Was using it yesterday, and suddenly it quit working. Strange, because it was not flashing, yet it was giving me a green confirmation after each shot. Now when I hit the test button, I can see a faint flash happen. Sux.
Ordered a 430 ex II to for now to get me through the holidays. Will send it to Canon first thing in January to see what is up. I guess if it is cheap enough to repair then i'll get it fixed and have a backup...
The flash that died was about 2 years old. I'm the original owner and it gets babied. I've used ita lot, but it seems like it should last longer than this. Anyone else have this kind of issue with their Canon speedlite?
One bad battery out of the 4 will cause the green light to come on but you will not have enough stored voltage to actually fire your flash.
It's always good to have a good charger and some good eneloops to fire your flashes.
My 430 ex1 also conked out on me last month. Same issue as yours...All functioning in settings and same green light but just doesn't fire. It doesn't fire while hitting the test. New batteries didn't solve the problem. I'm thinking it's a burned out flash tube. still have a 430 ex2 and a 580 ex2 but I do alot of multiflash shooting. I'll send it in after the holidays to canon and see what they say.
My 430 EXI has been intermittent that last few months or so. It drops out of ETTL mode into TTL and then it just won't fire no matter what until it decides to go back into ETTL mode again. I have no idea if it's coincidence or not but a couple weeks ago I gave the hot shoe contacts on the camera and the flash a good wiping down and since then it's been working.
I had a 550EX that popped it's bulb and would give me green light ready but wouldn't discharge. I was able to order and replace the bulb myself and I do have a thread where I asked somewhat the same question you do...There's also a link inside that thread to the place where I looked up the "general" instruction...
Gochugogi wrote:
Last time I was at a Canon Service Center the minimum charge was $175. So you should either FIY or buy a new flash.
WOW! That is steep... Even with 20% off (silver CPS) that would suck. Well, I'm going to send it in anyway to see. If they quote me $175 I'll DIY the flash tube...
Even with 20% off (silver CPS) that would suck. Well, I'm going to send it in anyway to see. If they quote me $175 I'll DIY the flash tube...