I have been using my 580 EXII with my 5D MKII, with or without Pocket Wizards (Flex TT5 / Mini TT1), always in E-TTL, for a long time without any problem.
On Christmas eve I shot two series with the 580 EXII mounted on a soft box and the PWs - worked just fine as usual. I shot again two series on Christmas morning, again with the PWs, this time with the 580 bouncing from the white ceiling in E-TTL without a hitch during the first series (gifts opening).
The second series I shot that morning was of my daughter fooling in front of her XBox 360, back lit from a window.
Hence the the camera was in manual, exposure set up on the bright window (1/500 - f 2.8, ISO 800), the 580 bouncing from the ceiling in E-TTL to take care of the main subject in the foreground - my jumping daughter - all that in E-TTL and working just fine (the 580 was set on HSS, but I think it's useless as the PWs take care of the high shutter speed synchro anyway).
It worked like that during a while, and I took care not to overwork / overheat the 580 - no bursts, no series of shots at short intervals
(also a reason why the cam was at ISO 800, to be easier on the flash).
All of a sudden the flash stopped working.
The first abnormal shot I recorded was this one:
Then the following pics just came out pitch dark, save for the window, which is normal with f 2.8 / 1/500 and a weak ambient light (this is not a shutter curtain sync issue,
it's not a black bar on part of the pic, the pic is uniformly under lit). I should add that the 580 was still always triggered and emitting a flash.
Here is one of them - they all came out the same way (dunno why it's rotated, but you get the idea):
Just to put to rest a series of questions I might be asked, here are the steps I followed:
- checked the PWs, put in new batteries as they seemed to be more than a bit low (at least on the TT5)
- also updated the software on the PWs
- put fresh batteries in the 580 as recycling time seemed a bit high (I use ENELOOPs for all my gear, I checked that they were correctly charged)
- set up my second TT5, updated and with fresh batteries (same result)
- checked the setup of the camera, and tried different - slower - shutter speeds under 1/200 (same results)
- mounted the 580 directly on the MKII's hot shoe - no joy, whatever the shutter speed.
- Tried the 580 mounted on the hot shoe of my canon G11 - failure again.
- At this point I whipped out my 430 EX II and went through the same motions:
- the 430 worked well on the G11;
- the 430 worked well directly mounted on the MKII
- the 430 worked well triggered by the PWs - same set up I had used with the 580, bouncing in E-TTL and all.
At this point I think that I can eliminate the failures of either the Pocket Wizards or the body, and blame it on the 580.
What seems strange though - at least to me - is that the 580 seems to work well: screen, controls, test flash, all these work. When shooting in either configuration (PWs, hotshoe), the 580 is duly triggered and emits (what seems to be) a powerful flash, visible in the eye piece of the camera. Because this is not a standard shutter curtain synchro issue (no black bar in the pics), all I can conclude is that the flash is actually triggered either before the shutter opens, or after it closes.
While I have no doubt that my 580 is good for a trip to Canon, I am curious to know if anyone already experienced that specific kind of failure with a 580 EXII before?
Thanks for reading my long post.
