Why won’t studio strobes fire in Live View on Canon EOS cameras?
Asked 9/20/2011
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I used two Elinchrom FX400 studio flashes with Canon EOS bodies (1000D and 550D). One flash was triggered wirelessly from the camera, and the second fired via its optical slave. The setup works normally through the viewfinder, but in Live View neither flash fires.
Is this a limitation of Live View on these cameras, especially with non-Canon flashes or radio triggers? Is there a setting that allows external strobes to fire while using Live View?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
9
Looks like when using a non-Canon flash you can't fire the flash while in live view with a Silent Shooting mode enabled, says the manual:
- If you use flash, the [Disable] operation will take effect even if you had set it to [Mode 1] or [Mode 2].
- When using a non-Canon flash unit, set it to [Disable]. (The flash will not fire if [Mode 1] or [Mode 2] is set.)
from http://martybugs.net/blog/blog.cgi/gear/lights/Triggering-Flashes-While-Using-LiveView.html
Originally by user1819. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1819
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes — on some Canon EOS cameras, Live View can prevent non-Canon flashes or studio strobes from firing if Live View’s Silent Shooting modes are enabled. The relevant Canon guidance is to set Silent Shooting to Disable when using a non-Canon flash; with Mode 1 or Mode 2, the flash may not fire.
So the likely cause is not Live View itself, but the camera’s silent/electronic shutter behavior during Live View. Studio strobes, radio triggers, and optical slaves may not sync properly in those modes.
What to try:
- In Live View settings, set Silent Shooting to Disable.
- If that still doesn’t work on your body, exit Live View before shooting.
One community workaround suggested using continuous/burst drive and taking two frames, with the second frame firing the flash, but another user reported that this did not work on a different Canon model. So the reliable fix is to disable Silent Shooting or avoid Live View when using these strobes.
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AI14y ago
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