Cano Speedlite EX 2 flash - bit of help.

[Mr Felix]

I have a 480 EXII flash.

I am playing with second curtain flash and am a bit confused.

I *HAVE* read the manual, but it doesn't seem to explain what I am seeing happen.

I put the flash on my 550D and turn both on.

Go into the camera menu and find the flash and set it for second curtain flash.

Set the camera to M, F22 and set a 30 second exposure.

The inbuilt flash is DOWN.

I press the shutter release and there is a flash.

30 seconds later another flash.

Image ok.

But reading the manual, it doesn't tell me what is going on. Well, not in a way I can understand.

Anyone - please.

[nardes]

Is the first flash a pre-flash (or test exposure) where the 480 pops to determine the correct exposure but does not fire the shutter?

Then the shutter opens and at the end of the exposure (2nd curtain), the “real” flash pops using the exposure calculated from the pre-flash.

Cheers

Dennis

[I @ M]

But reading the manual, it doesn't tell me what is going on. Well, not in a way I can understand.

Don't panic about that too much, manuals are usually quite good about telling you how to do things but very often they don't go into a lot of detail about the way the process happens.

I think that the explanation from Dennis in the post above is probably the right one.

[Mr Felix]

Thanks guys,

I thought that was the case, as the picture wasn't too bad. But I wanted to be sure.

[arthurking83]

A basic understanding of what the rear curtain flash setting is for would have been some help to you.



Rear-curtain sync:

Some modern electronic cameras include the ability to fire the flash just before the closing of the shutter, so that moving objects will show a streak where they came from and a sharp image where they were at the end of the exposure, useful for moving objects to convey a sense of speed. This mode is called either rear-curtain sync or 2nd-curtain sync.

from Wikipedia

[Mr Felix]

Yes Arthurking83.

That is what I was wanting to do.

However, until "now" I haven't had such a flash. For the times I did need one I used the "built in" one.

But seeing what you can do with that function I am STARTING my learning curve.

[arthurking83]

Yes Arthurking83.

That is what I was wanting to do.

However, until "now" I haven't had such a flash. For the times I did need one I used the "built in" one ......

The onboard flash on your Canon should also have the capability to do rear/2nd curtain sync.
I have yet to hear of any DSLR(with onboard flash) without the ability to do so.

[Mr Felix]

Well there ya go.

As built in flashes are a recent thing and I haven't really looked into it too much, I never went into the "local flash"'s settings.

But it does have that option.