About the 580EXII and the 430EX(problem with master/slave)

[tob]

Hey everyone!
I'm not quite sure where to post this so I will just do it here, since my problem has something to do with lightning.
I just got my brand new Speedlite 580ex2 and I already had a 430ex. The last two days my Speedlites were working perfectly, nothing was malfunctioning. Today, I wanted to take photos with a friend(by using the 580ex2 as a master and the 430ex as the slave). At first everything worked out fine, both flashes fired and the pilot lamps were red. But after changing the lens from 10-20mm to 50mmf/1.8, the pilot button on my 580ex2 wasn't red anymore(and therefore doesn't fire). Even if I use it without the camera and set the master settings(like mastern, channel 1) the pilot button doesnt become red. If I dont set any master/slave settings, the flash works fine.
Help meee

[inkista]

Ok, I have no clue. Have you tried asking the folks in the Lighting forum on the (Canon-specific) POTN board or the Flickr Strobist group?

[Jim Bryant]

I had the same problem with using my 580 as a master to fire off my four 550's that were being used as remote slaves. I called one of my canon rep friends and basically what he told me is that the different model of flashes have are assigned a different frequency. It is done on purpose.......... makes you want to go out and purchase another 580 model so you can use that remote feature.

[tob]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

I had the same problem with using my 580 as a master to fire off my four 550's that were being used as remote slaves. I called one of my canon rep friends and basically what he told me is that the different model of flashes have are assigned a different frequency. It is done on purpose.......... makes you want to go out and purchase another 580 model so you can use that remote feature.

But why did it work before then? And actually, canon says that the 430ex is compatible with the 580ex as master unit!

[inkista]

I've seen at least one guy on Flickr who routinely uses a mix of 580EXs and 550EXs to do Strobist work, so I'm not sure about that statement, either (it's not like these things are radio-controlled, it's a visible light signal after all). And I use a 580EX with 430EX and ST-E2 all the time with no problem, and the ST-E2 is from the same generation as the 550EX and 420EX.

The only advice I can give is: did you check the batteries? And are you sure you were giving the flash enough time to recycle the charge? If you were firing the 430EX on full power with depleted batteries it could take a while (say 3-10 seconds).

The only difference I know about the two lenses is that the EF 50 f/1.8 II doesn't send distance information to the camera for eTTL, but that shouldn't stop it from firing, even in eTTL mode.