77D won't fire external flash in live view

[drmikeinpdx]

Hey Friends, who can help me fix this problem?

I'm doing some macro photography with my 77D and my studio strobes. I have a flash trigger mounted in the hot shoe. It works fine in normal viewfinder mode, but when I use live view, the trigger isn't triggered.

My 5D3 doesn't have this problem with the same trigger. I can't find anything in the menu that disables/enables external flash in live view. What am I missing?

Any advice?

 

[neuroanatomist]

Set Live View Silent Shooting to Disable.

 

[drmikeinpdx]

Set Live View Silent Shooting to Disable.

That sounded promising Neuro, but I don't think the 77D has a silent shooting mode. At least I can't find it... OK, I just found a review that confirms the silent mode is absent from the 77D.

Any other ideas, Canon fans?

 

[neuroanatomist]

In fact, I think Live View Silent Shooting is the problem, the 77D has it, it's always on, and there's no way to disable it. The same is true of many Rebel cameras. Basically, Live View silent modes are using an electronic first curtain shutter, and Canon has deemed that incompatible with 3rd party flashes (IIRC, the technical reason is a sync timing issue). When you disable the feature (as I presume it's disabled on your 5DIII), the camera closes the curtain prior to taking the exposure. On the Rebels (and I now know, on the 77D), Live View still shooting always uses an electronic first curtain, there's no way to disable it. Therefore, you can only use a Canon flash in Live View. The 77D manual states that explicitly (p.222).

 

[drmikeinpdx]

Ah, that seems to be the case. Thanks Neuro!

I won't waste any more time on that, since I can shoot in dead view without too much trouble.

 

[neuroanatomist]

Was going to suggest using the PC sync port, but of course, the 77D lacks one. Depending on how important getting this to work is to you, it may be that a modified Canon OC-E3 could be used to fire the remote trigger (via an added aux jack). There's a guy who will modify off camera cords (and lots of other things as well):

http://michaelbass.blogspot.com/2006/01/off-camera-shoe-cords-mods-accessories.html#OCC_Mods

But, sounds like it's not worth the effort.

"Dead view," I like it.