speed lights

[gingerbenno]

Hi im new to this group and just starting off camera trapping but been doing photography for 20 years so i have lots of camera gear etc and in saying that whats your views on me using canon 580ex mk 2 speedlights for my trap as i have about 6no, of them be a shame if they are not suitable , i also have phottix odin receivers ec hoping i could use them too with maybe a camtraptions pr motion detector ans a camtraptions trigger plugged into camera auto shutter port , then after it actuates the camera the phottix odin system will take over , could i please have your thoughts on all this please oh ill be using an old canon 7d dslr for this as well dont dare risk my r5 mk 2 id have to sleep next to it ,lol thanks to everybody in advance ,cheers

[-jeff]

Welcome to the forum. It looks like you have many of the necessary parts available to build a camera trap. The Canon flashes you have will not last very long in the field. They do not have a sleep mode to conserve battery power. A typical flash for a camera trap is a Nikon SB28 or some of the other Nikon SB series with its sleep mode will allow the trap to be in the field for weeks. Another flash that has just been discovered to have a good sleep mode is the Neewer Speedlite 750 II. The one with the two position on off switch, not a pushbutton. See this forum post. viewtopic.php?f=113&t=13039

Here is a forum post that details how to wire the Nikon flash to the Canon hot shoe. viewtopic.php?f=113&t=12147&p=99768&hilit=sb28#p99768

Hope this helps. There is a lot of great information here and many experienced camera trappers to answer your questions.