20D sleeping on the job...

20D wake up time> and speedlite issues.

 

Whats the delay time to hold the button to wake up the camera for? I

pressed the button a couple times two or three times but it wouldn't

wake up, I need it to wake up real fast when I press the button! I

can't do AF and FEL if it doesn't wake up. I thought of disabling

power saving mode but I only have two bp511's to spare and candids

are few and far between. Hey 20D wake your lazy but up NOW! Do I have

to hold it down for certain number of seconds? if so, what are these

mysterious numbers? I don't want to be flipping the power button on

and off too many times, It might wear out prematurely.. Also where

can I go to exchange my speedlite the same day under waranty. Mines

being a pita, it won't turn on after replacing the batteries.. It

sits there like a lump with new batteries in it, untill something

happens inside? whatever it could be I don't like this problem..

After sitting a couple two or three or twenty minutes it decides at

it's leasure to be able to be turned on? I'm dumbfounded on this one.

I put the bats in, flip the button to ON then it does nothing. so I

put the button to off, put it back to ON and it does nothing. so I

keep doing this and it won't turn on.. I set it down for some number

of minutes, pick it back up and then flip it back on and it works

again, this has happened twice and realy is a waste of time. I need a

new one ASAP before my trip and I need it LOCAL exchange under

waranty, does anyone know if Wolf honors canon waranty with direct

exchange? I didn't buy the speedlight from them but I did buy my 20D

from them, neither are grey market. Does canon have this kind of

Customer service?

Why don't you ask Wolf?

 

Canon does not do exchanges. If it's broken, they will fix it, but it will probably take weeks, not days.

I think the speedlite thing sounds like a defect but I have one more thing to consider. I Didn't think about it before and I've got this rib thats aching me so everything is antagonising to me.. I just changed my battery charger because the first one crapped out. Any change the NiMH batteries make to much voltage? overcharged or something? It would make sense if they had too many volts, I used a bat tester that measures POWER level with a simple green,red bar.. They were in the green so I figure it's the speedlite. I'll check the voltage after charging the next time.. Maybe the speedlite has a failsafe for too much voltage. I haven't called wolf cause they closed before I got frustrated. As for the camera wakeup button delay ARRRG! I'll have to just be stuck with that! I would have missed the uni-cyclists all together if I was waiting for the canon to wake up because I didn't press the button just right. If the speedlite issue turns out to be the battery charger I'll let everyone know which battery charger is NOT recommended.. I'll take suggestions on battery chargers here n now if anyone feels like suggesting one that they are using with first hand experience that will do 8 or so NiMH AA's at a time.

NiMH AA's only put out 1.25 volts or so. Alkalines put out 1.5 volts, so whatever the problem is, it's not too much voltage from your NiMH batteries.

So 4 x NiMH = 5 volts where as 4 x alkalines or Nicads = 6 volts?

 

Is this the problem, insufficient voltage for the flashgun to work? have you tried ordinary batteries in the flashgun to see if it is a voltage problem?

 

Which Speedlight are we talking about here?

Jim:

 

I wouldn't narrow it down like that. NiMH, NiCd, and Alkalines respond differently to load. Alkalines start at 1.65v and drop dramatically within minutes of attempts to pull serious current. NiCds start at 1.2v, but laugh in the fact of high-draw. NiMH is somewhere in the middle.

 

After ten minutes of driving the review screen and CF cards, all three will be within spitting distance of the same voltage.

 

DI

Thanks for the responses, We're talking about the 580EX speedlite.

It started working again after leaving it sit for several minutes with the batteries installed. I didn't try flipping the switch between the first few seconds that it refused to power on and the end of the few minutes so I'm not sure exactly how long it took for the flash to decide that it would turn on. The flash was sitting with no batteries in it while the batteries were charging, so it wasn't from using it too much. It happened Twice whith full charged Ni-MH bats off the charger. The battery's aren't HOT either, they sat for several hours at room temp after being pulled from the charger before I put them back in the flash.

Firstly my 20d comes on instantly I touch the shutter release, I can't understand why it wouldn't. Secondly If it's the same batteries in the flash, I'd say it's a problem with the flash.

 

I was surprised to hear that Canon in the USA is responsible for a faulty unit, in UK law if I buy something and it doesn't work the vendor is responsible for a replacement, this has even been found to work legally outside of guarantee periods. ie. user buys product but doesn't use it (ie 2nd camera body) after 18 months user takes product from box, switches on - nothing. User can then return the product as it wasn't fit for use when sold.

My 20D wakes up the moment I half press the shutter. It isn't instant but if I half press the shutter as I bring the camera to my eye it is ready before I'm looking through the viewfinder.

 

I have never used the 580EX, I have a 550EX, but is it possible that it is entering some sort of power saving mode? Do you have the flash mounted on the camera and the camera awake or is the flash just sitting on the table? I really have no idea and it is probably defective. Just thinking out loud.

I've been trying for 5 minutes to power on the 580ex with freshly charged batteries again, it refuses to power up.. I have another set of batteries but I want to see just how long it takes before it has it's magical moment that decides to power on.

Ahah the flash decided it would power on after about 8 and a half minutes, I was trying the power switch every few seconds..

So here's the info. The battery's are "rayovac" 15 minute quickcharge NiMH, the charger is RadioShack cat number 23-345 nicd/nimh 4 battery charger. The rayovac charger is dead gone byebye, so the Voltage from the AA's straight off the new charger was measured at 1.6 and measured 1.5 after the flash decided to work. The first time I changed the batteries the flash was on the camera, the second time the flash was off the camera, both times it refused to power on for a while.. I'll exchange the charger and the batteries before I blame the flash, but I can't put up with not having a flash for 8 minutes if it happens with a different charger and batteries I won't hesitate to contact the vendor for a replacement flash. The camera may have had a dead battery.. I got mad n put it down didn't try it again till the morning, 20D turned on fine in the morning and showed a low battery but then I noticed in the options power saving mode was off. So it was just out like a light, with no power saving mode? I don't remember turning that feature off. Maybe it also went away when I updated the firmware.

arg! I found I have a bad NiMH cell. It's kind weird it has a charge, but doesn't work all the time.. can I get this thread deleted?

You had an odd problem and found a solution ... this thread might help someone else. Now we all know how one particular 20D behaves if there is a bad cell in its battery pack.

I guess thats fair. It was the NiMH's for the 580EX that had the problem though. I can't find anything wrong with the 20D, I left it on, thinking it was still on and was sleeping, the power switch was on but the battery was just DEAD. I keep it set to 4 minutes but for some reason it was off, something that I don't remember setting. Oh-Well..