ST-E2 trigger Alienbees???

[RockyPtJoe]

Was shooting in a studio with Alienbees, and a radio transmitter (el-cheapo Chinese model). I had kept the studio very dark, (using the AB modeling lights as crutches) and was having trouble focussing with my Digital Rebel. So switched out the radio transmitter for my ST-E2 to help with the focusing. Could not get the Alienbees to fire (yes, I removed the radio transmitter receiver!!!).

The question I have is, will the ST-E2 "fire" even when the camera is set to Manual? Or was I just have trouble because of the color of the studio walls/floor, and not getting enough bounce from the infrared to hit the AB's??

Thanks!

[jfrancho]

An ST-E2 used IR to signal slaves. It won't work with the AB's. In fact, I'm not sure if it works with any non Canon lights.

[RockyPtJoe]

I've used the test button on the ST-E2 to trigger my AB's manually....didn't think to use that when I was shooting, just to test out the ST-E2.

[jfrancho]

Wirelessly? I don't see how that's possible, but I could be wrong.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

An ST-E2 used IR to signal slaves. It won't work with the AB's. In fact, I'm not sure if it works with any non Canon lights.

It's not supposed to work with non-Canon lights. The infrared signal is encoded with instructions, etc., plus the firing sequence. Unless someone copied Canon's encoding?

[jfrancho]

AFAIK, Alien Bees can be set to fire as optical slaves, not IR.

[sjprg]

I asked Alien Bee, and they said NO!

[RockyPtJoe]

Not to belabor the point....but had a chance to check out the ST-E2 with my AB's....and YES, they will fire....but reliability is the pits.....in the studio I was using, with dark walls/ceiling, I had to just about point the ST-E2 at the AB to get it to fire.....off a light gray wall, had good bounce and the AB's would fire.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by RockyPtJoe

Not to belabor the point....but had a chance to check out the ST-E2 with my AB's....and YES, they will fire....but reliability is the pits.....in the studio I was using, with dark walls/ceiling, I had to just about point the ST-E2 at the AB to get it to fire.....off a light gray wall, had good bounce and the AB's would fire.

The AB's slave sensor has to be sensitive enough to pick up the IR then. It's possible since most optical sensors are designed for a frequency range. I'll bet performance would vary with manufacturing runs, though, since the sensors are probably purchased in batches and not necessarily from the same suppliers.

[digitaljoe]

The ST-E2 triggers my Elin. D-Lites. Works extremely well. Its great to be wireless!