430ex ii help

[dionzero]

I just bought a new canon 430 ex II. I noticed that sometines it fires on its own.I dont know if some of the bottons are hit by accidebnt if the camera is hanging in my neck.I also noticed that if i us the flash it fires just once but if it fires on ots own its like 2 fast fires. is this normal or my new speedlite have some defect.

[Raoul Isidro]

Those are pre-flashes that measure the exposure before the main flash. It is triggered by the shutter button being depressed halfway. You may have a sensitive shutter button.
Cheers!

[dionzero]

tnx. but when i take picture there are no pre flashes.

[Raoul Isidro]

It does a pre flash when it's dark, but when it's bright enough, it doesn't. If it keeps up with this, the unit should be checked by the seller if it's under warranty.
You could also try to contact Canon help desk here...
Canon Speedlite 430EX II

Hope it would help!
Cheers!

[dionzero]

Ok.Thank You So Much

[voltech]

my 430 ex ii does the same. it should be fine. cheers

[inkista]

Two things the 430EX II can do that may be making the flash "fire" not-during-the-shot. The first is the eTTL preflash that was mentioned. The preflash happens because the metering system needs to see what the scene looks like with flash added in order to adjust the flash power to the "correct" level for the scene, so it fires a small burst of a known brightness, meters it, and then adjusts the flash power accordingly. You typically won't see the preflash, unless you've set an very low shutter speed and rear curtain sync.

The second possibility is the autofocus assist lamp, which is what fires when it's too dark for the camera's AF system to easily lock focus. It comes out in a grid pattern. You can turn the You can actually use this function without the flash firing at all if you just want to autofocus in the dark.