Flash failure--can anyone help?

[Bill M.]

To all the excellent problem solvers on this forum, I'm looking for a little insight on why my old Canon 380EX flash has failed. I was shooting a friend's wedding this past weekend and after switching my 380EX flash from a 20D used outdoors for a fill flash (in which it was working fine from the images I have), I moved it to a 1D III and all the images started to come out dark.


After checking flash exposure compensation and general flash settings on the 1D III, the images were still super dark. I proceeded to move the flash to my 5D II and back to the 20D and got the same results. Luckily I had a 580EX II as my primary flash anyway, so I didn't miss any shots but when I got home, I still couldn't get it to work.


What's odd is that the flash still zooms in/out, fires test flashes fine, and fires with the shutter release but the resulting images are completely dark. Even if the flash were somehow out of sync with the cameras, shouldn't the default camera settings allow for blurred, but at least brighter images?


Anyone have any ideas? I'm probably going to toss the flash anyway and pick up at least a 430EX II or another 580EX II but would still like an answer for the failure...Thanks!

[Sean Setters]

Is there a possibility that your ISO was set higher on the 1D III, and maybe you were shooting manually (with either the flash or the camera) and your shutterspeed was too fast to sync with the flash? I know it sounds silly, but I've done something very similar before.


Try a controlled test--set your camera(s) to shutter priority 1/160 sec with the flash on camera and see if the images come out dark. If they do, the flash might be trash-worthy.

[Bill M.]

My second shooter was using the camera and he had the 1D III on P, ISO was at 400. I have tried the flash again on my 5D II and 20D, on multiple modes, with different settings and still no dice...I think the flash is definiately trash worthy at this point!


Thanks for trying anyway Sean! I need a better flash setup anyways!

[Dallasphotog]

I've seen some weird things over time with battery condition. At the very end of the bettery life on my XTi body, it occasionally provides some strange results. The same applies to the 580EX flash. The first time I see something weird happen; Ichange batteries and have another go at it.


Make sure your contacts aren'tdirty as well.

[Bill M.]

I replaced the batteries right away during the event and nothing had changed. I tried again at home and still nothing. The contacts are clean and the weird thing was that the flash was working outside during the ceremony, seemingly just fine. Thx for the response!

[Dallasphotog]

It's some sort of wedding curse. I have four bodies and three flashes becasue of weird crap at weddings. Last year my 1DMKII decided not to focus on the bride as she walked down the aisle with her dad. Something in the flood lights behind her rendered it completely inop for autofucus. I had toswivel around my XTi and shoot from the hip or I would have been without asingle infocus frame.

[ShutterbugJohan]

all the images started to come out dark.

Something similar happened to my 580EX after shooting in som not-very-heavy rain for approx. 10 minutes. I had to send the flash to Canon for a $120 repair. :-(

[Bill M.]

Dallasphotog: I'm still new to the whole wedding shooter thing, I thought that 3 bodies and 2 flashes would be adequate, of course I was wrong. Now I know why people like yourself carry three flashes!


ShutterbugJohan: It was a beautiful day, so the flash did not get wet, or get exposed to any liquids but I still can't get it to work. Sorry to hear about your flash, but I have no plans to get this one fixed--just not worth it. If it was my 580EX II that failed, then maybe but not an old 380EX. I was looking for something I could use as a slave flash anyway, so maybe this wasn't a bad thing after all (although at the time, it was a very bad thing!)