EL-5 Speedlite Link Drops Out

[brianbhood]

I have an EL-10 that I use as a sender unit on top of my R6II to connect to two EL-5 Speedlites off camera. The link to the EL-5 keeps dropping out. It is random. It might a a few seconds, it might be 10 minutes. It might be EL-5#1 or EL-5#2. To re-establish the link, I have to power down and power back up. This does not work during a client shoot.

I have tried using an EL-5 as the sender with an EL-5 as receiver and the EL-10 as receiver. The EL-5 still drops link and the EL-10 has not been noticed to drop link. Canon has recommended I send them in for warranty service. Before I go to the trouble, I am wondering if anyone else has had this same problem and, if so, did you get it fixed short of repairs? It seems to me that it is a system issue since I have it with two EL-5 units. If it was only one unit, it might be a defective unit, but not likely two.

I am a bit concerned as I read this being prevalent with other flashes like the 600EX-RT and no solution has been shared publicly.

[John_Q]

Hello brianbhood,

I would recommend going into the Custom Functions menu on the EL-5 flashes and disabling all Auto power off options to see if this helps. C.Fn-10 is the auto power off timer for when this unit is used as a receiver. I would still disable C.Fn-01 as well as this auto power off option kicks in after only 90 seconds.

[brianbhood]

Thanks. I checked all the settings before posting but that doesn't work. I scanned for the best channel. That doesn't work. Over the past few days I ran 27 tests and the system stayed linked for the full hour only three times. That's an 89% failure rate. The link dropped as early as one minute through about 10 minutes. No rationale on why or what causes it. I plan to send them in to Canon for repairs. I am guessing they will tell me it works fine in their shop but that doesn't matter. I need it to work find in my studio at home. It's an average home, by the way. Nothing special electronically, simple Wi-Fi, Bluetooth devices, etc. Common stuff. The system needs to work anywhere and everywhere regardless of electronic devices around.

[brianbhood]

Update: These EL-5 flashes are garbage. $10K to migrate over from Nikon only to find the the final step, the flashes do not work. I have been back and forth with Canon for over two months. Canon claims that since the link drop does not happen in their lab, my problem is not valid. I need the flashes to work in my home studio, their lab is irrelevant. Once sent back to me, they predictably failed, so I contacted Canon who finally admitted that there were others reporting the same problem. I do not know if that is true or they were blowing sunshine up my skirt. I suspect the latter since there has been no movement toward a solution. Canon told me they referred my problem to Canon Japan for a possible firmware update. That was mid October. Several lost photo shoots later, and still no answer on the horizon, I escalated this to a supervisor. She did not know anything about a firmware fix, but she offered to send me two new EL-5 flashes and let me keep the two non-performing ones that I have. I fully expect the new ones to fail as well since I seriously doubt two EL-5 flashes were coincidently defective at the same time. Meanwhile, I understand the the EL-1 and EL-5 is being recalled in Japan. The point here is that my studio is in my home, and average ranch style home. We have Wi-Fi and a handful of Bluetooth devices, nothing special. These flashes need to work EVERYWHERE, not just Canon's controlled lab and certainly in an average home with little radio interference. Stay tuned.