580EX II, quick question I hope!

Hi, I recently purchased a 580EX II flash to accompany my 1D classic. The flash is going to be mostly used for portraits and will be used on and off camera. Anyway, after unpacking it today I put it on my camera and took some shots around the house. I photographed alot of things, mostly just certain rooms in my house etc. Basically I just want to know how to set it up right really. I took images in my bathroom and hallway and each image I took the result was completely bleached out. My rug on my stairs is a darkish white colour and the walls are white and when I took an image I literally can't see where the stairs are and the LCD display flashes to show me everything is over exposed. I have tried using the flash in ETTL mode with the camera on P, Av, Tv, M etc and pretty much all the settings I have tried gives me a complete bleached image. In my room for instance any white object will completely be bleached out. I tried using exposure compensation and all kinds of different settings. I also tried using the flash on M and I was unable to really figure out how to set it right. Ideally it would be good to be able to use it on ETTL sometimes just because its nice and easy. Anyone have any ideas of what it could be. Should I upload some photos? baring in mind each photo would have different settings.

First of all, make sure that the flash is seated properly in the hotshoe, i.e. pushed as far forward as it'll go. And then lock it.

Check the FEC setting on the flash. Make sure that it's set to 0. Test the flash again. Still having issues?

Try to see if you can determine whether the problem is isolated just to the ETTL mode or if it occurs no matter what mode the flash is set to. Set the flash to M mode. Set the the camera to 1/250 @ f/8 ISO 100 (or whatever you feel comfortable with). Then go through each power level setting, starting with 1/1 and working your way to 1/128 power. Are they all coming out washed out, too?

Hey, am gonna post a few shots, the settings might varie a bit but not enough for the difference I am getting in my oppinion. I tried the flash on ETTL on my 400D and shot in the same kinda areas with the same lighting and the images were 100% better.

To answer what you said PacAce. Before testing the flash on the 400D I literally went through so many settings. Tried the camera on P, Av, Tv etc. Tried having the ISO at 100, 200, 400 etc. I then scrolled through trying to do it. I even played with exposure compensation and even on -3 it still came out over exposed everywhere.

Heres 2 images, the settings are slightly different with these 2 images. I did take 2 with exact same settings on each camera and the result was the same as these 2 (I erased them accidentally after putting all my gear away)

1D

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I wonder if the issue might not be with your 1D camera. When the flash is mounted on the 1D, does the flash show ETTL on the LCD screen or TTL?

Checked it on the 1D and 400D, literally no difference at all. I sat it on both bodies with no lense on the camera and it said ETTL top left with everything the same on both.

Can you get hold of another flash to test your 1D with? Since the flash works fine on the 400D, I'm thinking you might be having issues with the 1D itself.

I figured out the issue. Basically I had not checked the flash exposure compensation. There is 2 exposure compensation buttons on the 1D and it was only showing me one until i pressed another button, i turned that down and now its perfect!

Does that camera not show the symbol for flash exposure compensation in the viewfinder? My cameras (400D and 40D) do that.

apersson850 wrote in post #6115416
Does that camera not show the symbol for flash exposure compensation in the viewfinder? My cameras (400D and 40D) do that.

The 1D series camera have two index marker on the metering scale instead of the one that the non-1D camera have. One scale (left index marker in diagram below) is for the ambient metering and EC and the other (right index marker) is for the flash metering and FEC. So, when one scale is in the middle and the other is "off the scale" so to speak, then it's very easy to miss that. That's probably what happened in this case. But to answer your question, yes the camera does have an EC/FEC icon in the viewfinder.

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Yup, basically when I was testing I was literally checking my top display to check exposure compensation and that kinda thing. Because I saw it was 0 I just naturally assumed it was that one. I didn't pay much attention when I was looking through the viewfinder. I then literally went from start to finish of possible causes and noticed the secondary exposure for the flash was out.

Yes, I checked the manual for the 1Ds Mark III now. I see that the +/- symbol is common for all sorts of compensation, so you need to check the scale to the right to see what's really going on. Probably easier to miss than the specific flash EC symbol in the simpler models.

I have the same kind of exposure scale in my T90, so I'm familiar with that.