Using 580 EX as a master -- setup question

Just purchased on ebay, and wanted to use as a master for my radio poppers. When I set the flash to "master" and press zoom, I get the familiar series of blinking icons -- channel, flash on / off, ratio. But I turn the control dial, and nothing happens.

The light works fine in slave mode, but I can't change any settings in master. Thoughts?

Did you rotate the dial the other way? Both ways?

What about using your camera body's FlashControlMenu to help control the settings?

Yep, both ways. Didn't try the camera itself. I do it all the time with the IIs. Do they work the same?

Make sure the the wild angle diffuser is push in all the way.

That made me laugh.

Until I tried it.

Problem solved.

Thanks...... and note to Canon.....

Seriously?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?

mattograph wrote in post #8386812
note to Canon..... Seriously?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?

Note to mattograph:

Seriously, think about it.

The flash head zooms to the 24mm position when you pull out the wide panel. That's the way it's designed to work. There's a switch inside the unit that detects when you pull the panel out.

And it detects when you push it in... all the way.

Sure, I get that. But why would it disable the master setup functions?

The zoom position determines the effective angle for the E-TTL communication, and at the 17mm position the range would be seriously reduced.

CliveyBoy wrote in post #8386984
The zoom position determines the effective angle for the E-TTL communication, and at the 17mm position the range would be seriously reduced.

So, what you're saying is that the flash is trying to tell me that I am likely to "fail" if the WAD is out.

I wonder if that's addressed in the book.......

Thanks! I learned something new with this.