when i use my eos-3 with the canon infrared transmitter and two 550 ex flashes i never get the correct exposure. itīs way to dark. no matter if i use it at night or as fill flash during the day. mostly i set the camera on manual, time 250 or higher and apature between 5.6-8. i have to guess and do each pic 3-4 times and overexposure using the flash to get the right shot. any help ?? (maybe try 3-4 times doesnīt seem much, but i do a lot of skateboard photography where maybe 1 out of ten times the skateboarder does exactly the trick i need. so itīs 30-40 pics) thanks

-- oliver kurzemann (moengi@zip6020.com), March 05, 2002

Answers

I use an EOS 3 with the ST-E2 and 420EX Speedlite and get consistently well exposed chromes. When I need two Speedlites, I pack a 550EX and the ratio control works beautifully.

Unfortunately, there are many things that can go wrong. We need info about the film used (chromes or negs), ambient lighting (dark, medium or dark) distance from the subject, month and date of camera manufacture, etc., to suggest a possible fix.

For example, often photo labs have poor quality control and print everything too light or too dark (try chromes). Or, perhaps the background and subject are too balanced for your taste and you want the subject to stand out more (add Flash AE Comp). Sometimes I find Canon's flash algorithms on the mellow side and add +1 Flash AE Comp for "pop." However, other times I like the perfect blend between ambient and foreground subject--a nice understated look.

Of course, if your EOS 3 was born in late 1998 it may need a ROM update. Early batches of the EOS 3 had a ROM bug that resulted in one stop of underexposure at EV 6 and lower (no problems in brighter light).

-- Puppy Face (doggieface@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

With the shutter set to 1/250 or higher, you have to set the flash to FP Flash (high speed sync) mode. That will greatly reduce your maximum flash to subject distance. Try it with your shutter set to 1/200 since that's the max sync speed of the EOS 3. That will greatly extend the flash range, and might be your whole problem.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), March 06, 2002.

additions to my question above. i use fuji provia 100f or velvia, sometimes iso 400 film. the problem of too dark pics also occurs with slower speed settings and the flash is max. 12-15 feet away. that should be no problem for a 550ex.

-- oliver (moengi@zip6020.com), March 06, 2002.

Well then, it sounds like you need to get thee to an authorized Canon Service Center.

Unfortunately, stuff sometimes happens like that. I had an Nikon 8008S that overexposed by exactly one stop. Rather than mess with exposure comp I doubled the ISO and never noticed it again (until I forgot to manually set ISO).

-- Puppy Face (doggieface@aol.com), March 06, 2002.

I thought of another possibility. Canon E-TTL Flash in M mode (Av & Tv as well) is merely fill-in flash. Depending on the ambient lighting, the fill flash algorithms will be minus 1 to 2 below ambient light for Canon's version of a natural look. If you set CF14-1 you may disable auto fill-in flash and get the full on main flash (caught in the headlights look). I prefer this when I have time to set flash exposure comp myself or I need to overpower the ambient lighting (crappy overhead fluorescents).

-- Puppy Face (doggieface@aol.com), March 09, 2002.