how reliable are cheap third party flashes (yongnuo)

[CJRodgers]

I have a 580 exii and a yn 568. I always reach for the canon first because I find the menus a little easier to use, other than that I love them both. I dropped yn568 from about 8 foot onto a hard ground and it survived. Well actually the impact made the batteries compress the springy battery holder bit too much, but once id given it a small tug it was fine.

I use them both the yn 622c. Love them. I have 3, one for the camera and one for each flash. I can control the power of each flash and I can use the both in hss. Never had any sync issues and its never not fired in about 6 months of use. I haven't tested them to the limits so I dont know about range that much though.

At a medium power I can snap away with out worrying about the flash missing shots.

Hope this helps. Personally I would always get one canon that will be your main flash, then after that I would get yungnou.

Craig

 

[Rienzphotoz]

And look out Canon. They are coming after you.

http://flashhavoc.com/yongnuo-yn-e3-rt-released-yn-600ex-rt-coming/

This is good news

 

[frumrk]

When a model shoot is going really well, I like to click about every 1-2 seconds. I was hoping that with the speedlight on manual at 1/2 or 1/4 power, that it would keep up, but it didn't. I lost about one shot out of every 3 or 4 when it didn't fire. That was with alkaline batteries. I later tested with eneloops and it worked a little better.

I think Yongnuo has minimum 2 sec between shots regardless of power. I think I read somewhere this is a tech spec of the flash they produce.

I have two of the original 560's and one 560 II. And if I stay below 1/2 power I have not had any problem shooting at 1 shot a second or even slightly faster for more than 3 or 4 shots. I do use NIMH rechargeable's. Not Eneloops... but the Amazon Rechargeable.. They all consistently test at over 2000maH and I have been using them for several years now... and very happy with them.

 

[Zv]

When a model shoot is going really well, I like to click about every 1-2 seconds. I was hoping that with the speedlight on manual at 1/2 or 1/4 power, that it would keep up, but it didn't. I lost about one shot out of every 3 or 4 when it didn't fire. That was with alkaline batteries. I later tested with eneloops and it worked a little better.

I think Yongnuo has minimum 2 sec between shots regardless of power. I think I read somewhere this is a tech spec of the flash they produce.

I have two of the original 560's and one 560 II. And if I stay below 1/2 power I have not had any problem shooting at 1 shot a second or even slightly faster for more than 3 or 4 shots. I do use NIMH rechargeable's. Not Eneloops... but the Amazon Rechargeable.. They all consistently test at over 2000maH and I have been using them for several years now... and very happy with them.

I have the newer YN 560III and it has a custom function where it makes a noise to let you know when it's fully recycled. The noise is significantly shorter when using 1/2 power or less. At full power it's 3s. At half power it's about one or two seconds. I'm really really liking these version 3 with built in radio, makes everything so much easier.

 

[mihazero]

When switching 622s a lot....I needed to clear memory one or twice to restore full function....Going from 7D to 5Dii. They got confused. No big deal there.

I actually saw this happen. When a friend would mount a flash or YN622 on his 7D flash or trigger would freeze, when return to 5Dmk2 its just ... frozen. Will fire, but at last set power level. Took me 3 flashes and 3 triggers to figure out its his camera thats doing the dirty.

 

[bergstrom]

Just don't buy a yn 600, they overheat and die on camera. Mine died mid event. Only for I had another flash, I'd have been screwed.

 

[Luds34]

When a model shoot is going really well, I like to click about every 1-2 seconds. I was hoping that with the speedlight on manual at 1/2 or 1/4 power, that it would keep up, but it didn't. I lost about one shot out of every 3 or 4 when it didn't fire. That was with alkaline batteries. I later tested with eneloops and it worked a little better.

I think Yongnuo has minimum 2 sec between shots regardless of power. I think I read somewhere this is a tech spec of the flash they produce.

I have two of the original 560's and one 560 II. And if I stay below 1/2 power I have not had any problem shooting at 1 shot a second or even slightly faster for more than 3 or 4 shots. I do use NIMH rechargeable's. Not Eneloops... but the Amazon Rechargeable.. They all consistently test at over 2000maH and I have been using them for several years now... and very happy with them.

I have the newer YN 560III and it has a custom function where it makes a noise to let you know when it's fully recycled. The noise is significantly shorter when using 1/2 power or less. At full power it's 3s. At half power it's about one or two seconds. I'm really really liking these version 3 with built in radio, makes everything so much easier.

Yeah, I have multiple 560s of various versions (I, III, and IV) along with some TTL 4xx version. It will definitely fire much faster then just 2 seconds. I'm often using lower power with fast glass and I can fire off a number of quick shots as the flash isn't using much power. Once I get near full power (1/4 and up) it can take a little bit for it to recharge.

I've had great luck with Yongnuo flashes. I'm kind of the old school guy, mostly just shooting 602C triggers with the flashes in full manual. They get the job done well enough for me. The nice thing is that they also are compatible with my Fuji cameras as well which is a nice bonus.

 

[hne]

I only use flash for portraits and then rarely do I use any continuous drive mode.

I've had no issues with the YN622c triggers, including the YN-622c-TX.

My YN-500ex (430EXII ripoff) has had its wide-angle lens flap torn off twice by an ambrella (really tricky to glue that plastic and even worse to get the flap in place in the mechanism causing it to zoom out when the flap is out).

The YN-685 with its built-in 622-series compatible radio trigger is a fantastic piece to carry around and has so far only had a corner of its red plastic front window break off in a fall. I keep it with a plastic bouncer as cap to avoid the wide-angle flap breaking off (also doubles as a gel holder) in my bag, together with the YN622-TX. If I could permanently attach the YN622-TX to the camera body in a position and orientation where it wouldn't stick out so much, I'd probably do that.

I hope canon introduces a built-in radio flash trigger in the next generation of camera bodies. It'd be so nice only to have to pick up the flash, flip the power switch and shoot away. Even if I would have to buy new flashes.