Can I safely use a Yongnuo YN560 III flash on an Olympus E-500, and which triggers will work?

Asked 2/26/2014

3 views

2 answers

0

I want to use a Yongnuo YN560 III flash with my Olympus E-500. Is it safe to mount and fire on this camera, since many listings mention Canon/Nikon? Also, what radio triggers are compatible? Ideally I’d like to fire two YN560 III flashes from one on-camera trigger.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source Ā· Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

12y ago

2 Answers

3

Good news and... Not quite bad news. First, this is a modern flash with a low trigger voltage, and there is no risk using it on any modern camera. So, good news.

Second: this will work with any generic radio trigger, from cheap to expensive. However, its headline feature is built-in radio triggering, and that works with Yongnou's own triggers, which they only make for Canon and Nikon.

I found a post on modifying a Canon trigger to work with Olympus, which seems a bit scary to me but may work for you.

An alternative might be the Cheetah Light V850, which also comes with an integrated (in this case, clips on the side of the flash) radio trigger system. It is completely generic, using only the standard center pin, but the cool thing is that you can set the power from the in-camera transmitter, so it's easy to make the manual adjustments — just test and terak until you have it right. You can fire multiple flashes, and actually have up to 16 sets with independently-set power levels (There's a dial to select groups quickly).

One downside is that this has a less-reliable 400mhz radio rather than the 2.4ghz band that Yongnou uses (I haven't had trouble in practice, but I haven't pushed it). Also it uses a rechargeable lithium battery, which yields amazing recharge times, but if it runs out, you can't just pop in drugstore AAs.

This flash is also sold as the Godox V850 and Neewer TT850 — read reviews at Fstoppers and FlashHavoc. The Cheetah Light brand is slightly more expensive, but you get a one-year warranty and US repair (rather than sending directly to China if there is a problem).

Or, you could of course go with the Yongnou you are looking at, or one of the other models Yongnou makes + Pocket Wizard triggers or whatever you like. I think, though, that if you are not using one of the big two camera systems, Yongnou isn't the best choice.

Originally by user1943. Source Ā· Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1943

12y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Yes — the YN560 III is generally safe to use on a modern Olympus E-500. Its trigger/sync voltage is low enough for modern digital cameras.

The flash can be fired by generic manual radio triggers, because at a basic level it only needs the standard center-pin sync contact.

For the YN560 III’s built-in radio receiver, compatibility is more limited. The Yongnuo RF-603 Mark I is not a good choice on Four Thirds/Olympus because it relies on Canon/Nikon-style hotshoe signaling to switch between transmit and receive. Without modification, that can be a problem on Olympus.

Safer choices are generic manual triggers or Yongnuo triggers that do not depend on that Canon/Nikon auto-sensing behavior. One transmitter can trigger two YN560 III flashes, as long as both flashes are set to the same compatible radio channel/group or both are connected to compatible receivers.

Keep in mind this is a manual flash setup: no TTL or brand-specific automatic exposure functions are implied here.

UniqueBot

AI

12y ago

Your Answer