BLACK images??

I wonder if any one has had the problem I am going to describe and could help shed some light on it for me (haha).

I have two speedlights a 580EXII and an older 580EX

For test purposes I have my 5D set to Manual, 50 / 5.6f. I mount my 580EX and set it to shoot ETTL +2/3. The image is as expected, a little hot but fine.

Then i mount the 580EXII with the exact same settings on both the Camera and Speedlight and my image comes out Black.

What gives?

Do i have a faulty 580EXII?

is it firing at all? try cleaning the contacts, an eraser works well on electronic contacts

as stated above i would check your contacts, an eraser works well but i have used a shirt or other piece of cloth and it works just fine, if your flash is slightly loose on your mount, try moving it a tiny bit in either direction, sometimes the connections may be slightly off causing this problem.

Yes it's firing. I will try cleaning the contacts though...

Will report back!

Just tried using an eraser on the contacts and even wriggling the speedlight a bit when mounted. No luck.

I even see the flash fire through the viewfinder, but the images are Dark/Black...

Could you have the 580EX II set to not fire the Main flash?

The Flash icon on the flash's LCD should have rays being emitted by the head. If it does not, no main exposure flash will be emitted. Go through the messy Zoom button sequence to switch the Master main flash on. (Not just "Master" on.)

If the on-camera 580EX II's Wireless Function is disabled (no Master or Slave set); or it is set to Slave, the main flash will fire on camera. The disable setting works only when in Master mode.

CliveyBoy, My Speedlight is firing. That doesnt seem to be the issue.

I just tried the flash on a manual setting 1/16, Camera set at 40 at 8.0 and expected a fairly dark image in a dark room. The image i ended up with was blown out, completely nuked!

What curtain is the flash synced to? Second curtain sync, and +2/3 will (or I should say can) cause the flashes to essentially fire after the image is recorded, even if it seems to you that they fired correctly. I had this issue as well, and switched to first curtain, and the issue was solved.

30Der wrote in post #11408646
=30D'er;11408646]Clive​yBoy, My Speedlight is firing. That doesnt seem to be the issue.

I just tried the flash on a manual setting 1/16, Camera set at 40 at 8.0 and expected a fairly dark image in a dark room. The image i ended up with was blown out, completely nuked!

I think CB may still be right. When you say the flash is firing, perhaps what you are seeing is the E-TTL pre-flash, but if the main flash is disabled, it will not fire for the actual exposure.

Gonna experiment tonight....thank you for the input!

Pull the batteries on the 580exII - that will reset any of it's configurations (except custom functions), os if you do have it set to Master and no flash, that will be turned off and you'll be back to normal ETTL only mode.

Hi again everyone.

So i checked my settings and ensured my 580EXII was set to shoot neither master or slave but just plain ETTL.

Also tried removing batt's and replacing them with fresh batts.

I left it on 2nd curtain flash. That's what all my flashes are set to, so i fig it should work.

No luck. I still get black images.

Put the camera on (M)anual, set, f/16 with 1 second shutter speed. Put a mirror infront of the camera at a reasonable distance (to catch the flash). Put the flash back to 1st curtain, and manual, full power, and fire.

If you don't see the flash in the mirror, then something is really really wrong.

If you do, then try it on 2nd curtain, my suspicion is that's where you will find the problem. If its not 2nd curtain, then start eliminating some of the variables.

Can you post shots from each setup with exif intact? What ISO are you shooting at and what sort of ambient lighting are you dealing with?

Since you've already said that in Manual you get plenty of light in the image, this sounds like you have some other settings incorrect when shooting TTL. On my 7D the only way I can reproduce these results with those settings is to Enable Wireless flash control and Disable Master flash.

This causes the trigger flash to fire, but does not output enough light to effect the image.