I recently stumbled across a cool mod you can do to your 580ex to give it wireless capabilities. Since the flash doesn't have the proper jack to hook up to a pocketwizard, you need a special hotshoe adapter. It turns out you can easily install the necessary jack to plug a PW right into the flash!

Hmm, this is exciting, but maybe I'm a bit obteuse. It looks like he only has two pictures with no instructions and no explanations. Looking at the one picture of the internals doesn't give me enough to go on. It looks very nice though, would love to be able to just jack my radio triggers straight into my flashes.

It appears he removed the foot assembly, drilled a hole for a 1/8" stereo jack, and wired it up to match the Pocket Wizard.

John

I wonder where he got the extra foot assemblies. It'd be nice to be able to keep the original one intact in case you ever wanted to sell it, or to send it in for warranty work. Though no doubt even removing the foot would void the warranty.

Interesting mod--though why one would want a 580 for a PW slave is a bit beyond me. They're great flashes, just a little overkill for a radio-triggered unit (I think).

I use my with PWs all the time. The cool thing about them is that you can use them in E-TTL mode when they're close enough for optical triggering, but if you need some distance, just plug in the PWs and call it good. That way you don't need 2 sets of flashes.

Photonik wrote:
It looks like he only has two pictures with no instructions and no explanations. Looking at the one picture of the internals doesn't give me enough to go on.

Basically all you need to know, schematic-wise is which pins to connect the plug to. Oh, make sure you install it in an appropriate spot, so that the plug doesn't hit the front of the inside of the flash or that the cable outside of the flash doesn't get caught on the hot-shoe tightening screw.

It's a really simple mod. What kind of instructions do you need?

Daniel Bates wrote:
Interesting mod--though why one would want a 580 for a PW slave is a bit beyond me. They're great flashes, just a little overkill for a radio-triggered unit (I think).

Perhaps, but if you already happen to have one, it's more convenient then ordering yet another flash solely for off-camera usage.

Just a bit of a silly question - I'm all for doing crazy experiments (I thrive on them), but realistically, why not use the $5 hotshoe adaptor for PW/other wireless triggers? Seems like this is more than $5 in combined parts and labour.

This is all you need. No drilling and cheap.

Mike

I've got one sitting on my desk and it doesn't do anything. I tried plugging it into the sync port in the camera and the flash doesn't go off. Also, with the eBay strobes I've got, you only get a 1/8" jack, not a PC cable.

Michael Bass Designs will do a similar mod for you if you're not a DIYer.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

HeldDown wrote:
Just a bit of a silly question - I'm all for doing crazy experiments (I thrive on them), but realistically, why not use the $5 hotshoe adaptor for PW/other wireless triggers? Seems like this is more than $5 in combined parts and labour.

Where are you finding the hotshoe adapter for $5?

Last one I bought at B&H was from Paramount Cords and it was $35.

Mike C. wrote:
This is all you need. No drilling and cheap.

You need an adapter to use that with a PocketWizard...it has a PC sync end, the PW needs a mini phone.

Nill Toulme wrote:
Michael Bass Designs will do a similar mod for you if you're not a DIYer.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

i had michael mod my 580. flawless workmanship and great customer service. i love it. i can just super clamp it somewhere and have it pop off, or i can leave in on-camera and have it trigger my 550 somewhere else in the room using a PW in my pocket. the paramount cords are ok, but using the thick wire will cause it to possibily break (i've sent 2 back to be fixed).

i also tend to shoot a lot of stuff all strobist stylee, so i live by the speedlight/PW ethos.

I am asking the same thing. I would happily pay $10-20 and I will be over the moon if I can find mini phone hot shoe adaptor for just $5. Pray tell!

Forrest Egan wrote:
HeldDown wrote:
Just a bit of a silly question - I'm all for doing crazy experiments (I thrive on them), but realistically, why not use the $5 hotshoe adaptor for PW/other wireless triggers? Seems like this is more than $5 in combined parts and labour.

Where are you finding the hotshoe adapter for $5?

Last one I bought at B&H was from Paramount Cords and it was $35.

The miniphone hotshoe adapter for $5 is sold through magic_trigger on ebay. I picked up two of them to use with my cheapie ebay radio triggers. Just send them an email and they'll send you a price/shipping list. They aren't heavy-duty, but then again, neither is the foot on canon flashes. They''ve worked very well for me.

HeldDown wrote:
Just a bit of a silly question - I'm all for doing crazy experiments (I thrive on them), but realistically, why not use the $5 hotshoe adaptor for PW/other wireless triggers? Seems like this is more than $5 in combined parts and labour.



$5 Try more like $35 for a paramount cord, if you can even find them in stock. Then on top of that, its another bit of gear to have to carry with you, forget at the assignment etc.

Spending a few bucks more for the ability to plug the PW right into the flash just makes life a bit simplier.

Its money vs convience really.

I personally really like being able to have my flashes setup and mounted for ETTL wireless, and if I find that doesnt work for whatever reason, just plug in the PW with 1/8 to minijack cable without having to take the flash off the mount, add a new shoe etc. I figure if I've spend nearly $400 on the flash and nearly $200 on the speedlight, saving a few more bucks vs having as smoothly intregrated designed is worth the money.

Not a must have, but a nice smooth way to give a canon speedlight something its sorely missing

Why Canon Why Why can't you add a PC jack to a $389 speedlight like every other light on the market offers ?

You really can get it for 5 bucks (see page 2).
Granted the build quality probably isnt nearly as good as paramount cord's unit, I'd imagine the difference in build would be similiar to the difference between the build quality of PW's and the cheap ebay triggers themselves. But they work, and if one breaks, you can buy 6 more

Aparently you can buy the foot as a spare part from Canon quite cheaply.

I've just been thinking about this again. I took a peek inside the 550ex and although it requires removing a lot more screws than the 580ex, it's a simple job.
My crappy Portaflash sync cable is the mini jack to PC so I already have a wired cable for it. (my main lamps are bowens though). I'll get the socket in Maplin tomorrow..
Strobist has a lot to answer for

Noob question: What's the advantage of this over just using the wireless capabilities of the 580 itself? Price? Distance? Does the pocket wizard site explain this?

I did two 550EX's a week ago and a 580EX today. Though the 580 is easy, I wouldn't recommend adding the sub-mini jacks to the 550EX unless you're quite handy with a Dremel, don't mind "making" room for the jack with the Dremel (lots of grinding in the flash foot), and don't mind working with tweezers for hours. The first 550EX took three and a half hours, the second 90 minutes, and the 580EX 30 minutes.

joekraft wrote:
Noob question: What's the advantage of this over just using the wireless capabilities of the 580 itself? Price? Distance? Does the pocket wizard site explain this?

You can't trigger a 580ex wirelessly without another 580ex or ST-E2 in the camera hotshoe. That's an expensive trigger!

With a pocketwizard (also expensive) or an eBay equivalent (significantly less expensive), you get a wireless flash. However, you only get manual flash power instead of ETTL magic.

joekraft wrote:
Noob question: What's the advantage of this over just using the wireless capabilities of the 580 itself? Price? Distance? Does the pocket wizard site explain this?


Largely range. ETTL wireless uses IR light which generally needs line of sight, though indoors in small rooms it can bounce around and still work.

outdoors though your looking at a range off about 30 feet or even less with bright sunlight and you definatly need line of sight.

Pocket Wizards on the other hand work up to about 1600 feet away, through walls and so forth because they use radio waves. Though they wont give you any ETTL features.

So it depends on usage. If Im doing an indoor portrait, I use the wireless ETTL stuff, works great.

If I however want to clamp a flash to each side of a bleachers at a HS basketball game and expect them to both fire, I'll use pocket wizards.

You can get the cheap hotshoe adapters for $8 by sending an email to photoland168 at yahoo dot com. Tell them what you want and they will invoice you through paypal.
Here is a description http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157594348038530/ They are quick to respond and they ship from the US. Not the highest quality, but for $8 what can you expect, they do work.

I've been waiting 3 weeks for a reply to numerous emails to magic-triggers via eBay with no response.