Just picked up a set of 6 here and I'm reading through the manual... giving myself a crash course on use. Is there anything you guys can think of... tips, tricks? etc. Are there any custom functions that should or should not be enabled.
I have noticed that if I set it to power from external battery only (CP-E4 or whatever), it seems to sometimes recycle a lot slower than if it is set to power from both internal and external (default setting), so I would just leave that setting untouched out of the factory.
I have also noticed that in radio mode, if the 600EX slave cannot keep up with the recycle speed of the 600EX master, it seems that the master will refuse to fire until the slave is ready (or vice-versa, i.e. master is slower than the slave). So let's say you fire a shot and the master recycles in 1 second, but the slave takes 5 seconds, it seems that you have to wait the 5 seconds for the slave to be ready before the master can fire again even though it was already ready in 1 second. I am not 100% sure of this "feature" but this is just some field experience - I have to test this some more. So for now, I plan to hook up external power (CP-E4 or whatever) to all the 600EX masters/slaves just to be safe.
I think the usual CF options for the 580's also apply to the 600's...
CF01 - disable auto power off
CF06 - enable quick flash
CF11 - set slave flash power off to 60 mins (from 10 mins)
CF12 - flash recycle with external power source*
*I've set this to draw power from the external battery packs only. Explanation below...
I've had 5 of these flashes for a month or two now and have used them at about 10 weddings so far.
Overall, I'm really happy with them...got rid of all my RadioPopper gear and older 580's.
As Binh noted above...there is 1 significant issue with the 600's that you need to keep in mind - when in RADIO MODE...your overall recycle speed is equal to the recycle speed of your SLOWEST flash.
The radio mode waits for all slave flashes to synch to the master before ANY of the flashes can be fired.
I found this out the hard way during a first dance....the flash I was using to backlight the couple we running low on batteries...and took about 10 seconds to recycle....when I linked this flash in to the other 3 I was using...my recycle time dropped to 10 seconds between shots - an eternity during a first dance.
I've set the CF12 function to only draw power from the external battery pack in case I run into this problem again. It would be quicker to run over and unplug the external battery from the flash than it would be to start replacing batteries.
Also...when you run into this issue, you have to check every flash manually for low battery power. Keep that in mind when you decide which strategy to use.
Tony Hoffer wrote:
Disable the optical slave. You don't need it and it gets rid of the blinking.
Dude....I owe you one for this tip alone.
My tip is pretty obvious, but if you have a situation where one flash runs out of juice, none of the connected flashes will fire. You have to find the offending flash and either turn it off or replace the batteries.
I like to leave the light blinking in the remote possibility that it will make the flash more visible to someone who would have otherwise tripped over it. Also, when it's blinking, it may prevent some "helpful" person from moving the "ugly" light stand to a more-out-of-the-way place. I really love these RT strobes- Thanks, Canon!
I bought three of them along with the ST-E3-RT transmitter. To be honest, I have only used them around the house to test them. I don't think I'm going to keep them. I prefer my old Sunpack 383's in manual mode fired with pocket wizards. I like the simplicity of my system. In addition, I use Photogenic monolights at the reception so I don't have to worry about batteries running low.
I will probably put these up for sale soon if anyone is interested.
jcolman wrote:
I bought three of them along with the ST-E3-RT transmitter. To be honest, I have only used them around the house to test them. I don't think I'm going to keep them. I prefer my old Sunpack 383's in manual mode fired with pocket wizards. I like the simplicity of my system. In addition, I use Photogenic monolights at the reception so I don't have to worry about batteries running low.
I will probably put these up for sale soon if anyone is interested.
I almost forgot- mine came with a little piece of paper on top of the manual that said: if you use any gels (OTHER THAN the ones that come with the 600EX) then be sure to disable the automatic filter detection function (P.Fn-05).
misterOphoto wrote:
I almost forgot- mine came with a little piece of paper on top of the manual that said: if you use any gels (OTHER THAN the ones that come with the 600EX) then be sure to disable the automatic filter detection function (P.Fn-05).
OK guys.... a few more questions. I was a little less than pleased today, with our first run using the flashes. They seemed to work fine during the family portraits. I loved being able to set them up quickly and have them work.
first issue was one of my masters was showing a green link light and anne's was orange and my second one was orange (i read the manual just now, that is normal) It didn't worry me too much though because they were working at first... then as problems started to pop up, I thought maybe this orange link light was the culprit.
Then.. about 1/3 through the reception Anne's master stopped triggering the slaves. This made me worry more about what the orange link light was... I thought maybe it was batteries, I switched them.. no fix. I turned it on/off a few times... no fix. Then suddenly, it started working again.
Then about 2/3 of the way through the reception, both of my masters stopped triggering the slaves... tried the same things, no fix... Then all of a sudden, they started working again.
It was very confusing and frustrating.... keep in mind, we are using 3 masters, triggering 2 slaves.. the slaves have extra battery packs.
Rich, I don't know if this would help but you can also try a manual channel scan on the spot before the reception starts, and then dial in a specific channel for all your flashes. I set all mine to a specific channel and haven't encountered anything like this so far. Just something to try next time. I would be interested to learn if it makes any difference.
