Comment/help/remarks

I shot a children's beauty pageant last weekend. I used my 430EX wireless. I ruined/burnt it up. It will not do anything at all. I shot approx. 600 shots with it. I hate to sound ignorant here...but was that to much action for it in a short timeframe? I still have a 580EX....just don't wanna make the same mistake twice. Stephen.

600 flashes over an afternoon is not too much. But if you has your camera on high speed shutter and held the button down, then the answer is yes, it was too much. Since you did not specify a time frame you are going to have to answer the question yourself.

Shutter speed was 125, and time frame was approx. 3.5 hrs.

Although I did not word it correctly, I was referring to motor drive, not the actual shutter speed. Too many activations of the flash in a short period of time is what burns out flashes.
Here is quote from the 430ex manual.
To avoid overheating and deteriorating the flash head, do not fire
rapid bursts of more than 20 continuous flashes. After 20
continuous flashes, allow a rest time of at least 10 min.

WOW.....sounds like thats what I did to ruin my 430EX. Thank you very much for the info.

1shot4u wrote in post #11365744
I shot a children's beauty pageant last weekend. I used my 430EX wireless. I ruined/burnt it up. It will not do anything at all. I shot approx. 600 shots with it. I hate to sound ignorant here...but was that to much action for it in a short timeframe? I still have a 580EX....just don't wanna make the same mistake twice. Stephen.

It certainly doesn't sound like too many shots to fry a flash tube but I've never shot that many in one continuous time frame

Flash tube is fine, I believe it smoked the circuit board inside main housing.