Woes of a 420EX

[Motorsports Photo]

Started my indoor shooting season this past weekend. Last February, my flash worked just fine with my D30, but not so good now with the 10D.

No, I DONT use it very much. (-:

Anyway, typically it would recycle VERY fast and be ready almost immediately for the next shot. When I needed a sequence it would yusally get 3-4 before not having enough juice in the capacitor to fire.

My experience this weekend was SLOOOOW recycle times. Only one shot before waiting for that recycle. 6-10 seconds with a fresh charge on Nimh batteries. That time is an eternity when you have 4 laps on an indoor track to get as many pics as you can of the competitors.

I still have to hook it up with my D30 to see what it does, but since I got the same slow recycle times not mounted on the camera I'm guessing its service time.

Anybody else having troubles with a 2 years old 420? Anything different between using flash on a D30 and 10D?

-Pete

[robertwgross]

Some NiMH batteries can be very good, but others can get very funky (that is a technical term!). If the NiMH batteries have been rotting from lack of use, or if they have been overcharged, or for some other reasons, they will not perform to normal expectations.

Suggestion: Go to the store and buy a fresh set of any name-brand of alkaline AA battery. Try those and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If the 420EX flash unit does not "wind up" fast enough, then that can only be caused by a few things:
(1) weak batteries
(2) cold batteries
(3) the 420EX main capacitor has "dried out" (it is a slow death situation)

If (3) is the problem, then try flashing it a lot, perhaps using rechargeables. It is possible that you might "rebuild" the capacitor's capability, but I would not count on that.

---Bob Gross---

[DaveG]

Motorsports Photo wrote:
Started my indoor shooting season this past weekend. Last February, my flash worked just fine with my D30, but not so good now with the 10D.

No, I DONT use it very much. (-:

Anyway, typically it would recycle VERY fast and be ready almost immediately for the next shot. When I needed a sequence it would yusally get 3-4 before not having enough juice in the capacitor to fire.

My experience this weekend was SLOOOOW recycle times. Only one shot before waiting for that recycle. 6-10 seconds with a fresh charge on Nimh batteries. That time is an eternity when you have 4 laps on an indoor track to get as many pics as you can of the competitors.

I still have to hook it up with my D30 to see what it does, but since I got the same slow recycle times not mounted on the camera I'm guessing its service time.

Anybody else having troubles with a 2 years old 420? Anything different between using flash on a D30 and 10D?

-Pete



If you were using the flash to shoot sports, then the flash was effectively outputting at full power, at least most of the time. Recycling times in the 6-10 second range is completely normal for a manual full power exposure. Try aiming the camera and flash at something close and see how the recyle times are then. If it's still 6-10 seconds - and assuming that you used f5.6, not f32 - then it could be battery problems.

[Motorsports Photo]

Bob's idea of the capacitor going bad fits the description well. I have a couple of other older flashes that are like that. I wish I could find replacements. My favorite electronic component dealer struck out form their suppliers and so did my internet searches.

Suprisingly my *NEW* 1800 mah batteries didnt last very long while my older set I have been using for 2 years worked the best in terms of recycle time.

Dave G's comment make sense, but dont match my previous experience. Yes there are sometimes my subject is "close" and the recycle time was immediate, but is now a few seconds on a fresh charge. Even faraway shots that used full power still recycled in a second or two with slightly used batteries in the past. Now far or close it still takes 5-25 seconds depending on the battery's state of charge.

Thanks for your replies.

-Pete

[robertwgross]

Inside a typical flash unit, among other components, there is a very large capacitor. Most of these capacitors are good and stay good for a long time. However, if you leave them idle for a year, the capacitor junction gets dried out and "funky". As a result, the charging circuit has to keep "trying longer" to get the capacitor to come up to its normal maximum charge, which is detected and the "ready light" comes on.

There's only a couple of ways of dealing with this. First, of course, is to try not to let the capacitor get funky at all. Firing off a few flashes every few months should do that. However, if the funky effect has already set in, then try firing off a few dozen flashes as fast as the thing will cycle fully. It can't hurt, and in some cases, the capacitor will "re-form".

If it gets totally bad, then I think Canon would have to deal with a repair. Canon would probably replace the main capacitor and charge you some bucks, which may or may not be cheaper than buying a new 420EX.

---Bob Gross---

[Motorsports Photo]

Thanks for the tips Bob. I guess I better fire the thing up once in a while for maximum enjoyment. (-:

I did flash away a bit today in the house. I could get 5-6 flashes in a row with the drive on multiple.

On another thread I found out the focus sensor only lights up on regular autofocus. (not AI servo) So I found it that works like it should.

The "noise" it makes when you first turn it on is different than when it was new. Instead of a whine, its more of a gurgle. I'll have to see if it changes back with some use. Because of my noisy environement I couldnt hear it over the weekend.

Now I better get out my other flashes and give them a quick charge.

-Pete