What Canon Cameras Have Built In Wireless Flash Capabilities?

If you’re going to be doing any amount of people photography, then you really should learn how to use off-camera flash. In some situations, available light is ok, but you can create much higher quality work by using a couple flashes, some light modifiers, and crafting the light in your picture.

There are a couple problems with this. First, you need to have the flashes, and that’s an investment. Second, you need to have a way to trigger those flashes off camera. For me, that was the most confusing part, initially, about getting into strobist style photography.

Older Canon digital SLR cameras didn’t have built in wireless capabilities. You needed to buy some equipment – either the proprietary Canon wireless transmitter, an expensive as hell set of pocket wizards, or some cheap off brand transmitters. When I first started experimenting with flashes with my Canon t1i, I had to buy some radio triggers. It didn’t have a built in commander flash.

The trend recently, though, has been for Canon to include a built in commander flash with most of its newer cameras. So which Canon dSLR cameras come with the ability to trigger flashes?

The latest model in each of Canon’s tiers comes with a built-in commander flash. This means that the Canon EOS Rebel t3i, the Caon EOS 60D, and the Canon EOS 7D will all work. On each of these cameras, the pop-up flash can be set as a commander flash, and it will wirelessly trigger the other flashes in the system. The pop-up flash fires off to send this signal, but the power output of this initial flash is low enough that it shouldn’t affect the exposure of your image (unless you want it to and you jack up the power).

Older models, like the Canon EOS Rebel t2i and the Canon EOS 50D, don’t have this capability. The higher end Canon cameras, like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, don’t have built-in flashes at all. So these cameras don’t have the capability either. But then again, if you’re spending upwards of $2,000 on a camera, it’s not a big deal to spend a couple hundred bucks on a Canon ST-E2 wirless transmitter.

If you’re stuck comparing the Canon t2i vs t3i, then this is a good reason to opt for the newer camera. If, on the other hand, you’re stuck deciding between the Canon 60D vs 7D, this isn’t going to be much help. They’ve both got the same capabilities.