Why won’t my Yongnuo YN565EX III reliably fire as an optical slave with a Canon 750D/T6i pop-up flash?
Asked 12/29/2018
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I’m trying to use a Yongnuo YN565EX III off-camera in optical slave mode with a Canon 750D / Rebel T6i as the master. The flash is on a tripod in a softbox, about 1.5 m away, with the slave sensor facing the camera. On the flash I’m using E-TTL slave mode, and on the camera I enabled the built-in flash and set wireless flash options. However, the off-camera flash only fires occasionally, and when it does, it often seems not to affect the exposure. I’m also wondering whether the camera’s pop-up flash has a recycle time. What settings should I check to make this setup work reliably?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
1
I think one possible issue is that you have the camera's "wireless master" settings set to expect you have a Canon EX speedlight mounted on the camera's hotshoe as your optical master: Wireless func. is set to a speedlight icon, not the pop-up flash icon. Change that to the pop-up flash, if you're using the pop-up flash as your master. And, obviously, you'll have to pop it up. :)
The second possible issue is that both the pop-up flash and your external speedlight both have recycle times, so yes, you do have to wait between shots. If you're using NiMH rechargeable batteries, a full-power recycle can take around 3 seconds, but if you're using alkaline batteries, it can take as much as 7 seconds, so a 5-second wait may not be quite long enough. The YN-565EX III has a recycle beep function (Fn14) you may want to turn on, so the flash gives an audible signal when it's ready to fire again to avoid trying to trip it too early.
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, the pop-up flash and the Yongnuo both have recycle times, so waiting longer between shots can matter. Full-power recycle can be roughly 3 seconds with NiMH cells and longer with alkalines, so 5 seconds may not always be enough. The YN-565EX III’s recycle/beep indicator can help confirm readiness.
The main setting to check is the camera’s wireless master mode. Your camera appears to be set to expect an external Canon Speedlite on the hot shoe as the optical master, not the built-in pop-up flash. In the wireless flash settings, select the option that uses the pop-up flash as the master, then make sure the flash is physically popped up.
Also confirm the channel matches on both camera and flash, and keep the slave sensor in clear line-of-sight of the master. Optical wireless can be unreliable if the sensor is blocked or if timing/recycle isn’t complete.
If the flash fires but doesn’t appear in the exposure, that usually points to a triggering/timing or wireless setup issue rather than the flash itself.
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