Canon 7D... slow recharge (hangs on busy) when firing a remote speedlite

Hey guys, need some advice. I was shooting an outdoor fashion shoot yesterday and to my horror my remote flash triggers started dropping off with low battery levels.

I had to resort to the wireless trigger in the Canon 7D.

I set the 430Ex ii to wireless mode, manual full, set the 7D to fire only the remote 430 and carried on shooting. All went well, then slowly I noticed the 7D was hanging on 'Busy'... why? the on camera flash was not being used at power, only to trigger the 430.... the batteries weren't low on the 7D as I had two full batteries in the grip.

Anyone experienced some strange goings on when trying to use the wireless 7D flash function and fire only a slave?

At one point there was around a 5 second 'busy' recharging period from the camera.... not good! not good at all!

i could be wrong...but maybe the memory card isn't catching up with the files?

That's the way it works. Due to the excessive signalling by the flash head, when the built-in is used as a master, it risks overheating pretty soon. To prevent the internal flash from catching fire, the camera introduces a delay between shots, and that's when you see busy in the viewfinder.

I've found the built-in commander flash useful only for occasional shots, or when taking pictures of things which are static, so it doesn't matter if you need to wait a little. For more demanding shots, I use a 580 EX II or 600 EX-RT flash as a master (now assuming Canon gear for remote flash control).

ericm678 wrote in post #15994226
i could be wrong...but maybe the memory card isn't catching up with the files?

no, I don't think that's the issue, its a CF Sandisk Extreme card, never had issue on 8fps burst or a RAW burst.

apersson850 wrote in post #15994245
That's the way it works. Due to the excessive signalling by the flash head, when the built-in is used as a master, it risks overheating pretty soon. To prevent the internal flash from catching fire, the camera introduces a delay between shots, and that's when you see busy in the viewfinder.

I've found the built-in commander flash useful only for occasional shots, or when taking pictures of things which are static, so it doesn't matter if you need to wait a little. For more demanding shots, I use a 580 EX II or 600 EX-RT flash as a master (now assuming Canon gear for remote flash control).

thanks, glad someone else has had the exact same experience. Yes, it will be occasional shots from now on with the on board trigger, I was relying on the 3rd party triggers, but they went TU on me!