Choosing Between Canon Digital SLR Cameras Based on Infrared Flash Features

For portrait photographers, the ability to use off-camera speedlites is a necessary skill. Incorporating some lights, a couple of light modifiers, and crafting the light in your image will lead to much greater images than just using ambient light.

There are some situations with this. First, you  have to own the flashes, and that’s an investment. Next, you have to plan a way to set off those flashes off camera. To me, that was the most hard to understand piece, initially, about getting into strobist style photography.

Radio capabilities weren't default on past Canon digital SLR cameras. Either a pair of pocket wizards, a OEM Canon infrared transmitter, or some cheap off brand radio triggers are among the things you'll need. When I first got into working with flashes along with my Canon EOS Rebel t1i, I was required to buy a handful of radio triggers. It didn’t have a built in commander flash.

A pop up commander flash has become a normal feature on many Canon digital cameras, and hopefully this shift continues. So which Canon digital SLR cameras come with the ability to fire speedlites?

The last device in all of Canon’s tiers includes a on camera commander flash. Which means that the Canon EOS  t3i , the Caon 60D, and the Canon EOS 7D will all work. The on camera flash on all of these cameras can be set as a commander flash, and it will by infrared fire the other flashes in the group. The built in flash sets off to transmit this IR signal, but the power strength of this first flash is light enough that it can't change the exposure of your image (unless of course you want it to and you set the power).

Older cameras, like the Canon EOS Rebel t2i and the Canon EOS 50D, don’t include this capability. The top end Canon digital SLR cameras, like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, don’t have on camera flashes at all. So the cameras don’t have that capability either. But in that case, if you’re dropping upwards of $2k on a camera, it’s not a big problem to pay a few hundred dollars on a Canon ST-E2 IR transmitter.

If you’re still comparing the Canon t2i vs t3i, then this is a perfect reason to go with the newer camera. If, on the other hand, you’re confused going back and forth between the Canon 60D vs 7D, this isn’t about to be much help. They each come with the same abilities for flashes.