Canon radio-controlled flashes failing in use - Senders and receivers disconnecting

[mHeston]

Hi,

I am spreading the news about the failure of communication between Canon "Sender" (Master) flashes and Canon "Receiver" (Slave) flashes.  Since around 2020 the communication between Master and Slave flashes can be broken by a public radio wave of some kind.  I’m not an EE, so I can’t tell you what the source of the problem is, but I can tell you that I have tested equipment all over the greater Seattle area, and about 80% of the time the Slaves disconnect from the Master in under 20 minutes of being turned on.   The shortest time to disconnect happens in 60 seconds with most disconnects occuring in 8-12 minutes.  I’ve only tested this in the greater Seattle area, but I suspect that if you are in a major urban area you will experience this failure.

I’ve tested this with Canon 600EX RTs and with a new R3, RL-5, and ST-E10, so it’s happening to the latest Canon equipment. 

You can read about what I’ve tested here: https://hestonphoto.com/info/canon-flash-failure-01.html

[normadel]

Can you take a trip to somewhere far away from the Seattle area and see what happens?

Have you spoken to any other photographers with Canon flash gear to see what their experience is?

If it's 5G radiation doing it, it's hard to believe there isn't more of this happening all over the country.

[rs-eos]

It is happening everywhere.  It also happened to me and is the reason I have since moved on to a different brand for my lighting.

There are several threads on these forums detailing the experiences of others.  i.e. that for some unknown reason, communication links between triggers (doesn't matter if its the first or second-gen ST-E3-RT) and the flashes will intermittently fail (first and second-gen 600 EX RTs, etc.)

Some of the threads:

• Why 600EX II RT / ST-E3-RT Drops Wireless Link
• 600 EX II-RT's dropping signal
• Some proof of 600-series speedlites and cellular interference causing link issues?
• Canon 600EX II-RT drops link- HELP!

In that last one, I had replied in 2021 that I had not yet experienced the issue.  But soon thereafter, I began to experience it.

There's hope that Version 3 of the ST-E3-RT will address the issue.

[mHeston]

When you get away from urban areas they work 95% of the time.  I just don't get paid to shoot in those area.  Also see RS-EOS comment about other photographers.

[JLCKJC]

I read your note here and also went to your website to read your detailed testing report. Well done testing and write-up.

I sure wish someone at Canon would weigh in on this issue. As it is, one can only conclude that the Canon RT flash trigger system is not suitable for its intended use in its current form based on the many link failures reported here in their own forum.

[mHeston]

JLCKJC,

Couldn't agree more.  I really can't believe they are knowing selling equipment that is prone to failure.  I'm hoping a firmware update could fix the problem.

[JLCKJC]

For those of you who have been following the WiFi link dropping issues with the Canon RT flash system here are two recent YouTube videos posted by Bob & Dawn Davis Photography: 1:02:07 NOW PLAYING Watch later Add to queue (youtube.com) and 45:34 NOW PLAYING Watch later Add to queue (youtube.com) In these videos Bob discusses the Canon RT flash system specifically and many other competitive systems with regards to their strengths and weaknesses.

[rs-eos]

Thanks for sharing. Will check these out this week. I had the chance to meet Bob Davis back in 2014 at a Canon Speedlite workshop.

[rs-eos]

Actually, what Bob presents in the videos (I mostly watched the second one), is nothing new per se.  Back in 2014/2015 when teaching various Speedlite workshops, he mentioned the idea of redundancy.  For what he does (weddings), that makes sense.  i.e. having two camera bodies himself, having a second shooter, on-site portable drives to copy cards to, and two different systems to control the flash (built-in as well as either Pocket Wizards or Radio Poppers).

But even at the time, I didn't go down the path of having a redundant wireless system since I didn't need it for what I was doing.  Even now, I don't do any type of event work.   But, even though I can take my time to set up a shot, as with others, it became extremely frustrating to have communications drop.  And sometimes drop very often (sometimes at least once per minute).

When looking for my next lighting system last year, the Canon EL-1s were $1,000 each.  Almost double that of the 600 series.  And even though they had some nice improvements, the guide number was the same as the 600 series.  The investment I did with AA rechargables would also go out the window since the new flashes were powered with different batteries.   And then of course the wireless issue.  So if having to add on a redundant system, the price per flash now increased.

The only con (though very minor) with my new system of lighting is that the strobes are larger than Speedlites,  So I cannot place lights in certain areas (e.g. hidden within lamps).  Though honestly, I've not had the need to do that in the past, so is something I won't miss.  Still, the possibily of hiding Speedlites in small spaces, was a nice attribute.

But, having a solid wireless system these days, modeling lights and so much more power output is solving all my needs for lighting.

[mHeston]

EL-1, great features, but the lack of a reliable wireless connection is the killer for me.  I mean really, I understand backward compatibility, but come on Canon, let's shoot the elephant in the room your wireless SUCKS.