600EX-RT Flashes now in stock

[Chris Geiger]

I just picked up three 600EX-RT flashes at Horn Photo in Fresno CA. 

[JerryKnight]

Holy strobe light, Batman..

We might complain about the price being so high, but I ran a rough comparison.

3x 600EX-RT = $1,887

3x 580EX II
2x PocketWizard FlexTT5
1x PocketWizard MiniTT1
= $2,064.00

Cheaper than what I would consider a good TTL radio flash setup. All that is left is performance, so I'd be interested in the reliability and range of the Canon radio vs PocketWizard's. (Are RadioPoppers better or worse? I've never used them, only the PocketWizard TTL radios.) As far as an all-in-one package, it seems hard to beat, as long as you rely on E-TTL. Obviously, manual flash users won't be in a hurry to get the 600EX-RT's.

[Chris Geiger]

I did some range testing with the 600EX-RT flashes using radio triggering. I set up in a football field at the high school across the street. This school is surrounded with homes and not a clean RF zone.

I set the flash on a light stand at a height of 3' at left it at one end of the field at the goal post. I then walk out and started testing. I was able to shoot at a maximum distance of 400' but the results were intermittent. I did learn from this test that the flashes do reconnect as soon as they are able without any user input. So if you are temporally out of range you don't need to do anything to reconnect, other than move a little closer. The master on camera flash has an indicator that turns red if it looses connection with the slave. Yellow means that the slave is not set to fire. A green light is a good link and the flash is ready to remote trigger.

I walked back to 300' (the other goal post on the field) and was able to shoot nearly 100% of the time assuming camera and flash were used at a normal shooting height. When I placed the camera on the ground and shot toward the slave, the slave did not fire. I moved closer to the slave and repeated the test at 150' and had intermittent results at that distance when shooting the camera from ground level. Shooting in a normal standing position gave perfect results. 

I moved forward and back a bit, testing as I moved. I found that at about 120 out I was able to get good results no matter what I did with the camera. I was not able to get a misfire at this distance.

I also tried some shots where I placed the flash inside my home. I took the camera outside and walked two houses away and was able to get the flash to fire out my front window. It's 11:00pm right now so I only did few test shots this way. Our street was looking a little like an set for ET with all the lights going off and bouncing around homes.

My conclusion from these tests is that these Flashes are rock solid at distances up to the rated 100'. The unit can also work at greater distanced with some consideration as to position of the flash with respect to the ground. These units are able to do everything I want in terms of radio transmission distance for wedding photography.

I never tested the range of the Pocket Wizards TT5 and TT1 on my Nikon bodies but I would expect that they would transmit much further partially due to the external antenna. that they have. The distance the 600EX-RT travels is everything I need for the work I do.

By selling my SB900 flash + TT5 transceiver for $550, I had almost enough to get the $639 all in one 600EX-RT flashes. A big advantage in not having to carry the TT5's with me and install them as needed. I also did not have to worry about power up order between the flash and the body. I did not experience the intermittent lock up that I did when using the TT5/TT1 units on the Nikon bodies. The canon system is also much faster to set up and use.

[JurijTurnsek]

Thank you for a lot of useful information. The ease of setting them up and not having to worry about yet another set of batteries is really appealing to me.

[wockawocka]

Do we know it these take the same external battery packs as the 580EX II?

[mrmarks]

Does the stofen diffuser for 580EX2 fit the 600EX-RT?

[GMCPhotographics]

Sweet news! I think I'll wait a bit for my purchase. I'm still getting great results from a pair of 580 mkI's and a set of sky ports. Manual, 60th sec f5.6 iso 400 baby! Works like a charm

[Chris Geiger]

Sorry I don't have the external battery pack or the diffuser for Canon to try. This is what the connector looks like. I would think it would be the same as the flash runs on the same 4 AA batteries. Here is a photo of the connector...

[wockawocka]

Thanks, looks the same, cool!

[FunPhotons]

Great news, congrats! I've got three and a controller on pre-order, still waiting.

Any idea how they work with a non 5DMKIII?

[JerryKnight]

Awesome! My experience with the TT5's (I actually have two TT5's instead of a TT1) is that they can work at decent distances, but the radio spectrum that PocketWizard chose for them can very easily be interfered, and they are very dependent on antenna orientation. As you say, within the prescribed range your camera orientation and direction weren't affecting your flash performance. I would say this is an improvement over the PocketWizards.

I'll admit, I was skeptical about them when they were announced. I thought I read an article that said their advertised range was 35 ft, but I'm glad that was wrong. 100 ft is much more reasonable. I doubt these strobes would be very effective beyond that range, lighting-wise, unless you were using a super-telephoto lens.

The downside is obviously that you have to buy new flashes, but in a couple years that won't matter, since I'm sure they'll release some kind of 430EX3-RT or maybe a hotshoe receiver for older Canon flashes. For now, if you need remote TTL flash, and if you're starting out and/or can afford them, it's hard to advise against the 600EX-RT's.

[dmills]

I'm in Japan. My controller came today, but I'm still waiting on two of the flashes. It's sad having a camera with a controller and nothing to control

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Do third party items like the PW mini even work on the 5D MK III?  It would not be a suprise if users had to hope for a firmware upgrade.  I hope they do, just wondering, since the originally did not work with 5D MK II.

[JerryKnight]

Do third party items like the PW mini even work on the 5D MK III?  It would not be a suprise if users had to hope for a firmware upgrade.  I hope they do, just wondering, since the originally did not work with 5D MK II.

"Third party items".. You may not have ever shot with PocketWizard TT1/TT5's, but they have nothing to do with the camera. As far as the camera knows, it's connected directly to an E-TTL flash. The radio then intercepts the information the flash uses to send its pre-flash/optical signal to slave flashes and converts it to a radio signal, which the radio receivers then receive and send to their attached E-TTL flashes. None of the "first party" equipment knows the difference.

(EDIT: That's the ideal case, anyways. There may be some firmware updates in the PocketWizards to detect the different modes properly with a 5D3.)

I'm pretty sure Radio Poppers work the same way.

[V8Beast]

I walked back to 300' (the other goal post on the field) and was able to shoot nearly 100% of the time assuming camera and flash were used at a normal shooting height.

Thanks for the comprehensive writeup. I wasn't too impressed with the advertised range of these flashes at first, but it looks like Canon  had underrated them. A 300-foot range is very impressive. Yes it's pricey, but Canon's new RF system eliminates several third-party add-ons from your camera bag, which also means there are fewer batteries to worry about.