Speedlite Issue

[david_amberson1]

<p>Had an odd thing happen last Sunday....wondering if anyone else has encountered this and what they found, cause I still havent found the rootcause yet.<br>

Was at a relatives Birthday Sunday, fooling around taking pictures, and about every 3rd picture I got the fatal plum and whine of my flash going full power and draining everything it had, followed of course by the white out. I was using the 430EX on my 1D3 and havent used it in quite a while since I mostly use the 580EX, but I knew in the enviornment I was gonna be in, the Omni Bounce would be the way to go, and didnt have one that fit 580, so on the 430 it went.<br>

I first thought the stoffen was robbing too much and it was causing the flash to hang wide open being smaller than my 580, but I never remember the 430 struggling with anything other than extreme long range etc. This was just crummy lighting with really low ceilings, so I just thought I'd use Omni bounce and bounce the flash off walls instead of ceiling. When I say low, I mean...I'm 5'11" and could stand flat footed and reach ceiling. Just felt flash would be stuffed in tiles if bouncing up.</p>

<p>Anyway, after really paying attention...I noticed when this occured, my flash LCD was showing TTL...everytime it did it.</p>

<p>I didnt switch it, in fact I dont think I can switch it, it usually is either ETTL or full manual. When it switched back to ETTL, it did fine, but about every 3rd shot, it would go TTL and blow the room apart. I also swapped batteries for fresh(just for grins), shut it off, removed the flash, reinstalled it...same thing. Moving head around didnt prove consistent enough to be definitive.</p>

<p>Just wondering if anyone else here has had this happen and what they found. Was it a setting somewhere that I'm not thinking off etc. I wouldnt be surprised...I have been using this thing lately for everything under the sun, from Weddings one day, to High School football game the next day under lights. So I'm always having to change a bunch of stuff before shooting anything, but I dont recall anything that would have cause this.<br>

Thanks</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Dirty hotshoe connectors. My old 1D does it to my 550EX's. Clean them up really well and you should get ETTL back.</p>

[david_amberson1]

<p>Ah ha...I do recall that when I removed it the last time, it seemed to right itself and not return. Perhaps it scuffed the connection enough to make contact. So I'm guessing one of those contacts are for ETTL as opposed to TTL.<br>

I'll clean good and see if it ever reoccurs. It was starting to bother me, because I'd hate to miss a one time moment shot cause this thing hung open and blew someones eyes out. I'm telling you, those little lites have some power when wide open, you could feel the heat and percussion off that thing. Felt like a hot puff of air on my forehead</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Hi David,</p>

<p>One thing I have found with the MkIII's is that the hotshoe is a much better design, I would look at the flash as being the most likely bad guy in this case as you are using a MkIII. Funnily enough I was doing some flat field work last night and used my 1D (original) and a 1Ds MkIII, the 1D played up a couple of times and only showed TTL. Sometimes just firmly moving the flash in the hotshoe is enough to get the contact back.</p>

[david_amberson1]

<p>Yeah, I cleaned and it seems to be ok at the moment. I think it was a connection issue...just dont know how. I found my old manual for the 430EX and it says that if you use it on a body thats type B(TTL only) that it wont be ETTL capable. Also, that if TTL is set, it will only shoot full power. I guess it just lost contact with the body at the right place to make the flash think it was no longer connected to an ETTL body.</p>

<p>It may actually even be wires inside at the hotshoe connection. I have replaced 2 plastic feet on this unit before and the solder connections may have worked loose. But for now its fine.</p>