580EXII losing settings

I was shooting yesterday, and the recycle time on my 580EX II dropped to the point that I decided to change the batteries. One problem though was that once the batteries were replaced, the flash lost its setting as being in Slave mode. Is there a custom setting that will force the unit to stay in that mode? I could not find anything in the owner's manual.

If you leave the batteries out for too long it will not save the settings. There isn't a CFn to fix that. If you change batteries in a reasonably quick timeframe you will not lose the settings. Addit: Having extremely flat batteries just prior to changing them may shorten this period; I've never tested that.

Disappointing news, as it really slowed me down in the middle of a job. I probably changed the batteries in under a minute.

Allen,

It is a huge pain!

Canon have been asked time and time again to re-introduce a Manual Button that allows switching between Master/Slave modes on the EX flashguns!

Have they listened?
Do they listen?
Will they now listen?

OK i thought i was going crazy. maybe i hit the button while changing them to make it go into master again

More probably the backup capacitor was at such a low level when you removed the depleted battery, that the flash lost memory almost immediately.

I have to agree that it's quite a bit simpler to throw my 430EX into slave mode than it is for my 580EX II...

The thing is that a flash like the 580 EX II is desgined to be set up via the camera's menu system. The menu system can't move a mechanical switch like the 580 EX has. Besides, the lock lever on the 580 EX II is much more convenient than the lock nut on the 580 EX, and at least I mount the flash more often than I turn it over to slave mode.

Rumor of the new Speedlite re-introduces the off/master/slave switch.

But hey, it's a rumor...

-Mario

I guess that might answer the question I was about post a thread for:

My 580EX2 keeps auto-powering off, even though I've changed the custom function to turn that off. Is it my batteries? I used rechargeables, and it seems like it's saving the custom function, but that sucker turns itself off if I stop shooting to adjust something on my set up. Any help?

Hmmmm,

If 'Auto-Power-Off' is set to 'Disabled' via the Camera-Menu Custom Function 2, then the likely cause is lack of battery-charge/power.
Try with a fresh set of batteries, if this problem re-occurs then it's something else.....

Cham_001 wrote in post #10370749
Hmmmm,

If 'Auto-Power-Off' is set to 'Disabled' via the Camera-Menu Custom Function 2, then the likely cause is lack of battery-charge/power.
Try with a fresh set of batteries, if this problem re-occurs then it's something else.....

Thank you so much! That was my suspicion, but it was kinda weird that the flash would do that (at least in my head). I'll give that a shot. Fresh batteries it is!