New flash advice?

bikeit

Senior Member
Looking to buy two new speedlights and i like the features of the Yongnuo yn685 and the price? so anyone here use them and what wireless triggers work with the speedlights?
 

skene

Senior Member
Yongnuo flashes are decent flashes and have built themselves up to become a solid inexpensive replacement to the likes of Canon Nikon and such. With the savings, you can always go with the Yongnuo triggers both available with or without iTTL.
 

lokatz

Senior Member
This has been discussed a few times on this forum, so you may want to conduct a search to get a broader picture. The bottom line was pretty much this: the YN685 is a steal given its performance, and you won't be disappointed with them unless you are looking for high-end flash performance. If you are, get Nikon SB-5000s and learn to live with that hole in your wallet. ;)
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
The Yongnuo kit has just worked for me, and I find it interesting that most all of the meetups and training events I go to seem to use that kit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
plus another for the Yongnuo 622 triggers and 685 or 568 flashes, 685 preferred now because of the built in receiver.
 

bikeit

Senior Member
plus another for the Yongnuo 622 triggers and 685 or 568 flashes, 685 preferred now because of the built in receiver.

cwgrizz when you are using the YN685 flash in M mode and you make any adjustments on the 622 does the adjustments show up on the back of the flash unit and take effect? thats what i never liked about the YN568 flash?
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
cwgrizz when you are using the YN685 flash in M mode and you make any adjustments on the 622 does the adjustments show up on the back of the flash unit and take effect? thats what i never liked about the YN568 flash?

I think I understand your question. To test what you are asking, I set the 622 to manual and changed some settings ie 1/2 power. I set the YN685 to manual and had the power at say 1/16. I test fired the 622 and the 685 read the 622 settings after it fired. The 622 controls the power of the 685, but does not show the settings until after it fires. I think that is because the signal from the 622 to change the settings only happens when it says to fire and not all of the time to probably save battery power. That is just an assumption because I don't have any facts on the reason for the delay in the display. Ha!
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Cheers cwgrizz thats exactly what i referring to, did you ever use the YN 568 with the YN 622?
My primary setup right now consists of two YN 568's paired with YN 622 triggers.

I also have a YN 565, an aging YN 468II and a Nikon SB-400 that I pair with the 622 triggers as well, though much less frequently.
 

Danno

Senior Member
I have the 568 and just got the 622 triggers. I have just been running through how to use them and found them very easy to use. I had not really fooled with triggers and speed lights before so I watched some Youtube videos to get familiar with them and that helped.
 

bikeit

Senior Member
Guys maybe im not explaining this properly, i know how to use the YN622 with the YN568 its just i dont like the way when you make and adjustment on the YN622 it does not show up on the back of the flash,
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
The YN622 is set at M so is the YN568,
Put the 568 in TTL mode, put the 622 in Manual. See if that solves the issue. I'm at my day job and can't check my flashes and triggers right this minute but I think this will get you what you want. I'm not 100% certain I see the flash settings change on the back on flash itself when I adjust settings from the 622 but I'm pretty sure I do and this is how I have my flashes and transmitter configured.
 

canuck257

Senior Member
I got this from another forum when looking for a method that gets around the pre-flash and allows the use of a light meter. I have not tried it as yet.

1. Set your YN622N-TX to manual for the flashes you need to control.

Group A for example can be on 1/4 and Group B can be on 1/16, it doesn't matter what the settings are but we are trying to manually control the speedlights.

unfortunately it only works for two groups (it doesn't matter how many flashes you have in group A or B) . The third group, ie Group C NEEDS to be set to TTL on the 622N-TX with no flashes in Group C.

2. Make sure that all your speedlights are set to iTTL, otherwise they will NOT synch wirelessly. This is essential.

3. Again at least one channel MUST be on TTL on the YN622N-TX. This is normally ch. C .

4. On your Nikon camera you MUST set up this configuration.

a. assign the FUNCTION button on your DSLR to activate FV LOCK. on the D800 its f4 on the custom setting menu.

b. In the custom setting menu go to C- Timer/AE LOCK menu and select C2 auto meter off delay and set to at least 30sec ( i've set mine to infinity during a shoot so i can use my flash meter with no need to rush .) Make sure to put it back to 4-10 seconds after a big shoot otherwise the batteries will be exhausted vey quickly.

5. The YN622N-TX comes with a little cable which you plug into the transmitter on the left hand side of the unit and then to your cameras cable release port ( on the front of the D800 under the rubber seals).

6. You will need a spare YN622N receiver which you will use as a hand held trigger .

7. We are now ready to shoot!

8. do not use the YN622N-TX "TEST" button to shoot the test shot. You MUST take a test photo by pushing TEST on the YN622N, it triggers of a Photo from your camera. This works because of that little cable we discussed in point 5.

9. on your Nikon DSLR, push the Fn button you assigned earlier, as mine is set to infinity ive got all the time in the world to walk over to my subject and take a flash reading.

Make sure that FV Lock is visible inside the viewfinder!

a small pre-flash goes off from your speedlights.. EXCELLENT the pre-flash issue is no longer, now all your test shots are PRE-FLASH FREE!

10. go to your subject, put your flash meter where you want to take a reading, push TEST on the YN622N you have in you hand and you get an accurate reading. Put those readings in your camera and you will take a beautifully exposed photo.

I've thoroughly tested this configuration and it does work, as long as you follow these instructions to a tee..
 
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Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Put the 568 in TTL mode, put the 622 in Manual. See if that solves the issue. I'm at my day job and can't check my flashes and triggers right this minute but I think this will get you what you want. I'm not 100% certain I see the flash settings change on the back on flash itself when I adjust settings from the 622 but I'm pretty sure I do and this is how I have my flashes and transmitter configured.
Never mind. I grabbed some gear out of my car and just checked... In TTL mode the 568 only displays the f/stop, which does change as I change that setting on the camera body, but flash output level is not displayed; which makes sense because the flash is set to TTL. Still, that's how I configure my 568's/622's; I adjust the flash output using the 622 and that's what I look at to check those settings.

In short, I'm not sure you can have what you want...
 
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