Flash transceiver

[jonathan7007]

The 90EX can act as a Master controller but when set for wireless (Master) it will not fire. So the 90 cannot be fill light for a [Canon-style]wireless setup. I was bummed to read that in the Canon manual for the little unit. It says"optical" trigger but I believe Canon means IR only. The sensors on the other units need to be pointed back toward the 90 and the camera, unless you are lucky enough to get consistent bounce of the IR while shooting inside where the walls provide an efficient enough scatter.

I bought the Speedlite 270EXII a little while ago and it has a "Slave" setting only so cannot act as a controller while on the camera. That is annoying as they added this so soon after in the 90.

jonathan7007

[Dukinald]

The 90EX can act as a Master controller but when set for wireless (Master) it will not fire. So the 90 cannot be fill light for a [Canon-style]wireless setup. I was bummed to read that in the Canon manual for the little unit. It says"optical" trigger but I believe Canon means IR only. The sensors on the other units need to be pointed back toward the 90 and the camera, unless you are lucky enough to get consistent bounce of the IR while shooting inside where the walls provide an efficient enough scatter.

I bought the Speedlite 270EXII a little while ago and it has a "Slave" setting only so cannot act as a controller while on the camera. That is annoying as they added this so soon after in the 90.

jonathan7007

Good to know that a cheaper speedlite can be used as master although via optical mechanism only. Most of the time the master is disabled anyway (very low to no power)  so if the 90ex is always disabled, not really too much of a con.

[jhanken]

Having had pretty much the same problem, I just ordered two Yongnuo YN-622C's. Depending on your location, you should be able to get them for anywhere between 80 and 100 USD for the pair. Anything cheaper will be far less versatile. Most alternatives with equal functionality are more expensive (Pocket Wizards, Phottix Odin) or again less functional (Phottix Strato, older YN's). Flip side is that build quality of YN is far from stellar.

My copy of the Yongnuo YN-622C worked for a while on my 5D classic, now when I mate them, my 5D goes into hang cycle when I push the shutter release, like it is trying to save a photo to the card but cannot.  I won't try it again out of fear it will bonk by camera. I use the Cactus V5, they work great if you don't need TTL.