A little help with a Canon 420EX

[ChasWG]

So my brother gave me his old Canon 420EX speedlite. It worked fine up untill about 2 weeks ago. I was taking some pictures of orchids using the 420 on top of my camera and bouncing it into a large white card (foamcore). The effect was very pleasing for the subject matter.

The one thing I noticed was the heavy pop sound from the 420EX with the very long recycle times. Thinking it was just the batteries getting old I continued on waiting and flashing. Then all of a sudden I got nothing but dark images. The flash still fired, but it seems that the the timing was way off. Even if the head is pointed straight at the subject, the flash fires, but not correctly. And still the heavy, battery draining pop and huge amount of light and dark images.

Is this flash trashed. I know I need something newer and more controlable, but I was hoping to use it as secondary unit, back light flash via a radio popper.

I have checked my camera settings to see if there is something in my custom functions I have messed with, but that seems fine. And the 420EX head is a very limited unit in the Cf settings. Nothing really.

Help!!!! :confused:
.

[lazer-jock]

This is only a guess, but I wonder if you are still getting the E-TTL metering shot which is why you're still seeing a flash but not having any joy in the picture itself. Try setting the shutter speed to something long like a couple of seconds and set the flash to rear-curtain sync. That should give you two distinct flashes. One when you press the shutter release for metering and the other right before the shutter clicks closed. At 1/200th of a second you can't distinguish the two flashes, and if you don't set it to rear-curtain flash, there still won't be any time difference between the two flash pops.

Now, if this is the problem, I still don't have any suggestions on how to fix it, but with this additional information, there might be someone around here that might have a suggestion for you.

[ChasWG]

It still registers E-TTL but it seems the flash happens before the curtain opens. I can't set the flash to rear-curtain, this is a simple 420EX, not the 430EX. There is no option for that in the user controls via the camera either. And the Flash CFn option in not an option with this flash through the camera. It's really frustrating, butmaybe it's time for a new flash unit. Something with a bit more control.

[Swann1]

Sounds like what happened to me (and I wasn't the first) - the flash energy was being completely discharged on the pre-flash and not firing the main flash. The flash has reached the end of its useful life and it is unlikely you'll be able to repair it (I was told it couldn't be fixed). You'd be better off spending the money on a new flash. I'd recommend the 580 EX II if you can afford it. The 430 EX II is still good too.

The 420 EX can do Second Curtain Sync - it's a menu setting on the 40D. It can be found on the second Yellow setup menu (p104 of the manual). You can't get to it in Green Box (Fully Automatic) or any of the Basic Zone modes.

[tim]

I take it the test button fires the flash fine? I was going to say try it with the flash in M, but the 420 doesn't do that.