580 EXII on manual

[jon_st_jean]

<p>I'm using a 580 EXII on manual with a set of cactus V5's, and a Canon 50D.</p>

<p>This is my question. When I place the 580 on my camera's hot shoe, and switch the flash to manual the letter "M" which obviously stands for manual is not blinking. However when I take the flash off camera via the cactus V5's the letter "M' constantly flashes. Everything appears to be functioning correctly except for two things. First the red light that the flash uses to figure stuff out is constantly flashing a grid pattern onto the subject, and second the letter "M" on the 580's display is constantly blinking.</p>

<p>Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong? I've read the manual, and messed with the 580's display, but can't figure out how to stop the red metering light from flashing and the letter "M" from blinking.</p>

[jason_hall5]

<p>Is the flash set to master or slave mode? The red light on front of the flash is trying to conect with another flash it sounds like to me. Also, the 50D most likely has the function to control the flash from the camera. Look in your menus and make sure that there are no odd setting there. You can try a reset of your camera and see if that clears it up.</p>

[jason_hall5]

<p>I just realized the issue is with the flash off the camera and that it is useing the focus assist(grid pattern). So my answer above is likely of no help. Odd, I will mess with mine tonight and see if I can cause this to happen.</p>

<p>God speed</p>

<p>Jason</p>

[jon_st_jean]

<p>Thanks Jason. Even though your post didn't directly answer my question it lead me in the right direction. You were right it was in slave mode. I had been playing around with ETTL, and placed this 580 EXII in slave mode. I didn't turn slave mode off, and just changed it into Manual mode. This was causing the problem. The 580 appeared to be trying to both connect as a slave in ETTL mode, and allow me to control it in manual mode. Once I turned off slave mode in ETTL, everything was working correctly in Manual mode.</p>

<p>Thanks again for helping.</p>