't let me adjust the speedlight from the camera menu as it says the speedlight is not connected, even though the wire is plugged in ...

[MikeSowsun]

If you are using an OC-E3 Off Camera Shoe Cord to use the camera off camera, you do not set the flash to slave. You just treat the camera as though it is actually on the camera. 

"camera menu as it says the speedlight is not connected, even though the wire is plugged in"

That tells me your cord is giving you bad connection between the camera and the flash. I would check the all the connections and contacts.

Is it a genuine Canon OC-E3 or a 3rd party item?   

[crockny]

It's a Lumopro sync cord with universal hot shoe translator ...

I'm told on another forum it only fires the flash.  Also I was told to switch the speedlight to "Master".  This has helped but I'm still having problems and the pilot light keeps going out on the speedlight ...

[MikeSowsun]

If you just want to fire your flash off camera, that cord should work. Just put the flash in manual mode. There is no need to use "Master" or "Slave". 

If the Pilot light goes off, either your battery is dead, or the flash is going into Auto Power Off mode to save battery power. There is a Custom Function that will turn this off.

You can set custom functions on the flash by itself, but it is much easier if you put the flash on the camera and use the Camera's Flash Menu to make changes.

From your earlier post I assume you have a newer camera with a full Flash Menu. You can not use this menu for an external flash unless the flash is mounted in the hotshoe or a full ETTL sync cord like the OC-E3. 

[tnicoson]

crockny

Several months ago, when my old Canon off-camera cord of many, many years finally gave up the ghost, and I went with the new OC-E3 cord, I suddenly began experiencing similar erratic behavior from my 430EX-II.   The problem turned out to be that the contact points on the connector (foot) at the camera end were much more strongly spring loaded and did not retract as easily as those on the old cord.  Consequently, I was not getting the connector (foot) all the way into the camera shoe by about 1/64 inch, but that was enough to cause an intermittent connection.  Make sure you are inserting that connector fully into the camera shoe.  As a matter of course, make sure you are fully inserting the flash connector (foot) all the way into the shoe at the other end of the cord, but so far, I have not had a problem with that - just the camera shoe end.

Regards,

Ted

[crockny]

Thanks - I don't use the camera shoe - I can plug directly into the 7D ... that being said, the Universal Translator Shoe I have on the lightstand is pretty stiff and there may be a connection issue there ...

I haven't had time to fool with it lately but hope to be up and running soon!

[MikeSowsun]

If the flash fires you have no connection issue.

I realize now that you have a simple "PC" cord which just fires the flash and nothing else. It will work with any flash, but provides no communication to the camera.

If you are using the flash off camera, don't try to access the camera flash menu as it will not work at all with this kind of a set-up. You must use the flash in manual mode and you must not set the flash to Slave or Master.

Any flash menu selections must be done on the flash itself. You could set-up the flash using the camera menu if the flash is in the camera hotshoe. Most settings should remain if you remove the flash but some items may need to be set again using the flash if it powers off or goes into power saving mode.