Canon 600ex-rt flash w/ Canon 5D Mark II

I was wondering.. The new Canon 600ex-rt flash. Will the wireless radio signal works if I am shooting w/ the Canon 5D Mark II (in ETTL and in Manual Mode) most test I am reading is with the Mark III. I'm sure I read it and didnt even noticed.

I am somewhat interested upgrading to the Canon 600EX-RT by replacing the some of the flashes i have (like the 430EXII/580XII and the RadioPopper PX system). if i get will be getting two 600EX-RT flash

right now if i am to replace the flashes, i dont think i will be able to afford to buy the Mark III camera. that's why i like to know if the 600 flash can do the same stuff on the Mark II camera.

Here is my blog the top couple of posts are describing testing I did with STE3-RT, 600EX-RT with my 5DII.

There is also a lengthly thread here that discusses the STE3 and how it works with current cameras.

I just got my 600ex-rt flash units in the mail last night. Reading through the instruction manual I was disappointed to find out that actually the 600ex-rt do lose a degree of functionality with the Canon 5D2's and with any camera pre 2012, so in effect everything except the 1DX/5D3.

One of the things I was most excited about was the ability to control groups of flash heads from the master unit on the camera body. At weddings this would mean being able to put the flash heads up and then not having to touch them again. You cannot do this with the Canon 5D2. The master unit will display the screen but as soon as you take a shot it navigates away from this function. A little frustrating I must admit. You are it seems able to control the manual power settings (verses ETTL) of different flash groups to a degree from the master unit wirelessly. It limits it to three groups with group A controlling the power from the mater flash and leaving you with groups B and C to play with. A step up definitely but still a tad frustrating that you can't control ETTL and mix ETTL/M with the Canon 5D2 of the external OCF's.

It appears that HSS and sync speeds with cameras older than the 5D3/1DX are also affected when using the radio wireless functionality, but shooting briefly this morning it seems that it might actually still work OK with the 5D2 and others have reported it not to be a problem. I'm not sure how reliable this is though and would have to test it more to be sure.

I was in the same position where I was choosing between going with the new system now or investing in another now outdated 430ex2 to use with the PW flex5 and mini set up I already own. So I'm now left a little underwhelmed. The 600ex's are really fantastic flashes and I'm sure that I'll get great use out of them, it just left a bit of a bad taste finding out that I at present can't make the very most of them. Hope that helps a little.

robfarrenphotography wrote in post #14372647
One of the things I was most excited about was the ability to control groups of flash heads from the master unit on the camera body. At weddings this would mean being able to put the flash heads up and then not having to touch them again. You cannot do this with the Canon 5D2. The master unit will display the screen but as soon as you take a shot it navigates away from this function. A little frustrating I must admit. You are it seems able to control the manual power settings (verses ETTL) of different flash groups to a degree from the master unit wirelessly. It limits it to three groups with group A controlling the power from the mater flash and leaving you with groups B and C to play with. A step up definitely but still a tad frustrating that you can't control ETTL and mix ETTL/M with the Canon 5D2 of the external OCF's.

so what you saying is that I wont be able to have OCF#1 in ETTL and OCF#2 in Manual and On Camera Flash in ETTL if using 5D Mark II?? ?

thanks

You are correct. The grouping mode only works with 2012 models.

bizzle23 wrote in post #14677061
You are correct. The grouping mode only works with 2012 models.

Interesting. I'm considering these flashes too. I was hoping to use one 600ex-rt in the camera hotshoe in ETTL mode and a second 600ex-rt off-camera in manual mode.

But from the above it seems this is not possible with cameras such as the 5D2 - only with the latest 2012 cameras. Is that correct?

Correct, you can't do one flash ettl and other on manual with pre-2012 cameras. For the pre-2012 cameras, you can only do all ettl or all manual. I'm hoping if Canon can come out with the firmware to update all the pre-2012 cameras (so it can work on my 1DMKIV). I think they can do it, but just a matter of they want to do it or not.

Here is what I have found after wasting $1800 on three 600 ex rt.

Maximum sync is 1/100 second. How ridiculous is that?
No high speed sync.
No Groups; only ettl and, ratios and manual.

I called Canon today and wrote Canon CPS to complain and request they do the sensible thing by providing firmware for the 5d2 that makes it fully functional with the 600 ex rt. There is no reason they cannot do this, providing a market to the thousands of 5d2's out there.

Write Canon and call/email Canon CPS and tell them to make the 600 EX RT compatible with the 5d Mark 2 via a firmware update.

WAF wrote in post #14890008
Here is what I have found after wasting $1800 on three 600 ex rt.

Maximum sync is 1/100 second. How ridiculous is that?
No high speed sync.
No Groups; only ettl and, ratios and manual.

I called Canon today and wrote Canon CPS to complain and request they do the sensible thing by providing firmware for the 5d2 that makes it fully functional with the 600 ex rt. There is no reason they cannot do this, providing a market to the thousands of 5d2's out there.

You got a point there. BUT, think about the thousands that upgraded to the 5D Mark III. I think that's the reason why Canon restricted the use on later cameras. It's all business by the end of the day. Just my .02 cents.

Canon CPS emailed me today saying they do not tell if they are working on a firmware upgrade for the 5dMark2. I doubt they are. They also said their is no mechanism to make this recommendation/request to the whoevers.

My advice is do NOT purchase the 600EX RT for the 5d Mark2. It is almost useless.

^The 600EX RT works great on the 5D II, only feature not present is the new group mode. HSS works just fine for me as it does for everyone else that has posted on this subject.

jrscls wrote in post #14898257
^The 600EX RT works great on the 5D II, only feature not present is the new group mode. HSS works just fine for me as it does for everyone else that has posted on this subject.

What about you camera/flash sync. According to the manual the camera sync is one-stop less. Thus, with the 5D2 the camera / flash sync is up to 1/200th of a second. One stop brings it down to 1/100th of a second. What has been your experience?

jrscls wrote in post #14898257
^The 600EX RT works great on the 5D II, only feature not present is the new group mode. HSS works just fine for me as it does for everyone else that has posted on this subject.

Additionally, I want to shoot my on-camera 600EXRT in ETTL but my off-camera 600EXRT in manual. I have yet to figure out how to do this. Have you had any experience with this.

Sync and HSS work just fine, despite what it says in the manual. I don't think you can shoot on camera in ETTL and do manual off camera. For this, you need the new group feature in a new 2012 body. We didn't have this feature until recently, so I would hardly say this is useless. If you couldn't do HSS and the sync speed was 1/100 I would agree with you, but this isn't the case.