Ever had two 580EX flashes not 'talk" to each other??

[tracyd]

I have a 580 EX II flash I've used wonderfully for the last two years. I have used it previously as a master to a slave I rented in January (another 580EX). I just purchased last week a new 580EX from amazon.com. Worked a wedding on Saturday using the new one as a slave and the old one as the master. I could not get them any more than 12-15 feet away from each other before they quit communicating with each other. This was direct on, no interruptions or interference. Please tell me what's going on? anyone have any tips? Should I chalk it up to having a bad new flash??

I came home, charged the batteries in both units and tried it again - still same problem.

Tracy

[CliveyBoy]

Indoors, you can expect no more than 50ft, or outdoors 30ft, providing:
> there is no strong light hitting the receiver window on the slave flash
> the slave's body is rotated so that its receiver window is facing the camera
> the slave is no more than 40 degrees off camera axis
> the master's flash head is pointing straight ahead and has no form of light modifier on it.

Unfortunately, the Canon wireless system can be degraded quite easily, which is why the RadioPopper and new PocketWizard systems are so popular.

[tim]

Zoom the master flash head to 105mm and aim it directly at the red receiver panel on the slave flash.

[rudy_216]

Did you have the sensor on the slave flash pointed back to the master? If you had the slave pointed at the subjects then you are relying on reflected light rather than direct light for the communications. That does work but it has less range.

If you did have the slave pointed to the master then maybe the flash is not working as well as it could. Swap flashes and try it again. If you have better results with the other flash as the slave then I would say the first slave was faulty.

And the communications goes only from the master to the slave. There is no communications from the slave back to the master.