Yongnuo 565EX speedlite - Canon 580EXII compatible.

[thebowtie]

Hi folks,
I already have a 580EXII and an older 420EX, and wanted a second 580EXII - but they have disappeared (now that Canon has withdrawn the 580EXII from sale and offers only the better and much more expensive 600EX).

I just thought I'd share some experiences having just purchased a Chinese-made 'compatible' speedlite.
I didn't want to pay too much, and the economics (AUD199) were compelling so I thought I'd give it a go.

The unit in question is the Yongnuo Speedlite  YN565EX - and claims to be compatible with and largely equivalent to the Canon Speedlite 580EXII when used on qualified cameras (e.g. a 50D like mine).
It's made in China (allegedly by the people who made the 580EXII for Canon under contract, or so the local sales agent told me).

I suspect that it may be marketed under different names in other countries.

Here's my observations.

• Yes, it's (mostly) compatible. There's a Canon version and a Nikon version
• You can drive the C.Fn and operational functions like a 580EXII from the menu of a compatible camera like a 50D or later
• It works OK as a wireless (infrared) slave to a 580EXII or STE2
• The metering and controls are much the same, except that it's ETTL not ETTL2 - at least the bit that's not the same is the lack of high-speed flash sync
• It lacks the nice rubber weather sealing on the hotshoe mount that exists on the 580EXII, as well as not having the lever-latch for hotshoe
• One bonus - you get a manual that's in Chinese as well as English!

[Marsu42]

It's made in China (allegedly by the people who made the 580EXII for Canon under contract, or so the local sales agent told me).

:-)) We thank our underpaid, ex-communist brothers behind the great wall!

The metering and controls are much the same, except that it's ETTL not ETTL2 - at least the bit that's not the same is the lack of high-speed flash sync

There are very split opinions on the Yongnuos, maybe due to viral Canon marketing, but I really cannot say. Let us know if you find any other problems in contrast to the 580ex2 - the latter is sold very cheap used because lots of people seem to be upgrading to the 600rt.

Personally, I at least got one 600rt to be future-proof because for off-camera flash radio remote seems to be that much more reliable. But I'm sure the 660rt with ettl-iii (inc. 2nd curtain sync on remote) is just around the corner :-)