RF-603 Triggering Modes

Most of the time, my RF-603 will be used in the simple manner shown above: transceiver in the hotshoe of my 7D and wirelessly triggering a remote flash or two. However, the RF-603 can be used as a shutter trigger or even combined shutter and flash trigger.

In the previous post, I noted that the button on the RF-603 transceiver activates only the shutter release (side connection using 2.5mm plug) and not the hotshoe functions. As shown above, the RF-603 can be used as a simple wired shutter release. Press the shutter button and the camera fires but remote flashes will not be triggered.

The configuration shown above will trigger both camera and remote flashes.  Place a transceiver in the hotshoe of the camera and connect its shutter release to the camera. Add a second transceiver to trigger the hotshoe transceiver. Now a press of the button on the second transceiver triggers the shutter release on the first transceiver (the one mounted on the camera hotshoe) and the camera fires. When the camera fires, the hotshoe mounted transceiver transmits a signal to any RF-603 that are listening and those flashes will fire. To operate in this mode, three transmitters are needed: one on the camera hotshoe, a second transmitter to be the shutter trigger and a third transmitter mounted on the flash.

Actually, the “third” transmitter (the one mounted on the flash as shown above) can be used to trigger the transmitter mounted on the camera hotshoe so really only two transmitters are needed. In other words, set up a RF-603 on the camera hotshoe and wired to the camera release connection plus a second RF-603 mounted on the flash hotshoe as shown below. When the button on the flash mounted RF-603 is pressed, the camera will fire and activate the RF-603 on the camera hotshoe which will trigger the flash mounted RF-603 to fire the flash having the transceiver that began the cycle.

All this is simpler than the words necessary to describe it.  Just remember that the button activates the 2.5mm connection and the hotshoe activates remote hotshoes.

G12 Bug: Self Timer Shutter Delay with Wireless Remote

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Another flash related bug has shown up on the G12. Previously, I griped about the “screen blanking” that occurs when using a (non-Canon) wireless remote to trigger an off-camera flash. Even though the screen would go dark (indicating the manual exposure) with wireless remotes, at least the flash would be triggered. A recent discussion forum thread pointed out that the flash will not be triggered if the internal self timer is used to produce a shutter delay.

I tested my own G12 using Yongnuo RF-602 wireless remote triggers connected to off-camera Canon flashes. The RF-602 triggered the flashes (although the screen went blank) as expected unless the G12 self timer was used to delay the shutter.

The problem was also reported to occur with CyberSync CST remotes.

Apparently the mis-fire does not occur with Canon’s own STE-2 transmitter and Canon flashes.

A work around for self portraits is to add a second RF-602 transmitter and receiver (set to a different channel) along with the Yongnuo shutter connnecting cord LS-02/C1. I did this to get some Halloween pictures.

The G9 does not have this problem – something has changed in the G12 firmware. C’mon Canon, fix our G12s!
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G12: RS60-E3

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I was pleased to see that the G12 could be triggered remotely and especially pleased to discover that I already had the remote! I'd bought the RS60-E3 some years ago to use with a film camera (anyone remember those?). Anyway, it still works and works well. The trick (if there is one) is to treat the RS60-E3 the same as you would the on-camera shutter button: press the button on the RS60-E3 lightly (just as you should do for the on-camera shutter button), think "Focus", hesitate (or watch the G12 screen for the green rectangle confirmation) and then finish off pressing the button.

If you only fully press the RS60-E3 button then the result is the same as if you had fully pressed the G12 on-camera shutter button: the G12 tries to focus but gives up and fires after a brief internal even if focus has not been fully achieved. The result is images that seem randomly focused or unfocused.
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