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Triggering Flashes while using Liveview
posted Monday, 07 June 2010, 21:43 (+0800), by Martin

Phottix Aster wireless flash trigger on a Canon 50
Phottix Aster wireless flash trigger on a Canon 50D
Intro

A reader recently posted a comment on one of my earlier posts, saying he couldn't get his Phottix Aster (PT-V4) wireless flash trigger to trigger a flash when using his Canon 450D in liveview mode.

While I have done a lot of off-camera flash photography, I had never tried triggering a flash with my Canon 50D in liveview mode, and had no idea if there were any limitations.


Testing

Armed with my Canon 50D, a Canon 580EX flash, a few wireless flash triggers, and some PC sync cables, I did some testing in liveview mode.

Here are the results:

50D with Phottix Tetra wireless flash trigger fails to trigger flash
50D with Phottix Aster wireless flash trigger fails to trigger flash
flash directly connected to 50D pc sync socket   fails to trigger flash
50D with 580EX flash on hotshoe successfully triggers flash  
50D with Canon ST-E2 on hotshoe successfully triggers flash


Flash Triggering and Canon's Liveview Mode

A quick look in the 50D manual provides some insight. It says the following about Silent Shooting mode when using liveview:
  • 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.)
In other words, with a Canon flash on the hotshoe, the camera will automatically change the Silent Shooting mode to "[Disable]" to ensure it can fire the flash. However, if a non-Canon device is attached to the camera (ie, a third-party flash trigger, or a PC sync cable), the camera will fail to trigger the flash if the Silent Shooting mode is not set to "[Disable]".

On the Canon 50D, "Silent Shooting" mode can be set in the "Live View function settings" menu.
After changing the Silent Shooting mode to "[Disable]", the 50D could successfully trigger a flash with the Phottix Tetra and the Phottix Aster while in liveview mode.
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Comments:
Kenneth wrote at 2010-07-30 08:43

This is super helpful! I was just running into this very problem and was starting to wonder what was "wrong" with my YongNuo flash triggers. Turns out the answer was "nothing" but "read the Canon manual"!

Christopher wrote at 2012-05-29 12:51

I had the same problem with my 60d and the 580EX11 flash unit when I tried to review the scene in live view it wouldnt work. I am using wireless flash triggers but they wouldnt work in live view. If you go to silent mode and disable it they work fine

Tom wrote at 2014-03-03 06:04

GREAT - I was searching for hours on the WWW to find some help for my cam not triggering Studio Flashes when working with CamRanger.... LV disabled and... flashes fire - Thanks a lot, you made my day !

rodrigo wrote at 2014-03-15 12:55

thanks a lot for this!
it helps me a lot!

Marvin Pido wrote at 2016-02-18 18:34

Hi Martin,

You, my friend, is a gift from the heavens!

I have been struggling to find out why on earth my flashes don't trigger when I'm on Live View. But now I know thanks to your post. Awesome!

Thanks for this.

John wrote at 2018-11-06 06:34

Thank you! I have spent hours on this crazy problem!

Nik wrote at 2021-05-05 20:54

Hey all. This might seem silly but I can’t even find that option on my 6dmkii. Does the option only become available when connected to a flash?

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