Photon Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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The PW website doesn't make it easy to find, but Chuck Gardner's detailed memory of their response to the issues with fried 580EX2 seems very accurate to me. They had photos of the inner workings, showing the results of arcing, the variation in gaps from one sample to another, etc. I suspect that some of us have been lucky to have copies that are a little more resistant to arcing than the worst copies, and also, many of us make less use of rapid fire HSS off-camera flash than some of the photographers who have experienced 580EX2 failures with PW. As for me, though I use a 580EX2 with PW flex and mini, I tend to use my old 550EX units off camera, with the 580 on.
As I write this, only one of 35 580EX2 users answering this poll has fried a unit. There is, or at least was, a real weakness in the design of the flash, but the incidence of problems probably is lower than might be inferred from some discussions. Still, I'm glad there have been complaints and "firestorms". It may have influenced Canon to make the minor running changes in design, and maybe the next generation flagship EX will be more robust, lower in RF emissions, etc.
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