New Flash System in the Works [CR1]

[bear]

I don't mind current metering, what I miss (I own st-e3, 4x600ex-rt):

- simple RT-slave for firing studio flashes (sync cable).
- RT master built into camera body (or GPS receiver in every camera)
- smaller RT master/slave flashes (size of 270EX and 430EX)
- remember master/slave state after battery change
- more masters (when I use more camera bodies, I have to swap ST-E3 when I grab another camera body)

 

[Maximilian]

Canon, bring it on. Do what ever you want.

But don't make it too expensive and give also other flashes rt. Not only to one flagship.

Otherwise you won't see my money for new flashes.

 

[unfocused]

What is wrong with E-TTL II? from my experience I have been getting consistent results with Canon ttl in varying lighting situations without any glitches...

+1. The only time I've had a problem with the ETTL on the 600RT is when I've made a mistake. (Which does bring up my one complaint – the interface isn't the most intuitive in the world. Helps a great deal if you have a newer camera with on-screen controls, though)

 

[jdramirez]

I rarely buy new, and when I sell my gear it is usually for more than I originally bought it... But I hate depreciation. It kills me that I am losing $1 per day that I own my 5d mkii.

So with my flashes... I can sell the old ones off for more than I paid.... I'll find a deal on the new one's And bam... I have the latest and greatest for a small upgrade cost... Which will inevitably be recouped when I sell the new ones in favor of the new new ones a few years down the line.

So I help keep the secondary market values high... So I guess that's a plus.

Mark me down as annoyed because I have my preferred number of 600ex rd, 3, and now I may finding my self upgrading one at a time... I know I don't have to.... But I'm anal like that.

You are a marketing department's dream. ;D

 

[Pixel]

I'd love to know how you sell for more than you bought? Are you even USING this equipment?

I rarely buy new, and when I sell my gear it is usually for more than I originally bought it... But I hate depreciation. It kills me that I am losing $1 per day that I own my 5d mkii.

So with my flashes... I can sell the old ones off for more than I paid.... I'll find a deal on the new one's And bam... I have the latest and greatest for a small upgrade cost... Which will inevitably be recouped when I sell the new ones in favor of the new new ones a few years down the line.

So I help keep the secondary market values high... So I guess that's a plus.

Mark me down as annoyed because I have my preferred number of 600ex rd, 3, and now I may finding my self upgrading one at a time... I know I don't have to.... But I'm anal like that.

You are a marketing department's dream. ;D

 

[WillT]

I am really surprised they think they are lagging behind Nikon in this department. Instead of working on ETTL III they should focus on their sensors.

 

[Machaon]

I mostly see a ploy to make Yonhnuo's incompatible.

Except that would probably also make the existing fleet of Canon flashes incompatible.

Lack of backward compatibility would be a very unattractive feature. So I presume that cameras and new flashes will still be able to play ETTL-II.

 

[Machaon]

Don't you know? Canon bodies block radio waves. At least that's their explanation for not putting wi-fi into xD bodies.

Yeh, it's a pretty weak excuse. After all, if they can admit visible wavelength electromagnetic radiation through a whopping great hole in the front of the body then they can sort out an antenna for radiofrequency...

 

[sulla]

As Lee Jay rightly said: The metering system is not in the flash, it's in the camera.

So, to make an ETTL-III work, new cameras alongside new flashes would be needed.

Remember the transition from ETTL-I to ETTL-II: The old EZ-flashes used light reflected off the film, and the ETTL-II uses pre-flashes. Incompatible, because ETTL-I flashes just can't produce a pre-flash. While ETTL-II flashes can fall back to ETTL-I and so be used on the old cameras, the new cameras couldn't use the old flashes.

The same will be likely in a II ==> III transition: New bodies will almost certainly be necessary to use ETTL-II and will potentially not work with ETTL-II flashes.

 

[cosmopotter]

Brought to mind Keurig coffee makers with their Keurig 2.0 with built in copyright protection (no unlicensed coffee pods). Maybe Canon can build in the RT transmitter with the new metering system and protect it all with proprietary encryption to defend against Yong Nuo et al. :

 

[sulla]

Ah, encryption in the Camera <==> Flash communication. Entirely possible technically. And licences to encryption keys would be expensive... I don't know if this would get anti-trust approval, but technically entirely possible.

And while encryption is used, why not also encrypt Camera <==> Lens communication? A brilliant move against Sigma, Tamron and the like...

Oh no, what a horrible idea!

 

[Rudeofus]

Remember the transition from ETTL-I to ETTL-II: The old EZ-flashes used light reflected off the film, and the ETTL-II uses pre-flashes. Incompatible, because ETTL-I flashes just can't produce a pre-flash. While ETTL-II flashes can fall back to ETTL-I and so be used on the old cameras, the new cameras couldn't use the old flashes.

I think you got that mixed up. Old EZ flashes never supported E-TTL of any flavor, and every incarnation of E-TTL uses a preflash. New digital cameras can't use EZ flashes, at least not in automatic flash metering mode, but even the oldest 420EX will work on any Canon dSLR sold today. It remains to be seen whether E-TTL III requires new cameras, new flashes, or both.

 

[sulla]

Ups, sorry. Yes indeed you're right of course, the EZ flashes used TTL, the EX used E-TTL of any flavour (I or II).
So there's a chance ETTL-III could be compatible with existing cameras.

Thanx for reminding me. Those EZ times have been gone for sooooooooooooooo long

 

[Jim Saunders]

I'd take health monitoring on the lights themselves (particularly for identifying weak external battery packs) over different metering options in the body, but to each their own.

Jim

 

[jdramirez]

I'd love to know how you sell for more than you bought? Are you even USING this equipment?

It isn't impossible... If retail is X... and then "like new" used is generally 80% of X. But there is variation in the used market... and you can chart the variation @ amazon... so you can tell whether the price you are getting from Craigs List or otherwise is a historically low price.

then you buy like new, with a recent manufacturing date. Obviously the more recent the manufacture date, the more perceived value it has.

Then when you sell, you just have a higher price than you purchased with consideration of the commision... and done.

Have a great reputation, understand what information the buyer is interested in (like manufacture date)... and done. it isn't complex... buy low, sell high.

 

[JonB8305]

Not a fan of my 600 EX-RT, i'm switching over to a profoto b1 or b2 whenever i get enough coin.

 

[emko]

how can a flash improve metering? I though the metering was done in the camera? is that not what TTL stands for? Evaluative-Through The Lens. E-TTL II is implemented in the body, not the flash unit, and therefore can use existing E-TTL flash units and EF lenses.

So new metering system in the cameras? does this need a new flash?

 

[pwp]

Please just make a DSLR with 1/500 sync.
Nikon has done it with D70, Canon should too!

Canon did, with the 1D.

1/500 sync. Yes it was the 1D's major saving grace. Photographers who grumble about DR should be glad they never had a 1D. Yet at the time it was a red hot camera, easily the best performer I'd ever owned. When I updated to the 1D MkIIn, there was little that I missed about the 1D, except for that 1/500 sync.

This announcement may slam the brakes on 600 EX-RT sales. Anyway the update will be entirely welcome.

-pw

 

[JonAustin]

I don't mind current metering, what I miss (I own st-e3, 4x600ex-rt):

- simple RT-slave for firing studio flashes (sync cable).
- RT master built into camera body (or GPS receiver in every camera)
- smaller RT master/slave flashes (size of 270EX and 430EX)
- remember master/slave state after battery change
- more masters (when I use more camera bodies, I have to swap ST-E3 when I grab another camera body)

I could be hallucinating, but I just recently (last month) used a four-flash setup (one on body, three on stands, all 600-EX RT's) over the course of three days, recharging the batteries each evening, and it seems to me that the flashes remembered which master / slave state they were in prior to the battery change. (This stuck with me, because I purposefully moved them around (reassigned their groups), to even out their use (master being pre-flash only, B & C groups 1-2 stops below group A).)

I would like to see Canon build RT transmitters into future bodies, as well as produce a successor to the ST-E3-RT that includes an AF-assist light.

This announcement may slam the brakes on 600 EX-RT sales. Anyway the update will be entirely welcome.
-pw

It may, indeed. That might, in turn, drop their prices enough for me to purchase a 5th (and possibly 6th) unit.

 

[pwp]

Mark me down as annoyed because I have my preferred number of 600ex rt, 3, and now I may finding my self upgrading one at a time... I know I don't have to.... But I'm anal like that.

You are a marketing department's dream. ;D

It may come as a surprise, but the 600 ex-rt's will still work perfectly...just like the 580EX's I retired a few months ago. But yeah...I know the feeling.

-pw