600 ex rt

[iND]

I just go my two new flashes from amazon, 600EX RT

Questions: (when using RT)

Groups: In setting up Groups (Gr) only certain "cameras released after 2011" are capable of this function.
Should I be able to do this with the 5D mark II?

What I want to do is set up the on camera as ETTL and the off camera as Manual (like a hair light).
This function is available in Groups. But I am not able to set this up with the 5D Mark II.
Am I doing something wrong?

[Mark Elberson]

The manual says that five groups is restricted to 2012 bodies but I "thought" that you could use the group functionality on older bodies.

What is happening when you try this? Maybe this weekend I can try this on my 5D II to see what happens.

[iND]

OK so here is what I have been able to figure out.
Using the 600 EX RT and 5D

My goal was to set up one on camera flash and then flash GROUPS (Gr) which is a new feature for the 600 EX RT.

Since I am starting with only 2 600 EX RT units I can only comment on that set up.
I am wanting to get away from the RATIO setting and expand into groups so I can set up some off camera flash to ETTL and some to MANUAL.
Why MANUAL?
Perhaps for a hair light set to 1/64 or a background set to washout at full power.

The instruction manual is pretty clear on setting the master to RT MASTER then change the MODE to Gr and select a group.

In this example Group B,
then you are able to set group B be manual mode (leaving other groups in ETTL), and also set the power setting on the same screen. (this is all done on the master)

Then turn on the slave and set it to RT SLAVE, change the GROUP to B.

Then this is where I ran into trouble. The slave screen did not match the master screen set up in Gr on the master.
Even after taking test shots the slave stayed at full power and worse yet in the ETTL mode.
When the slave was set to RT SLAVE I was not able to change it to manual mode, except on the master screen.

Solution??
Only after I activated the TEST button on the master did the slave screen change.
Did I miss this in the manual?

Relief is that groups (at least A B and C) can be used with the 5D and the 600 EX RT, Im still having trouble with groups D & E

Hope this helps some else.