580 EX II and 430EX II Quick Question

I'm doing some still life / table top work with these flashes, along with PW Plus II's.

After a few minutes the flashes "go to sleep". Then I have to open up my Apollo Softbox or turn around the umbrella so I can get to their controls and hit the pilot light buttons to "wake them up" again.

How do I get around this? I want them to stay awake much longer and be ready for the next shot.

Sorry if this is a naive question. I'm new to off camera flash photography.

The 580 EX II has a custom function (inside the flash unit), which turns the sleep mode off.
I don't have any 430 EX II, but I'm pretty sure it has the same kind of setting.

But then you'll have to remember to turn them off yourself, or they'll eat your batteries a bit too quickly.

Using Canon's wireless control allows the flashes to go into an energy save mode, from which they can be brougth to active state again by a test flash "wakeup call" from the master. But the data transfer via light has other limitations, of course.

Hm-
I use the RF-602 triggers and they are able to wake the flashes up from the sleep state; I'm not sure why your triggers aren't doing the same

Thanks, Anders!

@kayl: What would I do to have the Pocket Wizards wake up the flashes? Hit the Test button? That didn't work.

The 430EX has a master/slave switch. Make sure it is in the slave position. It shouldn't go to sleep then.

Edit: Oops, that is for the non-II. I'm sure there is a slave setting somewhere.

Edit 2: I looked in the manual on the Canon site and it says:
Set the 430EX II as the slave unit:
Hold down the ZOOM button for 2 sec or more

There's a custom function in both of these flash units to disable sleep.

580EXII - C. Fn -01 Auto power off set to 1 to disable it.

430EX - C. Fn - 00 Auto power off activation set to 1 to disable it.

Nightcrawler wrote in post #10295854
The 430EX has a master/slave switch. Make sure it is in the slave position. It shouldn't go to sleep then.

Edit: Oops, that is for the non-II. I'm sure there is a slave setting somewhere.

Edit 2: I looked in the manual on the Canon site and it says:
Set the 430EX II as the slave unit:
Hold down the ZOOM button for 2 sec or more

He's using them in manual mode, triggered by pocket wizards - NOT with the canon ETTL mode

b.d.bop wrote in post #10294914
Thanks, Anders!

@kayl: What would I do to have the Pocket Wizards wake up the flashes? Hit the Test button? That didn't work.

That's what my guess was - that's what I do- how are you hooking the PW's upto the flashes? PC cables? (w/ an adapter on the 430ex)

kayl wrote in post #10296800
That's what my guess was - that's what I do- how are you hooking the PW's upto the flashes? PC cables? (w/ an adapter on the 430ex)

@Jason and Tawcan: Thanks for the input - appreciated!

@kayl: I'm using FlashZebra's Item #0030 — Screwlock PC to Pocket Wizard from here: http://flashzebra.com/​wizardcables/index.sht​ml for the 580EX II and the adapter cable Item #0138 — Deluxe Canon Hotshoe to Pocket Wizard for the 430EX II.

I was getting terrible connections using the PC to PW cords supplied with the PW's. The screwlock was an essential. And Lon at FlashZebra's the greatest <-----commercial plug for a great outfit.

I LOVE Flash Zebra. I'm even happier that they're about 40 minutes from my house

genzbenz wrote in post #10297625
I LOVE Flash Zebra. I'm even happier that they're about 40 minutes from my house

That's just no fair.