EOS Documentation Project

How to turn the 380EX into a Manual-mode or a TTL-only flash unit

by Vinicius Matangrano

Contents

• Why not E-TTL?
• Manual Flash
• More than MAN
• Success
• Conclusion
• Revision History
• Comments

Why not E-TTL?

E-TTL (Evaluative Through-The Lens), introduced in 1997, is Canon's newest, cleverest flash system. It can produce better flash photographs than previous Canon flash units in most photographic situations.

But sometimes E-TTL can be too clever! The system uses several visible-light pre- flashes: for reflective flash metering through the lens; or for synchronization of E-TTL slave units. Because these pre-flashes occur a fraction of a second before the actual exposure, they sometimes cause people to blink during the exposure. The term BEETTL (Blinking Eye E-TTL) syndrome was even coined to describe this phenomenon.

Also, if you use optical slave triggers to synchronize multiple flash units or studio strobes, the preflash will fool the slave into firing before the exposure. A split second later, the camera opens the shutter, but the slave is still recharging and unable to fire, producing an underexposed photo, ruining your photo even though you could see the strobe fire with your eye. For the same reason, a hand-held flash meter is rendered useless, since it is also fooled by the pre-flash(es) used in the E-TTL system.

Users of the fully automatic Speedlites, like the 220EX, 380EX, and 420EX, have to resort to the TTL-hotshoe adapter (TTL-HSA), part of Canon's older corded multi-flash system. Putting an EX Speedlite atop the TTL-HSA turns it into an ordinary TTL-flash.

But there is another way: if you use an E-TTL capable Canon flash on a type B EOS body that does not support E-TTL, the Speedlite will also operate in plain TTL mode! Is this just an excuse to buy another camera?

So, you need to trigger those studio strobes. Or use with a flash meter. Or shoot with full-power flash where automatic flash is unreliable. Other than buying a new flash, an expensive accessory, or even another camera body, is there a better way to disable E-TTL?

Manual Flash

By the end of 2000 I had to take some photographs in low light. I had (still have) a Canon EOS Elan IIE and a Speedlite 380EX, which is a fully-automated flash that works only in E-TTL mode with this camera. And I wanted to do my work in manual mode.

Then I asked photo.net readers if I could somehow turn the flash into a manual one, i.e., to disable the E-TTL system. Among many answers, I found Rodrigo Gimenez's was the most suitable for my case: to tape the little contacts on camera's hotshoe, leaving only the biggest one (the trigger) untaped. This would cause the flash to be triggered, X-synched, without any power control.

That was enough.

More than MAN

Well, in 2002 I realized that I should work not only in manual, but also in TTL mode. I posted another question to photo.net forum (to the same thread), made some experiments at home, and achieved some interesting results that I thought you'd like to know.

First, instead of taping the contacts, which I thought could leave some adhesive when taken off and cause bad contact, I preferred to use a plastic insulator. I cut plastic strips from an old, useless (until then) 5 1/4" floppy-disk. I mean, its inner part. I tore apart the outer, square enclosure, and took the real disk from the inside.

This is what it looks like after cut. I hope you find my talent for photography better than that for using cutting tools. The strips are just long enough for me to hold them while sliding the Speedlite into the hotshoe. In fact, the "MAN" one is a bit too long- it touches my forehead when I'm looking through the viewfinder. I have to cut it some more.

MAN	TTL

I also tried to cut the strips from a piece of developed Film, including grooves for the hotshoe rails. It seems a little thicker than the disk, but it fitted well between the flash and the camera, and it stays in place by itself without sticking into my forehead. Well, all you really need is some kind of plastic (to work as an electrical insulator): thin enough for you to slip into the hotshoe with the speedlite but tough enough not to be torn each time you put it in there. Cut holes for the contacts you don't want to block - I'm sure you can do this much better than I can. These are the contacts you should block for each mode:

Success

After the experiments, I could notice that:

• in both modes the flash head defaults to 35mm when not tilted and 50mm when tilted.
• manual mode preserves only triggering and flash-ready indicator. There's no FEC, no FEL, no 2nd-curtain sync, no high-speed sync, no flash exposure confirmation lamp, etc.. But the flash-ready indicator lights up in the viewfinder, and the shutter speed is limited to a minimum of 1/60s in P mode and a maximum of 1/125s in all modes.
• TTL mode gives no FEL, because it depends on E-TTL preflash, no 2nd-curtain sync, and no high-speed sync. But it preserves flash exposure confirmation lamp, flash-ready indicator, FEC, and also limits shutter speed to a minimum of 1/60s in P mode and a maximum of 1/125s in all modes.
• other contact combinations either gave the same results or caused the camera to "think" much slower than usual when measuring, as if it were about to lock up. Be careful if you want to experiment by yourself - don't tell me I didn't warn you!

Here are two pictures I took for comparison. The camera was in M mode, 2.5m away from the subject (i.e., me). F=50mm. GN=28 (ISO100/m), according to the manual. This gives Av = 28 / 2.5 ~ 11.

Manual flash f/11,1/125

TTL flash f/5.6, 1/125

Notice that I opened up the aperture by two stops for the second image - it would have been really blown out if TTL system had not quenched the strobe. And still the image was a bit underexposed, maybe because the reflex from the wall have fooled the metering system. In fact, both slides are brighter than this, but this was the best I could get from my scanner. It is worth to mention that both slides were scanned into a single image and processed together (brightness/contrast/etc.). Only after that I cropped each one, resized them and applied the borders.

Some more examples (these are some of my Matchbox models), all from the same position, d=0.5m, F=85mm:

Comparing ambient light to E-TTL		TTL direct flash with FEC
No flash, f/4.5,6s		TTL flash, FEC=-1.5 f/4.5,2s
TTL flash, f/4.5,1/60s		TTL flash, FEC=0 f/4.5,2s
E-TTL flash, 60° tilt, white bounce card, f/4.5,2s		TTL flash, FEC=+1.5 f/4.5,1/2s

I'm glad FEC works in TTL mode, because I can use it to override the camera's decision to some degree. Again, I scanned all images in the same conditions, applied the same corrections, and after that, cropped each one, resized each one and applied the borders.

Conclusion

Both manual and TTL mode work as expected. Unfortunately, some features are lost, such as second curtain synchronization and flash exposure lock. But in certain situations they are highly compensated. If you want to trigger optical slaves with your Speedlite, for example, you can use it in TTL mode, and set some flash exposure compensation to provide just enough shadow-fill. It will probably recharge very fast, unless you set too small an aperture. If you trust the guide numbers and want to do some very precise work, you can use manual mode. And so on.

If you, like me, have chosen the EOS Elan IIE and Speedlite 380EX because you wanted to have some nice equipment for an affordable price, and now you've got stuck to their (lack of?) features, this article may help you a lot. Now we can do lots of things Canon didn't think we'd like to. By the way, would it be so expensive for Canon to built these functions into the 380EX?

Revision History

v0.2c 2003Nov21 jul: grammar
v0.2b 2002Sep02 jul: minor reformat
v0.2 2002May20 jul - final edits, pics with cut film
v0.1e 2002Apr20 jul - edits, esp intro
v0.1d 2002Apr18 vm - new intro, conclusion, fixed pics
v0.1c 2002Apr14 jul - eosdoc + edits + more edits
v0.1 2002Apr09 Vinicius Matangrano - Original HTML

Comments

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