[Kombisaurus]

Following on from my series of corporate portraits last week, while I was shooting the last couple of people my remote flash trigger managed to fall from the tripod it was (poorly) mounted on, hitting the carpeted floor with my 430EX speedlight attached! :o
There appeared to be no physical damage, so I re-mounted it carefully and took another shot and it worked fine... but then on the next shot there was a big "pop" sound and the flash didn't work after that. Clearly the knock had moved something internally and it had shorted something out.

After some cursing, I went down to the lab and our hardware tech and I carefully took the flash apart to examine it. (warning, the big capacitor in a flash can kill you, so don't do this unless you know what you're doing and have somebody else around to call an ambulance if you do muck it up!).
I suspected the main capacitor had blown because they make a popping sound when they go, and sure enough there were black scorch marks around the terminals. Unfortunately though it was clearly a proprietary capacitor and not something I could pick up from my local electronics store. The rest of the flash appeared to work OK, it just wouldn't recharge the flash (the little whine noise wouldn't increase in pitch).
So we put it all back together again so I could take it to a Canon service centre the next day.

While this would normally just be a bit of a hassle, it was made even worse by the fact that I have shoots booked for every weekend in May and needed a flash for all of them! I couldn't afford to wait weeks to get my 430EX repaired, as I needed a flash in 2 days!

Thankfully our very own Wedding Shooter came to the rescue with a loaner 580EX II for me (thanks Chris, you're a champ!) and that sorted me out for last weekend.

I also placed an order for a new 580EX II for myself which is currently on it's way from B&H, and while I was at it I also ordered a pair of light stands with umbrellas and brackets (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/42...Mount.html) so I don't have to keep mucking around with my DIY light modifiers. They are on their way now....

So hopefully I'll end up with a 580EX II and my fixed 430EX which can work wirelessly together, and the light stands and umbrellas to expand my possibilities. I'm already planning a few new DIY light modifiers to mount on the stands (such as http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/di...728907166/).

I guess it'll end up being a good result, but the timing was terrible... and although I was intending to get a 580EX II anyway, I didn't want to be forced into it. And I haven't heard back from the Canon service centre yet about the 430EX, so who knows how much that will cost?!

Ah well... I've been lucky so far that I've never broken any of my photo gear or even so much as scratched a lens... so something was bound to happen at some time. At least it was only a flash and not a lens or body.

[wulinka]

Hey Kombi,

sorry to hear, but you being so hands-on and getting things sorting out, this incident seems to have turned into a good thing after all. I guess that sort of things is just the reason why professionals have insurance on their gear, isn't it?
so I am wondering, insurance should cover the repair plus costs for renting a flash for the time yours is being repaired, wouldn't it?

Uli

[Zig]

Ouch, cringe, bother and sob, along with the cursing. Am sharing your relief that the end result will be a good one. Also, good to get your "share" of the minor accidents out of the way by this rather than other, perhaps even worse means.
I dropped my Canon 70-200L on the floor of Gloucester Cathedral the other day: as there were many visitors(and, ahem, being in the House of God:/) I couldn't readily fire the effs into the situation. Mercifully, it seems to be as tough as old boots: I'd still be gathering the bits if it had been any other lens, I reckon. No rattles, so I guess it's OK. Ugh...shuddering even at the memory...
And on the radio tonight, there was a guy, a violinist, who actually TROD on his 300-year-old Stradivarius violin some time ago: it was completely shafted of course; I must have a real sociopathic streak, as when the chap said, "I find this really difficult to talk about, very emotional", I had to restrain a chortle, as it must have looked like an out-take from Monty Python in my mind's eye. I also found myself saying, "I know how you feel, mate; if I knocked the finish on my Gibson Les Paul, I'd be gutted....".
Terrible, aren't I...

[Irma]

I also was thinking the same as Uli. After all it turned out well for you.

I will be interested in your comments about those DIY ring flashes for portrait photography, when you manage to have one. I have heard they work quite well.

[Kombisaurus]

Thanks for the moral support!

Zig... ouch! I think I would've started crying if I dropped my 70-200L on a stone floor! :/ Mind you I heard a story about a journo who was riding an elephant and had a 1D(Mk2?) with a 70-200 f/2.8L IS attached and dropped it 2.5m onto flagstones! And it all still worked!
That gives me a lot of confidence in my body and lenses, but I am also a bit disappointed that my poor little 430EX flash got damaged so easily. It was only about a 1m fall onto industrial carpet - I would've expected it to survive that fairly easily.

Uli, I'm not sure if my insurance will cover the 430EX repair cost, but I'll certainly look into it once I know how much it will cost.
And Irma, I'll be sure to post my experiences with any flash modifiers I make.

On the upside, the day before this happened I was given a nice big professional Lastolite Reflector (http://www.lastolite.com/originalreflectors.php) from the guys in our Strength and Conditioning facility which had been sitting in their lost property box for about a year. That was great of them to think of me when they were clearing it out.

[Kombisaurus]

Yay! The 580EX II, light-stands and umbrellas all arrived this afternoon! Just in time for a gig I have tonight.

It took exactly a week for this package to be ordered, processed, sent and to arrive on my doorstep from the US via Germany, Dubai, Thailand, Singapore and finally Australia (it accidently got sent to the wrong country along the way)....
In that same timeframe I personally dropped my 430EX off at the official Canon repair centre here in Perth and paid a $44 deposit (Hartland Camera Repairs)... and they haven't even taken a look at the flash to give me a quoe for repairing it, despite 2 phone calls. They told me they've done nothing yet. That's pretty ordinary.

So a big thumbs up to B&H , and a big thumbs DOWN to Hartland Camera Repairs. :mad:

[wulinka]

I was wondering, you keep mentioning B&H, so you actualy order from the US? how are their shipping fares?

Congratulations to your new acquisition!

Uli

[Wedding Shooter]

Glad that you got the flash sorted out Adrian and happy to help out a fellow shuttertalker.

Uli - B&H are great. Shipping is fast and reliable. It is heaps cheaper than buying in Australia. I don't know about China though - things are probably even cheaper in HK.

[matthew]

Kombi, I'm glad you're up and running again. It sounds like you have a pretty good kit, and getting the 430 back (eventually) will be a nice addition to the TTL-multi-flash thing.

The only gear I've ever hurt was a flash. I had my FL-50 (similar in size to the 580EX or SB800, but not quite as nice) tucked in a jacket pocket and it fell to the floor when I crouched down for a shot. From 30-40cm, it landed on an angle and the diffuser panel popped off. The flash still works, but I was really 'disappointed' that it wasn't tougher than that.

And B&H is on my list of places to see in New York.

[wulinka]

Are you going to New York Matthew??

Well, I won't be in China forever, Chris, if shipping conditions are that good, I might consider ordering from B&H when I am back on Germany. Then do you have to pay import tax?

Uli

[Wedding Shooter]

In Australia we have a 10% goods and services tax which you have ti pay on anything over $1000 that is imported. This is paid when the goods arrive into Australia. I have no idea how it works in Germany.

[matthew]

I'll definitely be visiting New York -- I just have no idea when. Probably not for another year or so, but it's on the list.

[wulinka]

under 1000 it's free?
so if your purchase is worth more than 1000 AUD, is it still cheaper to pay the 10% tax than purchase in Australia? interesting interesting.
Is australia particularly expensive for electronics or other luxury goods?

Mat, let me know before you go, I'll give you some tips. I am in love with that city, and not just for B&H

Uli

[Irma]

We don't normally buy our photo gear abroad. We have very good dealers here in Germany. Also we don't know well about international guarantee terms.

My Metz flash broke after my droplets session. As it still had guarantee I sent it to the service here in Germany and I got it back a week later with a full diagnosis of what it had a what they had repaired, I just paid 4 euro to send it to them.

The only thing I bought in US was my Demb diffusers, for a very small box I paid 15 euro. shipping (more or less) and no tax as it was considered Art Material.

[Rabid Penguin]

under 1000 it's free?
Is australia particularly expensive for electronics or other luxury goods?

YES

I use as a random example the SAL-1680Z - Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Zoom Lens for the Sony alpha.

US price: $US699 (currently $A740.66)

Australian price: $A1249 (currently $US1178.75)

[Kombisaurus]

Well the camera repair shop finally got back to me today with a quote for fixing the 430EX and it was... AU$480! haha! That's more than I just paid for a new 580 EX II! They were saying it wasn't worth fixing at that price, but to be honest I got the feeling that they were snowed under with work and simply didn't want the job. *grrrr*

So it's back to the drawing board, and my insurance won't cover it. I've got the 580 EX II now which is fantastic but I had been intending to get one of them in addition to my 430 EX anyway... so I still don't have the 2-flash E-TTL wireless solution that I wanted with the 580.

So tonight I bit the bullet and ordered another 430 EX. They are a lot cheaper now than when I bought my original 430 EX and I only need a wireless slave, not a master. Plus if this one breaks I'll have my broken 430 to salvage parts from. I just want to get this whole little episode sorted and out of the way.

Rats. It turned into a more expensive exercise than I hoped. I hope I end up getting some decent shots out of all this! :/

</rant>

[wulinka]

Plus if this one breaks I'll have my broken 430 to salvage parts from

I'm sure it will never!!

Sorry Kombi, hope you get what you want in the end.
BTW, why didn't you get another 580?

Uli

[Kombisaurus]

I just don't think I need more than one 580 Uli, and the price difference between a 430 and a 580 is significant (US$244 versus US$420). For a similar overall price, I'd find one 580 plus a pair of 430's more useful than just a pair of 580's.

The 430 EX is a great little flash with just 1 stop less power than a 580, but I rarely used the 430 at full power anyway. The main reason I wanted a 580 was to act as a wireless master, wheras the 430 can only be used as a wireless slave. I plan to use the 430 almost entirely off-camera (on the light-stands I just bought). In fact I will probably end up getting another 430 as well so I can keep the 580 mounted on my camera and still run two off-camera wireless E-TTL flashes. Or run all three flashes off-camera with a radio triggering the 580 in manual mode (I already have one of the simple generic eBay wireless flash radios) which in turn triggers the 430's using Canon's wireless system.
The weather sealing and couple of other bonus features of the 580 are all nice, and I'll definately be using the 580 as much as I can, but I don't really need those features in more than one flash.

[wulinka]

I already have one of the simple generic eBay wireless flash radios) which in turn triggers the 430's using Canon's wireless system.

That's cool, will it work with the 580? because Canons wireless trigger is expensive, isn't it?
I always thought that was the one advantage of a Nikon sytem, that you can trigger any Nikon flash with the internal flash of you cam instead of a dedicated sender.

Uli

[Kombisaurus]

There is a big difference in how the generic eBay wireless triggers work and how the Canon wireless system works.

The Canon system is expensive and available only in the 420EX, 430EX, 550EX, 580EX, and ST-E2 products. It communicates via infra-red and requires line-of-sight (outdoors anyway, it bounces off walls indoors very nicely). It allows the "master" attached to a camera to control any number of "slaves", which may be divided up into up to 3 different groups. Each group can have their output levels controlled independantly directly from the master (or camera), so you can tweak all the slaves without having to walk around to manually adjust them. Very handy!

The cheapo eBay triggers are very simple and use a radio transmitter to simply emulate a generic hotshoe (or PC sync) flash signal. A transmitter is mounted to the camera's hot shoe or PC sync connector, and each slave flash requires its own radio receiver. There is *no* E-TTL or any other automatic control over the power of any of the slaves. Each slave must have it's output adjusted manually directly on the flash unit. It is effectively like pressing the "Pilot/Test" button on each slave flash simultaneously. The advantages of this system are that it uses a radio signal and so can without needing line-of-sight, and it is very cheap and works well with any generic hot-shoe flash of any brand that features manual output control. The downsides are mainly convenience and time, and a loss of all automatic flash metering. Also these triggers tend to muck up the flash timing a little bit and weird results can appear if you use shutter speeds above 1/200th sec regardless of the x-sync speed of your camera. You certainly can't use high-speed sync without problems. This can cause problems using them in bright daylight.

The system I was talking about using both a 580 EX II and 430 EX off-camera with an eBay trigger and no on-camera flash would actually require the eBay trigger just to trigger the 580. From there the 580 would take control and trigger the 430 using the Canon wireless system. This means that although I'd need to manually set up the 580, I wouldn't have to touch the 430 once I flicked it to slave mode. I could configure both flashes manually on the 580.

You're right about the Nikon system which allows the camera's internal flash to act as a master to other flashes. That would be convenient on a Canon system too, but as it stands the Canon system uses infra-red light rather than the visible light from a flash for its communications. There are some small advantages to this, as well as some disadvantages.

Incidently, it was the loose dodgy hot-shoe mount of my eBay wireless receiver that caused my 430EX to fall off the tripod and break in the first place! Thankfully these new light-stands have a tightening screw on their hot-shoes so I can tighten the receiver in place now. :mad:

Confused? I don't blame you.

[Wedding Shooter]

There is a new product just released in the US called Radio Poppers. They send your flash IR signal via radio transmission. Best of both worlds - ETTL over great distance and through walls.

[Kombisaurus]

Chris, I was reading about RadioPoppers just the other night. They look brilliant!
I don't think I need them at this stage, but they are certainly on my longer-term wishlist.