flash help!!!!!

[sucram1892]

hi, I have a canon 550d. I have bought a yongnu speedlite yn560) with wireless triggers. all is fine except I can't seem to be able to use live view unless the portrait mode is being used. am I doing something wrong? any help greatly appreciated.

[nick_gray]

I'm not sure it has anything to do with your flash. Live view on my Canon 500D doesn't work in any of the 'creative modes' (including portrait mode) it only works in full manual (M), aperture priority (AV), shutter priority (TV) and program mode (P).

I hope this helps.

Nick

[wave01]

I have read this some where that you cannot use live view this way

[sucram1892]

Hi thanks for that.
So basically you can't use a flash gun synced to the camera with live view. The flash gun whether off camera (wirelessly) or attached to the hot shoe on top of the camera will never work when live view is selected. Is that correct?
Live view on my 550d works fine with all of the shooting modes but the flash will not fire at all with live view (in any mode). Again, sorry if this is basic but I have found this confussing.

[CR3Snapper]

Are you sure that's right. I have the 550d and the canon 430ex, and have after reading this had a little experiment. I could use live view with the flash attached in all modes. It appeared at first to work in 'portrait' mode and not in the other creative modes. But what I realised was, that portrait uses a low f no. and so more light came through. So detail could be seen on the screen. When I moved to a brighter area and clicked through the modes then live view appeared to work normally. I then tried it in the semi auto modes and they too were fine. I would imagine that when using live view and flash, then you are probably intending to use the flash as a complimentary light source, in which case the live view screen will be black due to the lack of ambient light, rather than not working. Have a trial in a brighter area where you have good backlight and would use the flash as fill-in. Hopefully you should see it working just fine.

[sucram1892]

Hi thanks for this. I have a funny feeling that the problem is a compatability problem. I am using yongnu speedlite yn560. It is not a problem with the live view screen going dark. The live view stays active but the flash just does not fire unless I turn live view off. Perhaps because you are using canon camera and Canon flash all is ok? If anyone is successfully using a 3rd party flash with a Canon 550d utilising live view then please let me know how!. I have since read somewhere that most Canon Cameras you can deactivate "silent mode" to use live view and a 3rd party flash but not with the 550D? I suppose its not a huge problem but is something I wish I'd known before buying a 3rd party flash

[nick_gray]

Originally Posted by CR3Snapper

Are you sure that's right. I have the 550d and the canon 430ex, and have after reading this had a little experiment. I could use live view with the flash attached in all modes.

I think it must be the difference between my 500d and the 550d. Even my 'Dummies' book says that live view can only be used in P, Tv, Av, M or A-Dep.

Regards

Nick