this doesn't seem right to me

[grafxman]

I bought the 6D and I love it to bits. However, I have to use an external flash. I recently shot the local museum of science and history with an old Sunpak flash and it did OK but it was a lot of work to get a good photo with it. So I ordered a Canon Speedlite 320EX refurbished from B&H. It doesn't seem to be talking to the camera and vice versa. For example, when I try access the flash function settings it tells me the flash is either turned off or it's an incompatible flash. Every flash I take with it is super white, completely washed out. If I increase the shutter speed above 200 the picture starts getting cut off. I've set the aperture all the way up to 18 and it's still completely washed out. I've set the flash exposure compensation from +3 to -3 without effect. I can get better flash photos with the Sunpak. I will say this much about the 320EX, I do like the video light. I'm shooting in manual mode. What am I missing here?

 

[o hey tyler]

I bought the 6D and I love it to bits. However, I have to use an external flash. I recently shot the local museum of science and history with an old Sunpak flash and it did OK but it was a lot of work to get a good photo with it. So I ordered a Canon Speedlite 320EX refurbished from B&H. It doesn't seem to be talking to the camera and vice versa. For example, when I try access the flash function settings it tells me the flash is either turned off or it's an incompatible flash. Every flash I take with it is super white, completely washed out. If I increase the shutter speed above 200 the picture starts getting cut off. I've set the aperture all the way up to 18 and it's still completely washed out. I've set the flash exposure compensation from +3 to -3 without effect. I can get better flash photos with the Sunpak. I will say this much about the 320EX, I do like the video light. I'm shooting in manual mode. What am I missing here?

What's your ISO on?

 

[grafxman]

Thanks for your prompt response o hey tyler. I just now discovered I had not pressed the flash far enough forward on the shoe!! The lock lever locked OK so I thought it was on as far as it would go. Turns out it needed to go a tiny bit farther forward. I'm getting the missing menus now so hopefully all will work OK. Thanks again.

 

[o hey tyler]

Thanks for your prompt response o hey tyler. I just now discovered I had not pressed the flash far enough forward on the shoe!! The lock lever locked OK so I thought it was on as far as it would go. Turns out it needed to go a tiny bit farther forward. I'm getting the missing menus now so hopefully all will work OK. Thanks again.

That will do it! If the firing pin is seated in far enough it will fire the flash but the other contacts are needed to establish a TTL connection.

Glad it's working for you, enjoy it.

 

[curtyoungblood]

If I increase the shutter speed above 200 the picture starts getting cut off

Just so you know, 1/200th is the flash sync speed for the camera, and the photo being cut off is normal behavior. The flash doesn't have enough time to get to the whole frame if you're above the sync speed. The camera letting you set above the sync speed, however, isn't normal behavior.

 

[o hey tyler]

Just so you know, 1/200th is the flash sync speed for the camera, and the photo being cut off is normal behavior. The flash doesn't have enough time to get to the whole frame if you're above the sync speed. The camera letting you set above the sync speed, however, isn't normal behavior.

It was allowing him to set the shutter speed faster because the other contacts weren't connected. So it really didn't see a flash on the camera.

 

[grafxman]

Thanks for the info curtyoungblood. I'm overjoyed with it now. I'm getting excellent exposures from 20 feet away as well as close up. It's great!!

 

[KmH]

If I increase the shutter speed above 200 the picture starts getting cut off

The flash doesn't have enough time to get to the whole frame if you're above the sync speed.

The photo gets cut off because 1 of the 2 shutter curtains is covering part of the image sensor when the flash unit fires.

1/200 is known as the x-sync speed, and is the fastest shutter speed that has both shutter curtains fully open during an exposure.
At faster shutter speeds one or both shutter curtains form a gap that blocks part of the image sensor. The faster the shutter speed, the narrower the gap between the 2 curtains.

Canon cameras and flash units that are HSS (High Speed Sync) capable can make flash images without any part of the photo blacked out. For Nikon it's called Auto-FP sync.
HSS fires the flash unit multiple times during an exposure made with a shutter speed faster than 1/200. But, hot shoe flash units cannot recharge that fast so a much lower power setting has to be used.
As the gap gets smaller with faster shutter speeds, the flash unit has to fire more times during an exposure which causes a further reduction in the power used for each multiple flash.

 

[grafxman]

Thanks a lot for that terrific video KmH. I'm now off to find a brain surgeon to get my brains stuffed back inside my head. That video overloaded them. I have it bookmarked so I can always refer back to it. Thanks again KmH and everyone else.

 

[MarshallG]

Canon cameras and flash units that are HSS (High Speed Sync) capable can make flash images without any part of the photo blacked out. For Nikon it's called Auto-FP sync.

Auto-FP sync? How is anybody supposed to figure out what that means?

 

[o hey tyler]

Auto-FP sync? How is anybody supposed to figure out what that means?

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