580EX II: Is mine faulty or does auto mode really suck?

Holy geez, I was so excited to get my 580EX II to replace one of my 430ex units. I wanted the auto flash feature.

Well, I've been playing with it for the last couple of hours and IT SUCKS!! I put it on my 30D, dialed in the matching settings, and took pictures. IT was constantly underexposing anywhere from 1 to 2 stops. I switched it back to ETTL mode and boom, it's just as good as my 580's and 430's. Put it in auto, it sucks again.

So I tried taking it off camera with pocketwizards. That sucked too. Constantly WAYYY underexposed.

I know how to use an auto flash. I've been using my Speedlite 199A forever and it produces MUCH nicer, consistent, and PROPER exposures!!

I'd like to know other people's experiences with the new 580 II. I need to know if mine is faulty or if they all plain suck...

I've had a similar experience with my 580ex... It was majorly underexposing! But that is the first time it's happened and I really believe that it was my recharable batteries! NOT USING THOSE AGAIN AT A WEDDING!!!!! It's all about the disposable ones for me now. Were your batteries fully charged? What do you mean by auto - ettl with high sync?

Auto is one of the new features of the 580EX II - it's an implementation of 'traditional' auto thyristor flash.


Joanna - I wonder if your problem is the vagaries of E-TTL; if you're shooting to expose the image largely by flash, you often need a significant amount of positive FEC. I doubt it was your rechargeables; if the pilot light on the flash was going red before you fired it, the capacitors were fully charged or thereabouts.

If, however, you were firing the flash several times in rapid succession, and only allowing the pilot light to go green, it could be that your short cycles were the problem. An external high voltage battery pack will help your recycle times.

David

islandphoto wrote in post #3270868
I've had a similar experience with my 580ex... It was majorly underexposing! But that is the first time it's happened and I really believe that it was my recharable batteries! NOT USING THOSE AGAIN AT A WEDDING!!!!! It's all about the disposable ones for me now. Were your batteries fully charged? What do you mean by auto - ettl with high sync?

I will only use rechargable batteries. Disposable cannot possibly recycle fast enough.

You need to to try some 2500mah (or better) NiMh rechargables. You charge them up the night before and carry a bucket of them with you at a wedding.

Ideally for weddings you'd use an external pack like the CP-E3. Tha'ts my next purchase for sure.

DavidW wrote in post #3271260
Auto is one of the new features of the 580EX II - it's an implementation of 'traditional' auto thyristor flash.

Joanna - I wonder if your problem is the vagaries of E-TTL; if you're shooting to expose the image largely by flash, you often need a significant amount of positive FEC. I doubt it was your rechargeables; if the pilot light on the flash was going red before you fired it, the capacitors were fully charged or thereabouts.

If, however, you were firing the flash several times in rapid succession, and only allowing the pilot light to go green, it could be that your short cycles were the problem. An external high voltage battery pack will help your recycle times.


David

I thought the new auto feature was something different than E-TTL.

I think the OP is speaking of C.fn 5-2 (External metering :Auto)

If this is the case, its only compatible with the M3 and manual external metering is what you would have to use. That or E-TTL II

I am just a noobie to photography and flash so if I have this wrong please correct me.

Auto is separate from ETTL. Rather than relying on the camera to determine the proper amount of flash, an Auto flash will determine the proper amount of light on it's own. This can usually be trimmed up or down 2-3 stops. I don't have any experience with the 580-2, but on the Qflash, there's a distance setting for metering. Is there such a setting on the 580-2?

Who knows, maybe Canon screwed Auto-Thyristor up too.

Rumjungle wrote in post #3271622
Auto is separate from ETTL. Rather than relying on the camera to determine the proper amount of flash, an Auto flash will determine the proper amount of light on it's own. This can usually be trimmed up or down 2-3 stops. I don't have any experience with the 580-2, but on the Qflash, there's a distance setting for metering. Is there such a setting on the 580-2?

Yes there is a distance scale, but im a bit confused. What do you by a distance setting for metering, the distance scale diplayed on the flash or flash exposure compensation?

In any event the 580 EX II has both, but auto can only be used on the new M3 ( if the OP was indeed speaking of auto flash metering)

Franko515 wrote in post #3271648
In any event the 580 EX II has both, but auto can only be used on the new M3 ( if the OP was indeed speaking of auto flash metering)

Where did you read this?

Auto doesn't care what body it's mounted on. It's a non-dedicated function. You can mount any branded Auto-Thyristor flash on ANY branded camera. That's one of the reasons it's so desirable. It meters completely independent of the camera.

cdifoto wrote in post #3271666
Where did you read this?

Auto doesn't care what body it's mounted on. It's a non-dedicated function. You can mount any branded Auto-Thyristor flash on ANY branded camera. That's one of the reasons it's so desirable. It meters completely independent of the camera.

From the manual pg 30 External Flash Metering

Maybe I understand it wrong (which is more than likely)

By distance, I mean the max subject distance that the flash will meter for. For example, let's say you have a subject 10 feet away and the background is a wall that is 20 feet away. You'd want to set the distance to 10 feet so that you're flash knows not to meter for anything beyond this point (as it doesn't know the difference between subject and background). Otherwise, you run the risk of the flash metering for the background (if it takes up more of your frame than the subject). In this case, if the background is dark, then your subject would be way over exposed and vise versa.

Rumjungle wrote in post #3271743
By distance, I mean the max subject distance that the flash will meter for. For example, let's say you have a subject 10 feet away and the background is a wall that is 20 feet away. You'd want to set the distance to 10 feet so that you're flash knows not to meter for anything beyond this point (as it doesn't know the difference between subject and background). Otherwise, you run the risk of the flash metering for the background (if it takes up more of your frame than the subject). In this case, if the background is dark, then your subject would be way over exposed and vise versa.

Yes the 580 EX II has a distance scale.

Thanks for clearing that up for me

No problem. That said, I seem to struggle with Auto. It's fine when I have time to set the distance. But when the subject distance varies from shot to shot, I go back to ETTL, or QTTL in my case. I know there's got to be a good way to utilize Auto, but I guess I just haven't figured it out yet.

Lloyd, when your 580 underexposes, did you ever try pumping up the FEC? Or was it going under no matter what you did?

I would still like to know what the OP meant by auto mode

The only thing I can find in the manual is about auto external metering, which only works on the M3 if im reading it right and fully auto flash in E-TTL mode.

But he states he switched back to E-TTL mode which leads me to believe he is speaking of auto external metering which I think only works with the M3 (again if im reading it right)

I wish someone else who has flash knowledge and the 580 EX II would chime in to either confirm or correct my statement

Franko515 wrote in post #3271838
I would still like to know what the OP meant by auto mode

The only thing I can find in the manual is about auto external metering, which only works on the M3 if im reading it right and fully auto flash in E-TTL mode.

But he states he switched back to E-TTL mode which leads me to believe he is speaking of auto external metering which I think only works with the M3 (again if im reading it right)

I wish someone else who has flash knowledge and the 580 EX II would chime in to either confirm or correct my statement

According to Westfall, and common knowledge of Auto Thyristor flash, the 580EX II will work in Auto-Thyristor on non-Mark III bodies aka non-dedicated. Watch towards the end.

http://www.youtube.com …0E9s&mode=relat​ed&search=

You don't have to own a 580EX II to know what Auto is and is supposed to do.