550 EX apparently doesn't zoom

[BDM]

As usual, I'm probably doing something stupid but apparently my 550 EX flash does not zoom with my camera/lens setup. It seems to stay at 28 mm. The camera is a new 1D mkII and the lens is a 24-70 L. The constant wide angle pattern causes a loss of light which I could often use. This past weekend I was dragged into shooting 65 "grip and grin" shots at a dinner for a touring PBS celebrity and most of them were shot at F: 2.8 at an ISO of 400. Examination in C1 shows they were underexposed even at that aperture so I would like the darn thing to track the lens and concentrate the light a bit.

Any suggestions? And yes, I am looking for the darn instruction book which I know I put in a safe and secure place - so secure I can't find it!

Thanks,

Bruce

[CyberDyneSystems]

Will it manually zoom for you?

[robertwgross]

Right at the business end of the flash unit, there is a wide angle diffuser panel. It is intended to be pulled out only for wide angle purposes (e.g. 28mm). If you have it pulled out, the flash unit goes into manual zooming operation. If you do not have it pulled out, but if the flash unit's sensor thinks that it is pulled out, then it is going to do this.

---Bob Gross---

[BDM]

Well, it isn't pulled out but I will move it in and out a few times and see if that stimulates it to behave. Thanks.

Bruce

[BDM]

Yes it will do that.

Bruce

[Jon]

Make sure the "Off-Master-Slave" switch just above the hot shoe is set to "Off". In Master or Slave modes the flash always zooms to its widest setting, although you can manually change this.

[DaveG]

If the flash head is in a bounce position you lose the auto zoom as well.