300D flash flip bracket? wireless flash?

Greetings,

I'm looking for a flash bracket to keep the flash up over the camera
while shooting horiz or vertical. I like the effect of getting the
flash up to push the shadows down, and having hte flash above the
camera when shooting vertically.

Now, I have an old Stroboframe RL (closest thing to it now is the
Camera Flip shown here
http://www.tiffen.com/Stroboframe_ProRL_page.htm but add a big honking
wooden handle and a much clunkier rotatry link mechanism) that
they don't make anymore that I used with my elan, but 4 things bugged
me about it:
o First was that it was pretty horrible in the hand, with a
handle that was worthless for a grip mount AF camera. It
was fatiguing to use. I think it was really designed to be
used with mechanical shutter release plungers. HEAVY.

o The anti-twist plate for the camera really didn't deal well
with the rounded edges of the Elan or the 300D

3 Second is that with the EOS off-shoe flash cord I have
(which does seem to work with the 300d), there was nothing
on the bracket to make sure the shoe of the off-shoe cord
stayed square and didn't rotate. This would make it likely
that the flash is firing a little off center rather than
straight ahead.

4 Finally, it seemed to have quite an adverse effect on the AF
assist beam actually hitting hte subject in a useable
location. This was with the EZ flash system.

It suddenly occurs to me at the ST-E2 wireless flash system may have
been invented to address items 3 and 4 above?

Anyhoo, so I'm looking for a better alternative and certainly would'd
mind something more portable that could fit into my camera bag.

Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D and any
experience with wireless flash triggering? I'm pondering auto
balanced dual-flash use when working with an assistant for weddings.,
having the assistant stand with a flash on a stick out at 45 degrees
or what not. Nuttiness?

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H. wrote:

Greetings,

I'm looking for a flash bracket to keep the flash up over the camera
while shooting horiz or vertical. I like the effect of getting the
flash up to push the shadows down, and having hte flash above the
camera when shooting vertically.

Now, I have an old Stroboframe RL (closest thing to it now is the

I have the Stroboframe RLc, a simpler, older version of the same beast.
I removed the side wooden handle since there is no way to put an
electronic release on it (easilly) to fire the camera. I mount the
strobe above and use a wire from the hotshoe of the camera to fire the
strobe. This can all be tilted down slightly. I can also use the
camera built in flash to fire the other flash (TTL controlled), but that
risks red eye so I use the cable.

Anyhoo, so I'm looking for a better alternative and certainly would'd
mind something more portable that could fit into my camera bag.

Just get the new stroboframe quick flip (350 or folding flip).

(I don't have the 300D, but I'm pretty sure it will work fine with the
quick flip 350).


Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D and any
experience with wireless flash triggering? I'm pondering auto
balanced dual-flash use when working with an assistant for weddings.,
having the assistant stand with a flash on a stick out at 45 degrees
or what not. Nuttiness?

No, not nuttiness. If you have an assistant to hold the lighting,
that's great. Wireless flash using infrared can be tricky in some
places, you don't always get a good path to the receiver on the remote
flash. Use a bit of strategically placed aluminum foil near the remote
flash head to help increase IR light reflecting into its IR receiver.

Cheers,
Alan


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"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Greetings,

I'm looking for a flash bracket to keep the flash up over the camera
while shooting horiz or vertical. I like the effect of getting the
flash up to push the shadows down, and having hte flash above the
camera when shooting vertically.

Now, I have an old Stroboframe RL (closest thing to it now is the
Camera Flip shown here
http://www.tiffen.com/Stroboframe_ProRL_page.htm but add a big honking
wooden handle and a much clunkier rotatry link mechanism) that
they don't make anymore that I used with my elan, but 4 things bugged
me about it:
o First was that it was pretty horrible in the hand, with a
handle that was worthless for a grip mount AF camera. It
was fatiguing to use. I think it was really designed to be
used with mechanical shutter release plungers. HEAVY.

o The anti-twist plate for the camera really didn't deal well
with the rounded edges of the Elan or the 300D

3 Second is that with the EOS off-shoe flash cord I have
(which does seem to work with the 300d), there was nothing
on the bracket to make sure the shoe of the off-shoe cord
stayed square and didn't rotate. This would make it likely
that the flash is firing a little off center rather than
straight ahead.

4 Finally, it seemed to have quite an adverse effect on the AF
assist beam actually hitting hte subject in a useable
location. This was with the EZ flash system.

It suddenly occurs to me at the ST-E2 wireless flash system may have
been invented to address items 3 and 4 above?

Anyhoo, so I'm looking for a better alternative and certainly would'd
mind something more portable that could fit into my camera bag.

Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D and any
experience with wireless flash triggering? I'm pondering auto
balanced dual-flash use when working with an assistant for weddings.,
having the assistant stand with a flash on a stick out at 45 degrees
or what not. Nuttiness?

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

We use the Stroboframe "Pro-T," which does an admirable job (on our 20Ds),
and has a small clip to hold the cable in place. The only problem you had
that it perpetuates is the twist plate still lets the thing rotate.

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
...
Todd H. wrote:

Greetings, I'm looking for a flash bracket to keep the flash up over the
camera
while shooting horiz or vertical. I like the effect of getting the
flash up to push the shadows down, and having hte flash above the
camera when shooting vertically.

Now, I have an old Stroboframe RL (closest thing to it now is the

I have the Stroboframe RLc, a simpler, older version of the same beast. I
removed the side wooden handle since there is no way to put an electronic
release on it (easilly) to fire the camera. I mount the strobe above and
use a wire from the hotshoe of the camera to fire the strobe. This can
all be tilted down slightly. I can also use the camera built in flash to
fire the other flash (TTL controlled), but that risks red eye so I use the
cable.

Anyhoo, so I'm looking for a better alternative and certainly would'd
mind something more portable that could fit into my camera bag.

Just get the new stroboframe quick flip (350 or folding flip).

(I don't have the 300D, but I'm pretty sure it will work fine with the
quick flip 350).


Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D and any
experience with wireless flash triggering? I'm pondering auto
balanced dual-flash use when working with an assistant for weddings.,
having the assistant stand with a flash on a stick out at 45 degrees
or what not. Nuttiness?

No, not nuttiness. If you have an assistant to hold the lighting, that's
great. Wireless flash using infrared can be tricky in some places, you
don't always get a good path to the receiver on the remote flash. Use a
bit of strategically placed aluminum foil near the remote flash head to
help increase IR light reflecting into its IR receiver.

Cheers,
Alan



The problem I had with the Quickflip ( is that it mounts round backwards, on
the left of the camera (shooter's orientation) rendering the controls on the
grip/battery pack useless. The Pro-T, while $40 more, flips in the correct
direction. And it's aluminum, rather than stamped steel.

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

"Todd H." wrote in message ...

Greetings,

I'm looking for a flash bracket to keep the flash up over the camera
while shooting horiz or vertical. I like the effect of getting the
flash up to push the shadows down, and having hte flash above the
camera when shooting vertically.

Now, I have an old Stroboframe RL (closest thing to it now is the
Camera Flip shown here
http://www.tiffen.com/Stroboframe_ProRL_page.htm but add a big honking
wooden handle and a much clunkier rotatry link mechanism) that
they don't make anymore that I used with my elan, but 4 things bugged
me about it:
o First was that it was pretty horrible in the hand, with a
handle that was worthless for a grip mount AF camera. It
was fatiguing to use. I think it was really designed to be
used with mechanical shutter release plungers. HEAVY.

o The anti-twist plate for the camera really didn't deal well
with the rounded edges of the Elan or the 300D

3 Second is that with the EOS off-shoe flash cord I have
(which does seem to work with the 300d), there was nothing
on the bracket to make sure the shoe of the off-shoe cord
stayed square and didn't rotate. This would make it likely
that the flash is firing a little off center rather than
straight ahead.

4 Finally, it seemed to have quite an adverse effect on the AF
assist beam actually hitting hte subject in a useable
location. This was with the EZ flash system.

It suddenly occurs to me at the ST-E2 wireless flash system may have
been invented to address items 3 and 4 above?

Anyhoo, so I'm looking for a better alternative and certainly would'd
mind something more portable that could fit into my camera bag.

Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D and any
experience with wireless flash triggering? I'm pondering auto
balanced dual-flash use when working with an assistant for weddings.,
having the assistant stand with a flash on a stick out at 45 degrees
or what not. Nuttiness?


newton bracket, you can use your camera's grip to hold the rig, twists easy
enough, fast enough, at least for me.

"Skip M" writes:
[Todd wrote:]
Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D?

The problem I had with the Quickflip ( is that it mounts round
backwards, on the left of the camera (shooter's orientation)
rendering the controls on the grip/battery pack useless. The Pro-T,
while $40 more, flips in the correct direction. And it's aluminum,
rather than stamped steel.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the very helpful input. After a lot of looking into
the various suggestions, I finally ordered:
Stroboframe Pro-T bracket
Stroboframe 300EOS anti-twist plate
Canon BG-E1 vertical grip/battery grip
Stroboframe 300BE1 anti-twist plate

The Pro-T appears to have both the clearance needed for use with the
battery grip, and I like the flash up higher rather than lower (so I
selected it rather than the similar but shorter Press-T bracket), as
well as rotating the flash the proper direction to make use of the
button placement on the vertical grip. I also like these brackets
because they do not have a handle--I'd rather have my left hand under
the camera and on the zoom ring versus any handle. :-)

I selected one AT plate for use with the camera alone (300EOS), and
one for use with the vertical grip on it (300BE1). Adorama.com
appeared to have the most complete descriptions of the cameras that
these AT plates work with, fwiw. Ironically Tiffen/STroboframe site
was mostly useless in this regard.

I already own the Canon off camera shoe cord that's been working like
a champ since the EOS Elan days (though it lacks anti-twist features),
and I'll put the 550EX to work with this setup. Hopefully all will
work well. We'll see how the AF assist works out with the flash at
this height....

And for now, I've held off on delving into wireless TTL flash.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

(Todd H.) writes:
"Skip M" writes:
[Todd wrote:]
Anyone using a flash bracket they like with the 300D?

The problem I had with the Quickflip ( is that it mounts round
backwards, on the left of the camera (shooter's orientation)
rendering the controls on the grip/battery pack useless. The Pro-T,
while $40 more, flips in the correct direction. And it's aluminum,
rather than stamped steel.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the very helpful input. After a lot of looking into
the various suggestions, I finally ordered:
Stroboframe Pro-T bracket
Stroboframe 300EOS anti-twist plate
Canon BG-E1 vertical grip/battery grip
Stroboframe 300BE1 anti-twist plate

The Pro-T appears to have both the clearance needed for use with the
battery grip, and I like the flash up higher rather than lower (so I
selected it rather than the similar but shorter Press-T bracket), as
well as rotating the flash the proper direction to make use of the
button placement on the vertical grip. I also like these brackets
because they do not have a handle--I'd rather have my left hand under
the camera and on the zoom ring versus any handle. :-)

I selected one AT plate for use with the camera alone (300EOS), and
one for use with the vertical grip on it (300BE1). Adorama.com
appeared to have the most complete descriptions of the cameras that
these AT plates work with, fwiw. Ironically Tiffen/STroboframe site
was mostly useless in this regard.

I already own the Canon off camera shoe cord that's been working like
a champ since the EOS Elan days (though it lacks anti-twist features),
and I'll put the 550EX to work with this setup. Hopefully all will
work well. We'll see how the AF assist works out with the flash at
this height....


In case anyone is keeping score at home, I've since received these
goodies and offer the following observations:

ProT does not really work well with the vertical grip BG-E1 on
the 300D. The height clearance and the anti twist plates do
fit it okay (setting aside you can't change batteries in the
vertical grip though without removing it from the bracket--the
anti twist plate blocks the battery door of the BG-E1) but,
the worst problem is that the bottom right part of the bracket
blocks your access to the vertical shutter button.

The ProT flash flip can scare the hell out of ya. If you're
used to rotary link systems where the camera rotates instead
of hte flash, you can end up holding the bracket while
carrying the camera such that hte flash flips into the other
position and bangs pretty hard--makes you really worry about
snapping that hotshoe mount of your $400 flash gun in half.



I ended up dusting off my old Stroboframe rotary link system adding
the 300EOS plate to it, and using the 300D on it without the vertical
grip. It worked well enough--although that old rotary link system is
very very fatiguing on your left wrist and caused carpal tunnel
symptoms of numbness by the end of the day. There just isn't a good
platform to hold the camera on and work zoom lenses on without realy
torquing up your wrist.

I'll be looking into the newer lower profile rotary link systems, or
be trying the pro-T without the battery grip. BUt I think I'd
really be happier with a newer lower profile STroboframe rotary link
system.

Picky picky. 8-)


Best REgards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/