 Amanda M. Freese |
580 EX II Speedlight Flash problems... I was taking some pictures this weekend and I was having a really hard time with my flash. It didn't seem to want to light off with every shot. . 1 of 5 it did. As a result I missed many shots. I even thought my batteries were going dead so I replaced them to no avail. It was an dark and overcast day, so I had the camera in M mode, AV-22, TV-60, ISO was 400-1600 depending on where we were standing, I had my flash compensation jacked up even, up to +2, and still got pitch black pictures. I had it tilted so that it was always able to bounce off the ceilings or walls and/or right on the subjects. It seemed to need an excessive amount of time to recharge itself. It was an aggravating situation to say the least! What happened and what did I do wrong?
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Jon Close |
f/22 with bounce flash is what is wrong. As powerful as the 580EX is, it's not that powerful. Guidenumber of the 580EX when the head is up for bounce is 42m at ISO 100. Setting higher ISO increases this range - at ISO 400 it is 84m, at 1600 it is 168m. But the absorbtion of light by the ceiling/walls when bouncing reduces the GN by probably 2 stops, so back to 42m or 84m. At f/22 the maximum flash to subject distance is less than 2 meters, but the flash to ceiling/wall to subject is probably at least twice that. The 580EX was firing at full power, even without dialing in +2 FEC, and still not able to give enough exposure, thus the very long cycle times. (Note, cycling will be much faster with rechargeable NiCad or NiMH batteries rather than alkalines).
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Amanda M. Freese |
Hello Jon, Apologies for my grammatical errors above, was typing rather fast. Thanks so much for your reply.. It's funny how easy we learn from our mistakes in photography..
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Amanda M. Freese |
well on the flip side of that, it happened again. Only this time I was in a wide AV setting (lowest Fstop #s I could be in,) and I had my ISO in the 1-400 ranges. It was a full room of natural light, I messed around in every single mode on the dial, (except sports mode and such) to see if the problem was isolated to particular modes and I got the same results all the way around. It acts like the batteries are a one time use to it. The flash acted up on me for a little bit seeming to slowly die out completely, then I changed the batteries and it was back to normal. Should these batteries be one time? They're regular Duracel and Energizer AA batts.
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Jon Close |
Regular Duracel and Energizer AAs are alkaline batteries. They have a very long shelf life, and will last a long time in low-drain devices, but are quickly exhausted in high-drain applications like photo flash. You will get much quicker and consistent flash cycling with rechargeable NiCad or NiMH batteries, and they'll also be less expensive in the long run. Get 2 sets - 1 set in the flash and 1 set in the charger and you're always ready.
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Todd Bennett |
Amanda, to add to what Jon has said, an article in outdoor photographer stated that the NiMH's can withstand up to 500 charges without chemical degradation. So, if you figure that they cost 3 bucks a piece, do the math and see how rediculously cheap they are. They are also green friendly.
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Amanda M. Freese |
I have some shots (messing around to test it) in a well lit room (natural light) and as a test in the Portrait mode it still decided to use a slow shutter speed (as if there wasn't enough light-but didn't fire the flash) as a result I got the usual blur from the slow shutter speed. It's strange because I have others in the same spot that were fine. Why would the camera/flash be confused in the same room of light? here are a couple examples of what I'm talking about.
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Amanda M. Freese |
I'm not sure what the problem is (very well may be the user ;) But I am going to get those rechargeable NiCad or NiMH batteries. Thanks for you help on the matter.
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Jon Close |
I don't think "error 1" or "error 2" are overexposed by the flash. You've simply set too long a shutter speed to stop motion. There is motion blur from both camera shake and the subject moving.
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Amanda M. Freese |
I didn't mean that they were overexposed, the subject wasn't moving, and the flash didn't fire. I meant that the camera, in portrait mode, decided to set a slow shutter speed. Possible that the light meter in the camera decided there wasn't enough light? I dont know, but it doesn't jive with other images that I took inbetween those above that were just fine. The room had the same lighting the whole time, but because it kept dipping as low as the data shows above, I got a lot of camera shake in them. My question was why did the camera do that? Why would it be confused and dip down in shutter speeds.
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W. |
Maybe the ISO is set very low, for some reason? Do you use Auto ISO, or do you have it set at a particular value?
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Amanda M. Freese |
well, when I use the creative modes I do try to stay in the 100-400 range to keep the noise down, but testing out this Portrait mode it set the ISO. Good thing you mentioned that because that's another area that is alot different from the other images. The one at the top set the ISO to 400 and it is considerable better than the bottom two. Not to mentioned the more appropriate shutter speed. The camera did this itself as I had it in portrait mode during this stretch. What outside influence would cause the camera to change settings this much? Other than the obvious of room light, stray light etc.. But we can see from the data alone that the settings are very different.
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Amanda M. Freese |
Actually the image labeled error 2 was an especially hard one. That is all natural light (very nicely lit room) no flash at all (part of an interelated Speedlight problem) But if the internal light meter sensed enough light in the area, then why the slow shutter speed? I couldn't get the camera to take a sharp picture in this corner in any mode. It's like my camera was spooked.
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Chris M. Rembold |
I have dealt with the same problem using a 550Ex on my 300D. I have been told by people much smarter than me that it is the ETTL II metering that may not be fully compatible with my camera. I would still expect the flash to at least go off but be overexposed? I just purchased the 580Ex II and am waiting for my 40D and am praying to not have to deal with this again! Maybe alkalines are just not acceptable in such a powerful flash? I remember my first point & shoot came with alkalines and by the time the lens initialized the camera would shut down and not even take one picture! That camera would only work with Lithium batteries and they would last weeks. I guess the power-pack belts they sell could be a worthy invertment?
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Amanda M. Freese |
Interesting, I just went out and bought the NiMH rechargeable batteries (2 sets), so I'm hoping that is exactly what's going on, so that I can get past this. . I want the camera and I to be a team... :) not my praying that it does what I want. .. Not flashing correctly or at all is not teamwork! lol ... I went out to a local camera store to get some helpful tips and pointers and (I don't want to speak too soon) they said that my camera was set on the red eye "on" setting and that would contribute to flash sync problems at times because it takes longer to recharge and/or flash. So, I hope that helps as well. They also put it int the high sync mode to see if that would help.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Does portrait mode automatically choose iso100? Did you look and see if your flash is set to iso400 and the camera is set to iso100? Maybe when the flash is fully charged, it has the decided iso value. And when the flash isn't ready, it doesn't communicate it's iso to the camera, so the iso that the camera is set to is chosen.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Sometimes the positive side of a battery shifts to the side, so they may not have been making good contact.
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Amanda M. Freese |
Yeah, it does automatically choose the iso when in the basic modes like that. Which is why I thought it so strange for the data to change from one pic to the next like it did while in the same room. But Gregory that's interesting what you said about the flash and camera not communicating ISO information correctly. Hmmm.... (smoke coming out of my ears...)
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