Built-in Radio Triggers for Wireless Flash

[chris-p]

An interesting new patent filed by Canon shows they're looking into sticking proper wireless flash triggers into their cameras.
It's been rumoured that this might appear on the 1Ds MkIV (whenever it arrives)...

Link

[Chris George]

Sounds intersting. do u have an more details? I would certainly expect the new 1Ds Mk IV to have the Canon Master wireless flash control introduced with the 7D?

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by Chris George

Sounds intersting. do u have an more details?

The patent says it would use the IEEE 802.15.4 standard which is "low-rate" radio system, not disimilar to the 802.11 WiFi system (but with a few differences).

Perhaps even more interesting is where Canon say you could use the system to trigger more than one camera and their off camera flashes from one remote...



You can read the entire patent here

Originally Posted by Chris George

I would certainly expect the new 1Ds Mk IV to have the Canon Master wireless flash control introduced with the 7D?

Absolutely. Unless Canon have this system up and running which would (presumably) supercede the line-of-sight system they use at the moment. The current system would also require a pop-up flash on a 1D series camera which, AFAIK, hasn't been seen.

A radio triggered system would remove the need for a pop-up flash (which would keep the huge prism housing looking more "professional" if nothing else) and removes the line-of-sight restriction.

[Chris George]

This is really interesting stuff. Certainly be great to have PocketWizard type functionality built into the camera body and flashgun.... Let's hope it is not one of the thousands of patents that never see the light of day!