Darn flash keeps going to TTL

[kekoa]

Why is this happening. I tried opening the battery door w/ the flash on and it goes to ETTL and then after the nxt shot, it goes back to TTL and shots are over blown. Is this a malfunction in the flash or am I doing something wrong? pls help, try to take shots of bank event today.


thanks!!!

[alphonsis]

what body and flash are you using?

I'm not sure what relevance opening the battery door has, but let's start with the previous question.

[PacAce]

Why is this happening. I tried opening the battery door w/ the flash on and it goes to ETTL and then after the nxt shot, it goes back to TTL and shots are over blown. Is this a malfunction in the flash or am I doing something wrong? pls help, try to take shots of bank event today.


thanks!!!

I assume this is happening when the flash is mounted in the hotshoe of the camera? If so, check the connection between the flash and the camera. It could be a dirty contact, or the hotshoe might be coming loose and lifting ever so slightly off the camera body, or a pin or two on the flash might be partially retracted into the foot and not making a connection with the respective contact in the hotshoe.

[Wilt]

PaceAce identified the problem correctly...poor contacts between the flash and the hotshoe of the camera. I have a contact problem in using an off-shoe cord (it says ETTL mode, but another contact issue sometimes makes it fire at full power even when not appropriate!), but not with the flash on the camera, and the problem exists whether I use Canon or non-Canon cords...I have tried four different products!

[kekoa]

I assume this is happening when the flash is mounted in the hotshoe of the camera? If so, check the connection between the flash and the camera. It could be a dirty contact, or the hotshoe might be coming loose and lifting ever so slightly off the camera body, or a pin or two on the flash might be partially retracted into the foot and not making a connection with the respective contact in the hotshoe.

you are correct. its a 580 exii mounted on a 5dmkII. how do assure correct contact?

tks

[PacAce]

you are correct. its a 580 exii mounted on a 5dmkII. how do assure correct contact?

tks

With the flash mounted in the hotshoe, push down on the flash head again the camera and see if the flash mode changes to E-TTL and then reverts back to TTL when you let go. If so, wiggle the flash (not too forcefully, though) in the hotshoe and see if there's any free play. If there is, then you have a screw or two that needs to be tightened. See the following site on how to do this:

http://www.conraderb.com/flashrepair/

If the hotshoe is not loose, then remove the flash from the hotshoe and look at the pins at the bottom of the flash foot. See if any of them are retracted into the flash foot. The pins are spring loaded so when you press hard against the pins, they'll go inside the foot but should go back out when you let go of them. Make sure all the pins are extended out of the foot.

Good luck and hope you get it fixed.

[Ultra]

Oddly enough both my fiance and I had this happen to us this past Saturday at a wedding. Me with a 5D + 580exii and her with 5Dii + 580exii. I can understand a connection issue for my 5D which is a little over 2 years old, but her 5Dii is only a few months old and we have 3 new 580exii's less than 6 months and 1 580ex that is over 2 years.

For me the problem lasted from the getting ready to the end of the ceremony. For portraits + reception it was fine. Hers only misbehaved during the portraits and about half of the reception.

The following day, Sunday, we had 2 family shoots and a model shoot, no problems whatsoever - odd.

I'll check the connections carefully when I get home today - hopefully this isnt something that will persist.

EDIT: I should add that when my flash was in TTL mode my camera would not fire and the one or two times it did it would be a full burst. Each time this would happen I would have to turn everything off, remove flash + batteries reconnect, remove a few times until it reset, then it would work fine again for a while, then revert back to TTL.

[4x4rock]

I had this same exact problem with the 5D and 580EXII this past weekend while shooting an event too. Pulled the flash and reinserted fixed it but it happened 5-6 times during the event.

I'll check into the loose screw tonight.

[timbop]

It is a "known" issue with the 580ex2, and is due to the new flash lock design. You can disassemble the foot and adjust the lock, but I wouldn't. This is one of several reasons I prefer the 580 over the mark 2.

[MT Stringer]

It is a "known" issue with the 580ex2, and is due to the new flash lock design.
How and when did this become a known issue? I haven't heard anything about it and I read these forums all the time.

I had the exact same thing happen with my 580EX II mounted on a 1D mK III. It kept showing TTL and I couldn't do anything about it. At first the pics taken in a gym were dark, so I increased the FEC. Finally got a better pic or two. Then in the hall way, I took another shot of a volunteer and it worked perfect. But when I got to the concession stand, it blew out everything (almost a white out). It was very confusing and I was in a pinch for time. The promoter wanted pictures of the volunteers, spectators buying/eating at the concession stand, etc. and in the meantime, the basketball games is still in progress.

However, it works perfectly on my 40D. I used it Saturday and it worked well, and adjusted properly when I made changes to the FEC.

Kinda mind boggling if you ask me.
I need to do some troubleshooting.
Mike

[4x4rock]

I didn't know it was a "known issue" with the 580 II either, until now.

Mine didn't blow out but no flash was fired on a couple of occasion and most of other times, the shutter wouldn't fire at all.

I have a second 580 II coming from Amazon too and will check.

Anyone knows if Canon will fix this?

[timbop]

Go back and search threads from the first year the 580ex2 was out... if they are still around.

[RonnyMills]

I just reset the flash thru my 5DII menu. Fixed (until next time.)

[AlexMoPhotography]

I just bought a used 5D on eBay and this started happening. A lot. Never happened for my 580 ex II with all the cameras I've ever owned or borrowed.

The hot shoe on the camera does look pretty beat up (should have thought about this before making the purchase), so I will take a look at this. Thanks for all the help, everyone.

[MT Stringer]

Well, it happened to me again tonight! Dang it. I took a couple of shots and all was well. I had the head aimed at the ceiling with the white card pulled and the wide angle panel fully retracted (I made sure of it). Then I switched to portrait and turned the flash head to shoot straight up and BOOM! it blew out the picture! When I looked at the rear panel it said "TTL".

After fiddlilng with it a few minutes it showed "ETTL" once again. I had taken the flash off and put it back on, and returned the flash head to normal. It happened one or two more times out of 32 shots of our Christmas gift opening at my mom's house.

AFter rereading this post, I will do some troubleshooting to see if it is the hot shoe on the MK III or something else. Maybe I'll put the flash on the 40D and shoot at various settings to see if it duplicactes the problem.

I'll report back with my findings...maybe Sunday. I've got some milk and cookies to take care of first! :-)
Mike

[Wilt]

Well, it happened to me again tonight! Dang it. I took a couple of shots and all was well. I had the head aimed at the ceiling with the white card pulled and the wide angle panel fully retracted (I made sure of it). Then I switched to portrait and turned the flash head to shoot straight up and BOOM! it blew out the picture! When I looked at the rear panel it said "TTL".

After fiddlilng with it a few minutes it showed "ETTL" once again. I had taken the flash off and put it back on, and returned the flash head to normal. It happened one or two more times out of 32 shots of our Christmas gift opening at my mom's house.

AFter rereading this post, I will do some troubleshooting to see if it is the hot shoe on the MK III or something else. Maybe I'll put the flash on the 40D and shoot at various settings to see if it duplicactes the problem.

I'll report back with my findings...maybe Sunday. I've got some milk and cookies to take care of first! :-)
Mike

I would not blame the 580EXII per se. The problem is a widespread one...I experienced the same problem with my 20D with a Metz 54MZ flash years ago!

I think it is a chronic design issue with the Canon flash hotshoe design. In fact, with my current 40D and Metz 54MZ, it generally works fine in ETTL mode if I mount the flash directly on the camera hotshoe, but I have problems using Canon or third party off-camera cords...I have tried four models of cords including two models of Canon cords and the same unrelibility of flash contact causing overexposure happens with all of them!

The more and more time passes, I have less and less respect for the engineering skills of the Canon flash system engineers. The Auto mode of the 580EXII is the clincher along with this unreliability of shoe contacts.

[Canonymous]

I also had this issue with my 40D/580exii with no way to get from TTL to ETTL :(. I ended up using manual mode instead.

I hope some of the suggestions in this thread will work, otherwise back to Canon she goes.

[msowsun]

If your 580EX II is intermittently going into TTL instead of ETTL, then you have a contact problem. If it is constantly stuck in TTL you may have inadvertently enabled Custom Function 5 - 1 which allows the flash to be used on film cameras.

http://www.usa.canon.com/uploadedimages/FCK/Image/Tips_Techs/ext%20flash%20sensor%20580EX%20II/Grabbed%20Frame%206.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/msowsun/photo%20stuff/580EXIICustomFunctions.jpg