Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have a Canon ST-E2 and three Canon 430EXs. I want a B800 and while it seems I should be able to let the B800 be triggered when the 430s fire after the ST-E2 triggers them.

I posted an almost identical post on the Flickr Stobist forum and while some say the "near IR" from my ST-E2 will set off the optical slave on the B800 and cause it to fire early. Is there anyone that can confirm or disprove this?

I do plan to get a RF trigger system eventually but would like to put that off until I've done more research and scrounged up more cash.

The ST-E2 could trigger the AB's (or any manual slaved light) if the slave eye can see the IR signal. However, as big or bigger concern would be the preflash of the speedlites. These will trigger the Bees early, and they typically cannot recycle fast enough, causing under exposure.

Sorry, but to clarify, I wasn't planning to use eTTL, strictly manual. Thus, pre-flash shouldn't be an issue.

I guess I'll order the B800 and if the "near IR" from the ST-E2 does trigger it I'll go ahead and get a set of RF triggers of some sort. Possible the RF-602s from e-Bay, replaced later by Cybersynces or RadioPopper JrX.