Another Canon Flash failure at a wedding :(

Andrew Davies Photography

Andrew Davies Photography

Messages
761
Name
Andrew
Edit My Images
No
OK so i love my Canon kit , cameras have been great and all the good lenses have served me wonderfully.

However towards the end of yesterdays wedding and for the Second time , another 580ex2 has stopped working , firing no flash and can see a little spark / small light inside when i test fire it and thats it , all settings work batteries all fine etc and other flashes work fine. Obviously I had back up flashes but shooting outside in bright light I was using HSS so not even aware for most of the time that it was playing up , all the readings and settings look the same ! By the time i got inside it was more obvious so changed it out and tried it again on the night and it was dead.

It seems reading up on it that its a common prob with HSS and the 580ex2 ?

Have sent off for a new tube at 3 quid its worth a shot fixing if not i will be buying another YONGNUO 568ex2 which i have been using as a third back up and at a quarter of a price and same spec as Canon is a far better deal !

If your starting up in weddings for god sake make sure you have at least some form of back up ! These things do not last forever.

Out of interest anyone know the approx cost of repair of these 580ex2s I bet its more than the 100 quid a Yongnuo will cost

:canon: ( Sometimes )
 
Nine times out of ten your issue is caused by machine gunning, or repetitive shots in quick succession, with the flash, it then overheats and goes pop! Don't think that the Yongnuo is exempt from this either.
 
Canon 580 HSS failures have been widely reported when used with Pocket Wizard's optimised HSS - basically because the PW encourages you to make full use of HSS and drive the gun hard. As I recall (there's PW 'white paper' pdf on it somewhere) PW tracked it down to a minor design/assembly issue with the gun causing components to burn out.

I believe this has been addressed in the 600EX-RT, but as Admirable says, HSS pushes any gun to the limit, especially if you drive it extra hard with a battery pack, so even the most robust gun is likely to go into over-heat mode and shut-down more quickly.

The best I can say is Canon should be familiar with this problem and able to give you an idea of cost :(
 
Last edited:
admirable said:
Nine times out of ten your issue is caused by machine gunning, or repetitive shots in quick succession, with the flash, it then overheats and goes pop! Don't think that the Yongnuo is exempt from this either.
Click to expand...

The fact that Canon have built more overheating warning/protection into its successor, the 600EX, is telling really.
 
It seems that overheating is the prime reason for failures and I guess that we all do things that are likely to get the guns warmer.....namely;
Fire off far more sequential shots than we would if using film.
Fit a Stofen......insulates the head somewhat.
HSS uses more power than X-sync for the same exposure.
Point the head upwards....concentrates the heat.
Use the head vertically orientated.....concentrates the heat.
Use batteries capable of recharging the gun more quickly than those available when the gun was designed.....quicker recharging adds to the heat whilst also give less time for it to dissipate if the next shot occurs as soon as the gun is ready again.

It's also the logical that HSS on a full frame sensor is more stressing than on a crop due to the curtain travel time for the same shutter speed.

The question is.....how many of these things can you do at once and still hope to keep the thing in tip top condition.

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top