Flash died.
It was my own fault as I have been using a set-up of three Speedlites on a project and it was a bit heavy going ....... probably 3-400 flashes in a hour. I do have studio flash, but they are too powerful, too slow and I need the short duration to freeze the moment. I am using manual at 1/60th power on the Speedlites, so I am not being as harsh as it would appear at first thought.
The 420EX handled it with no problem, so did the 580EX, but the 580EXII gave up the ghost. All had new batteries to start with, but when the MKII gave up the struggle, I put a new set in and it still didn't work. It was starting to dawn on me that my new project was going to cost me a repair job at Elstree ............ Bummer! The Rear screen would light up for less than a second before it died again. I hoped it may recover over time, so I removed the batteries and tried again the following morning, but no change.
I found a box and some bubble wrap, but there was still a nagging doubt that I couldn't explain. Acting on that I got out my multi-meter and checked the batteries. One was dead. Just enough voltage to flash the screen and nothing more. Did the batteries cause the problem, or did the flash kill a battery? Only one way to find out and a new set of batteries were fitted to find everything working perfectly and have continued over a couple of days. Could have been rather embarrassing to come back from Canon with "No Fault Found", and somewhat expensive, and I would have been without it for a week.
Note to self: thank lucky stars and be a bit more gentle with the gear in future.
It was my own fault as I have been using a set-up of three Speedlites on a project and it was a bit heavy going ....... probably 3-400 flashes in a hour. I do have studio flash, but they are too powerful, too slow and I need the short duration to freeze the moment. I am using manual at 1/60th power on the Speedlites, so I am not being as harsh as it would appear at first thought.
The 420EX handled it with no problem, so did the 580EX, but the 580EXII gave up the ghost. All had new batteries to start with, but when the MKII gave up the struggle, I put a new set in and it still didn't work. It was starting to dawn on me that my new project was going to cost me a repair job at Elstree ............ Bummer! The Rear screen would light up for less than a second before it died again. I hoped it may recover over time, so I removed the batteries and tried again the following morning, but no change.
I found a box and some bubble wrap, but there was still a nagging doubt that I couldn't explain. Acting on that I got out my multi-meter and checked the batteries. One was dead. Just enough voltage to flash the screen and nothing more. Did the batteries cause the problem, or did the flash kill a battery? Only one way to find out and a new set of batteries were fitted to find everything working perfectly and have continued over a couple of days. Could have been rather embarrassing to come back from Canon with "No Fault Found", and somewhat expensive, and I would have been without it for a week.
Note to self: thank lucky stars and be a bit more gentle with the gear in future.
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