Help with Yongnuo 568EX

[clarnibass]

This is for the Nikon version and I am not sure if this works (or rather doesn't work) the same with Canon.

The flash makes a sound/noise when I turn it on. I'd like to change from shooting with and without flash without noise (except the camera shutter).

When off camera, I can use the commander to control this from the menu, simply disabling the flash.

When on camera, I haven't found a way to do this except turning the flash off... where the problem is obvious...

Any idea?

Thank you

 

[Big Mike]

Flashes make a sound when they are charging up the capacitor. Often sounds like a little whine. Some flashes are quieter than others...but they tend to be the more expensive (Canon & Nikon etc.) ones.

If you would like to go from using flash, to not using flash, without turning it on & off...you may be able to do that in the camera's menus. I know that in Canon's custom functions, you can choose to enable or disable the flash firing...while still having the flash turned on and mounted in the hotshoe.

 

[cgipson1]

http://yongnuo.com.cn/usermanual/pdf/YN568EX_EN_USER_MANUAL.pdf

It appears that there is a way to turn off sound.. see #20

 

[clarnibass]

Yes, this turns off the sound between flashes. It doesn't change the on/off sound when turning the flash on.

In the flash modes, it is not possible to choose the "no flash" in anything but the Auto modes...

I haven't found a camera option for it yet...

 

[cgipson1]

Yes, this turns off the sound between flashes. It doesn't change the on/off sound when turning the flash on.

In the flash modes, it is not possible to choose the "no flash" in anything but the Auto modes...

I haven't found a camera option for it yet...

If the sound is coming from the flash... then it logically would need to be turned off on the flash. I doubt that camera settings would affect that. It may not have an option to turn it off. That was the only SOUND option I could find... you may need to open up the flash and snip the "speaker" wires, unless the "speaker" is board mounted (probably) in which case, you have limited options.

 

[Big Mike]

What sound are we talking about? Does the flash beep or something?

I thought we were talking about the whine of the capacitor charging up...which is (AFAIK) impossible to avoid....and something that Canon & Nikon are working on reducing as much as possible (my 580EXII is much quieter than my 430EX).

 

[clarnibass]

I thought we were talking about the whine of the capacitor charging up...which is (AFAIK) impossible to avoid...

I imagine this is it, so I'm not trying to disable it (I guess that's impossible) but instead to have the flash on the camera and be able to shoot without the flash firing. Is this possible?

Sometimes the shutter is loud enough and in those cases I just can't turn the flash on/off when I want to shoot often with and without it. In reality in most of those situations I can't use a flash anyway, but there are exceptions where that extra noise from the flash turning on is unacceptable and I'd want to have it firing and not firing.

 

[cgipson1]

I assumed the OP was referring to the BEEPS the flash is designed to make... the fact that someone would think they could turn off capacitor whine didn't even occur to me. :lmao:

 

[clarnibass]

Well, I only heard this "capacitor whine" a couple of times and then wrote the post a while after that, so didn't remember how it sounded. These were pretty much the first few times I actually turned on a flash, so I have no experience with this at all. I considered that it sounded different to the beep and might not be possible to avoid.

However, I'm not asking how to turn it off (now obviously impossible). I'm asking how to have the flash on the camera and not have it fire, without turning it on and off which makes this unavoidable noise. Or rather, if this is possible?

Thank you

 

[Forkie]

I have a Yongnuo and the only noise I can think of when you turn it on is the flash zooming to match your focal length. I don't have your particular model, but mine has automatic zoom and responds as soon as I turn it on to match my lens.

I also turn it off when I don't want it to fire (the zooming noise doesn't bother me at all), but I guess you could switch it over to slave mode if you don't want it to fire. That way it won't fire until it receives a pre-flash and if it doesn't receive one, it won't fire.

 

[Benco]

I think that sound might be the flash zoom (if that flash has one, my YN-560II certaily does that on powering on/off), if that is the case then if you set it wide as possible it shouldn't happen.

Edit: You beat me to it forkie.

 

[doypidz]

im also using yn 568ex.that whine sound is from the zooming motor or from the capacitor charging up.im using this for quite a long time now,a couple of hundred shots every session. i dont encounter any issues with this flash,instead i find the beeping and whining sound pleasing, at least without looking i know my flash is working fine.

 

[clarnibass]

OK, I checked again.

There are actually three sounds. One is the capacitor (I'm guessing). Two are of the zoom, but only the last sounds exactly like the zoom. The second zoom is like a lower sound of the zoom that doesn't actually happen when zooming in or out, but it's the same type of sound and must be from the zoom.

I was really hoping Forkie's suggestion would work, but unfortunately when the flash is mounted on the camera it is not possible to put it in remote mode...

On the other hand, I just encountered a couple of other more serious issues with the flash... I'll dig more into this...

 

[Forkie]

I find it odd that you can't select a slave mode when it's mounted on the camera. Do hotshoes carry information enough to block mode options on the flash when it's mounted?

 

[Big Mike]

However, I'm not asking how to turn it off (now obviously impossible). I'm asking how to have the flash on the camera and not have it fire, without turning it on and off which makes this unavoidable noise. Or rather, if this is possible?

What camera are you using?