600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT Failed

[mmajeed63]

I was at a wedding shoot last weekend and my (3) 600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT worked great until I got into the reception hall/tent.  Could not get the flashes to fire via radio.  Had to resort to on camera flash for the entire reception.  The next day I tried the radio config with the  (3) 600EX-RT and ST-E3-R (no battery change) and it worked flawlessly.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated since I have another shoot this weekend.  Thanks in advance.

[RobertTheFat]

I'd suspect a major source of RF interference at the reception site, lowering the signal-to-noise ratio and effectively drowning out your signal. You could try to prove it by returning to the site and running tests. But failure to confirm the problem wouldn't disprove the premise, because the culprit could have been something that was part of the event itself. For example, did they use a PA system incorporating wireless microphones?

Did you think to try different channels? Conceivably that might have lessened, or even eliminated, the problem.

[mmajeed63]

Thanks for your speedy response.  Come to think of it, the DJ did have his PA system up all nite.  I did not change channels since I thought AUTO was sufficient but I will definitely keep that in mind.  Much appreciated suggestions. 

[TCampbell]

Check your 600EX-RT manual.  If you set the 600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT to a specific channel number (e.g. ch 1 -- anything but "auto") then you can tell it to scan the channels and provide a report.  It'll run through all the channels and show you a graph of which channels are best, then you can manually set all your units to that channel.)

[mmajeed63]

Thanks Tim,  I will definitiely do that.  It was a very chaotic event and just to keep things moving along I just snapped on a 600 on camera and did what I had to do for the rest of the event.  I was more concerned with making the shots and less about fixing the problem but your suggestions was definitely the way to go. 

[TCampbell]

BTW - it's page 54 of the 600EX-RT instruction manual.

When channel is set to 'auto' it wont give you a report (presumably the system just picks what it thinks is the best channel.)  When the channel is set to anything other than auto, you can perform the scan and it will display the graph report.

[mmajeed63]

Thanks, I had forgotten about it.  Won't forget next time though.