580EX II Problem

[Joel Bookhammer]

So while photographing a wedding this weekend, I ran into alittle issue with my 580ex II flash. I was remotelyfiring it, and a 430ex II via some pocket wizards. When all of the sudden the 580 would not fire.


To make a long story short the flash works fine on camera no issues. If I try firing it via the PW connected to the PC port it will not fire. If I try using the adapter I use for the 430 (do to it not having a dedicated pc port) o nthe 580it stillwill not fire.


The PW's fire the 430 perfectly fine. Like I said the 580 stills works on camera no issue.


If anyone has any suggestions on how to resolve this it would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks


Joel

[peety3]

Other than the basics (replace the batteries, reset CFns to default, etc.), I'd tried using a PC cable to trigger the 580 as a wired remote (i.e. take the PWs out of the mix). After that, I'd sent the flash to Canon for repair.

[Alan]

I think it has something to do with the output of the 580 vs the 430. The 530 interferes with the pocket wizard, but the 430's output is smaller, and allows the flash to fire.


I hope I'm saying this correctly, about the output signal.

[justThorne]

I actually have two 580 EXIIs, purchased not only at different times but on different continents, and have recently had trouble in my studio where both were slaves, and one would fire consistently and the other would flake relatively often.


Was alternating between Canon's Wireless Transmitter and the 24EX Twin Lite as masters, and the right-side 580s flakiness cropped up about equally with both triggers, perhaps slightly more often with the Twin Lite.


Unfortunately, I don't which of them was bought on which continent. But I tend to think that's either a bad batch out there or a significant difference between vintages of them. Obviously would be very interested in anyone else's insights.

[Joel Bookhammer]

So the winner is!........Peety3! switched out the batteries and presto back in action. I did some tests afterwards and even while holding the PW directly against the flash it still fired. Not sure if the "interference" may be constant or intermitent, but today it worked like a charm.


Thanks


Joel