Please suggest: On-camera + Off-camera lighting TRIGGER

[OneWayMule]

I have a very simple need:
To be able to RELIABLY trigger an off-camera flash (canon speedlight) while an on-camera flash is present.

My current set-up:
Canon 5d w/ 580ex II on top + PW Transceiver II connecting to the camera's pc-port. (see pic below)



Pros:
- Can use my existing PWs
- Allows me to only shoot on-camera flash, or only off-camera or both.

Cons:
- Extremely unreliable. Typically only a divine intervention will pop the off-camera flash (1 out of 5)
- A bit bulky to move around and the pc-cords don't stay in

I bought the MiniTT1 by PW thinking it's made exactly for this but nope... still very unreliable. The AC3 ZoneController sound great but will not allow on-camera flash (as far as I know)

Any suggestions or experience for a systems which will allow do this simple task w/o much fuss.

*TTL for off-camera would be HUGE bonus but i'll take manual all for consistent triggering.

[picman]

You could have a bad pc cable - I think your camera will take a screw lock pc cable.

I know that on some, maybe all, Canon cameras with build-in flash - activating the built in flash disables the pc terminal. I know yours doesdn't have built=in but I'm not sure if that is true with hot shoe flashes.

Take everything apart and just just individual components by themselves. Then try them in close proximity to each other - other PW triggers have had problems being close to 580s. None that I've heard about with Transceiver IIs, but you never know.

[KenJulio]

Radiopoppers PX system worked great when I was shooting Nikon and before I sold off my set. They were used during a wedding with sb900's, on-camera and for OCF, they also support High Speed Sync, which I tested a couple of months ago: SB900's + RadioPopper High Speed Sync = No Problem

I regret selling them as I thought about going to pocketwizards, but having the ability to have ttl control as well as adjust the power manually from the master is a plus.

[Tom]

PC cables just suck and Canon is the devil for continuing to use them instead of switching to the 1/8th mono (that you can pick up at any Radio Shack for cheap.)

I think your best bet would be to use PW's MiniTT1.

[arich]

Cactus V5's will do this but you have to manually set the power of both the on and off camera flashes

[Flores]

plus one for the mini tts...

[OneWayMule]

Originally Posted by Tom

PC cables just suck and Canon is the devil for continuing to use them instead of switching to the 1/8th mono (that you can pick up at any Radio Shack for cheap.)

I think your best bet would be to use PW's MiniTT1.

Ditto about the pc input... it should have been discontinued with floppy disks.

Regarding miniTT1 - if i have a flash sitting on top and only want it to fire (but not the external flashes)... can this be done by turning the miniTT1 off or simple switching the channel?