Possibly a silly question on the 580EX

[artsnimages]

First of all, I'm an "old school" photographer fairly new to these High Tech auto Flashes!

I shoot both the 5D and a Mark IIN for nature photography with 2 580's and the Better Beamer.

Recently i have had a problem with the 580 on my Mark IIN jumping from ETTL into TTL during shooting . What causes that?

I usually shoot in TV or manual on the camera and ETTL on the flash and use the Flash exposure compensation as well as shutter to control output.

This is for fill flash type conditions.

I'm just lost as to why the 580 changes to TTL on this camera. Also sometimes Ill go to make an exposure and the camera will not fire unless I turn the flash off!

Any Ideas as to what the heck I'm doing wrong or is it an issue with my 580 or Mark IIN.

Thanks a bunch for any help on this issue.

Jim

[dpds68]

The contacts on either the Camera or Flash may need cleaning .


Not an expert here but I see that you stated that you use Shutter speed to control flash in your exposure , shouldn't it be Aperture as shutter speed controls ambient light and aperture controls flash .

[artsnimages]

The contacts on either the Camera or Flash may need cleaning .


Not an expert here but I see that you stated that you use Shutter speed to control flash in your exposure , shouldn't it be Aperture as shutter speed controls ambient light and aperture controls flash .

Perhaps I worded it wrong! Shooting in TV mode the shutter controls the ambient and the camera chooses the aperture at it's discretion. I use flash compensation +/- on the 580 to control flash output power at the camera's given and selected aperture! You only have control of both in manual mode and the the compensation on the flash can allow an aperture change at a given shutter speed. Sorry for the confusion. This is strictly for fill flash applications and not a main light source.

Whats a good method of cleaning the contacts.

It seems this problem just started recently over the past few weeks.


Now heres another thing. If I change the settings on the camera, sometimes the 580 will go back into ETTL or if I take the flash off of the Mark IIN and put it on the 5D it will also go back into ETTL from TTL.

Jim

[dpds68]

Have a read here I hope that it helps .

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=430086&highlight=Flash+showing+TTL

[Wilt]

The flash jumping back and forth from ETTL to TTL and back is typical of poor electrical connectivity. If the camera is off, the flash could display 'TTL', but when you push the shutter button enough to wake up the camera the flash should switch to 'ETTL', but if both are awake it should not 'flicker' back and forth.

[artsnimages]

Thanks for all of the very fast response folks. I will chock this up to the connection. Perhaps with the Beamer attached the flash is off balance and tends to lean off the contacts a touch. It seems that when the Beamer is attached is when I have problems especially on the Custom bracket and with Canon's cord and shoe on the bracket. I heard a lot of bad reviews about that plastic cord and shoe and how fragile it is!

Jim