Almost. UPS has delivered it to my work location, so it's down at the loading dock on a cart somewhere. Should be in my hands in a couple of hours, unless I get too impatient and go get it. But...since the only camera I have with me is a PowerShot S100, I'm not in a huge rush.Originally Posted by Mark Elberson
That's pretty slow for Amazon's standards. I guess I have been spoiled by "Prime". Anyway, I am very interested to see what your thoughts are.
Slow because I opted for free shipping. I'm happy with my 430EX II's, my main reason for the 600EX-RT is full AF assist coverage for the 1D X. Thus, I'm really in no hurry...
But I'll let you know what I think of it!
Just sold my 3 580EXII and my radiopoppers.
Gonna order 600 EX RT x 2
No more fiddling with connections.
I will report on the distance test once they arrive.
I will be tempted to do the same. Although ever since I switched from 580EX IIs to 430EX IIs my rate of reliability has increased several fold, "No more fiddling with connections" speaks volumes to me! Again, most of the time everything works well, but there are still times where I have to play the turn off/turn on game with the camera, the mini, the flex, the 430EX II until the Pocket Wizard Gods are satisfied and then they start working again. I use mono lights much more often than Speedlites but when I do use them (wedding receptions, fast paced shooting) I want to just turn them on and have them work. Maybe dumb triggers are the way to go. I never have had a problem with CyberCyncs. Having TTL in my back pocket does make me feel warm and cozy though :-)
Sure I am curious but if it gets anywhere close to what is advertised I would be happy. Distance has never been an issue for me. Reliability has. Give me 100% at <= 50 feet and I'm good to go.
Last edited by Mark Elberson; 04-05-2012 at 06:12 PM.
Do you mix them? That's why I'm going to stick with PWs, at least for now - the ability to trigger both my 430EX IIs and my Einstein and control the power of them all from the camera. If Canon comes out with an ST-E3/600EX-RT-compatible RF receiver that has a PC sync port, I'd strongly consider switching. Also, changing power levels with the AC3 seems a lot quicker/easier than the buttons/menus of the ST-E3/600EX-RT.
First impressions of the 600EX-RT - man, that's a big box, almost the size of the box for my 7D! The tri-lingual manual is over a 1/2-inch thick. A very solid, well-built flash. Sticking in some eneloops and pressing the test button, it flashes. That's about it for first impressions.
Not anymore
I agree, that is awesome, but I got too many misfires when using the Mini/AC3 + MC2. It got really embarrassing when I was working with a client and I'd have to stop what we were doing to go to the Einstein and, wait for it, un-plug/re-plug the MC2 into the receptacle so that it could regain communication. I had too many exposures where one or many flashes simply did not fire. What put me over the edge was when I started using the Vagabond Mini. When using a battery pack it's generally advisable to not use your modeling lamps. There's a way to turn that off in the Pocket Wizard Utility. 100% of the time after falling "asleep" or just after a few exposures the Mini would "forget" its settings and default back to turning the modeling lamps back on. Luckily I tested that thoroughly before using them with a client. My solution, take the modeling lamps out of the units! That worked :-) More misfires later I re-purchased CyberCyncs (at least they are cheap) and I have not looked back. They work every time.
I would miss the AC3. In this digital world of buried menu items and touch screens there is something to be said about knobs and dials :-) Fast and simple, end of story. Although about 100 times more robust of a unit, the Cyber Commander has nothing on those 3 dials!
That's half the battle right :-) I downloaded the manual that Bryan posted about in his news feed. I was surprised to see 372 pages?!?!?
Last edited by Mark Elberson; 04-05-2012 at 06:10 PM.
I bought (2) Canon Speedlite 600EX-RTs and gave them a pretty good workout over the weekend. My 1st impressions are very favorable. Here's what I liked about them, they WORK! Turn them on, hit the wireless button and shoot. That's it. If you are interested I can do a distance test but Syl Arena over at http://pixsylated.com/blog/ has already done so and I'd put more faith in his testing practices than mine :-) I can say that while scouting a location I went beyond the working distance of the these flashes. They even had the courtesy to tell me so via a beep and the "Link" light turning from green to red. As soon as I walked back to the transmission zone they quickly went back to green. Over the course of a portrait session (about an hour) I had ZERO misfires!
I have another session this weekend where I am sure they will be used. I’ll update this thread as I continue to work with these impressive small lights.
Last edited by Mark Elberson; 04-30-2012 at 08:31 PM.
For anyone interested, Sto-Fen is coming out with an Omni-Bounce diffuser for the 600EX-RT. Adorama has them up for preorder.
Got the new Sto-Fen OmniBounce for the 600EX-RT last week (ordered from Adorama, now B&H has them, too). Fit is very snug - tighter than the ones for the 430EX II. There were early reports that the older one for the 550EX would fit, but I wondered about the gel sensor. On the one for the 600EX-RT, there's a little notch for the gel sensor.
The flash with the Sto-Fen mounted is too large for the Canon pouch (barely - the velcro closure still overlaps by a couple of millimeters), but it's a perfect fit in the Lowepro Quick Flex Pouch 75 AW.
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