The first thing I did when I got my YN560 was to pop in some batteries and play with the buttons, and I found the test fire button when looking right at the flash bulb...Burnt Retina (that's a good name for a band...)

Anyway, now I need more information about using external flashes, unless I'm just missing it in my Canon manual. I now have two flashes, the second is the YN468-II and it is an E-TTL II auto/manual, and the one I'm playing more with ATM.

I was in Av mode and noticed that the shutter speed is stuck at 1/200. When I set the aperture to f/22, the flash fires, but I'm way underexposed. After some digging, I find the custom menu I-3 (not even part of the external flash control menus) with this setting at fixed 1/200. I'm confused (and baffled that I never noticed this with the internal flash, but so it is that way too...). Why would it be that way (I've reset my camera before, so it is a default setting)?

The other odd thing is that many of my photos come out OK anyway (meaning not black or blown away, but fairly close), I guess because the flash is adjusting its output level to compensate? So I set I-3 to "1/200-1/60sec. auto" and the shutter is then stuck at 1/60 - the exposures are still OK though, and probably for the same reason. If I set I-3 to Auto, then I get a broader shutter range and 1/20 is selected for the same scene. (this is going somewhere, I can feel it...)


In Tv mode, it seems to open up the lens all the way too early, and blinks the aperture even with long exposures, such as with 1/2sec. I'm not sure why if I set a faster shutter it does not boost up the flash power before opening the aperture all the way, but I can turn off the lights and the exposure ends up nearly the same - of course there is plenty of flash power to overcome.

Now, this is the TTL technology? One almost cannot mess it up? Well, enter full Manual...it still seems fairly robust.


Oooh, I found Multi-Mode. Why would I ever use that? It was cool though blasting 100 flashes in one second...

I've also been trying to work through the optical slave modes. The YN468-II seems to sync better than the YN560. Here is a summary of the YN560:

S2 mode with 2nd curtain, AF - does not sync with shutter slower than 1/10.
S2 mode with 1st curtain, AF - syncs fine at all shutter speeds.

S1 mode with either curtain, MF, and any shutter speed - no sync.

The 468 clearly behaves much better, but S2 still does not seem to sync as well as I'd expect - no concrete tests yet. On S1, it will keep up with all of the pre-flashes and still sync over a broader shutter range than the 560.

Well, I'm off to find some flash articles, I'm sure Strobist will be on the short list...