Is my Canon 430EX working properly?

Urban Grimshaw

Urban Grimshaw

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I've had a Canon Speedlite 430EX for a few years now, but in that time it has seen very little use. I prefer to be outdoors, and I'm often carrying light so rarely take much kit with me.

Anyways, I've be re-drawn towards the benefits of using a decent flash. So I'm trying to make a conscious effort of getting to know my way around it.

The bit that is confusing me, is the auto modes...

If I have it set to ETTL, and my 30d set to AV (which is what I normally use), the shutter speed is always 250, regardless of the aperture I set. Surely the shutter speed should change somewhat to reflect the best performance with the selected aperture, or is all of this compensation maintained by the output of the flash??

That is my main question.

I'm worried that my camera is not communicating with the flash correctly (I've also tried it on my 350d to rule out the camera - it operated the same), but it may well be that working with a flash requires something of a different mindset than working without one?
 
check your camera settings,it sounds like you have the shutter in AV mode set to fire fixed at 250,change it to auto then the shutter speeds will vary as when in AV mode the flash will then operate as fill.Custom function 3 is the one I think you have to change
 
Cheers guys. That's very interesting. C:Fn 3 it is indeed.

It's not quite what I was expecting. Though exactly what you say: it seems to give a meter reading as it would without the flash, and so you can use it as a fill? Which is something I was looking to get acquainted with. So thanks for that!

I think I just have a lot of learning to do. I was kinda expecting only a slight shift in shutter speed, so that you would use the camera in a similar way as to what you would in daylight, with a lot of control over both aperture and shutter, without going into manual mode.

The fixed shutter makes sense too though, and I'm guessing the flash output compensates for the differing apertures under that mode?

I feel I've learned something, anyway. What I really need is some good (and interesting - man, the manual is dull!) tutorials of getting round the basics of the Speedlite.
 
You have a lot of control with the camera set like that. Use +/- compensation on the camera to adjust ambient brightness (changes shutter speed) and +/- compensation of the back of the gun to adjust flash (changes flash power) :thumbs:

The Speedliter's Handbook by Syl Arena is an excellent book for Canon users. Everything you need to know in there.
 
To add, there's a tipping point when using the flash as fill in AV, when the light level drops like a stone, your shutter speeds will too.

There comes a point you'll want to raise your shutter speed, my rule of thumb is to shoot AV for flash fill in daylight, and M indoors or in the dark. the M exposure used for the ambient to be somewhere between correctly exposed and a couple of stops under.
 
Phil V said:
To add, there's a tipping point when using the flash as fill in AV, when the light level drops like a stone, your shutter speeds will too.

There comes a point you'll want to raise your shutter speed, my rule of thumb is to shoot AV for flash fill in daylight, and M indoors or in the dark. the M exposure used for the ambient to be somewhere between correctly exposed and a couple of stops under.
Click to expand...

Good point Phil. There is another mode on Canons (not sure if 30D has it) where the camera will drop the shutter speed in Av to 1/60sec, but no more, to prevent blurring and let the background go dark instead.

Personally, I'm usually happy to go a bit lower than that and put up with a bit of ambinent blurring knowing that the flash will freeze the foreground subject. Maybe it would be nice if you could select the slowest speed in Av, but on the other hand, I would probably elect to bump the ISO if things were dragging too far.

Maybe that could be automated too! But IMHO there comes a point where it's harder to work out which auto setting to make than it is to use your loaf and just do the changes manually. With experience, it's easy enough, instinctive, but that experience takes time to acquire.
 
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HoppyUK said:
Good point Phil. There is another mode on Canons (not sure if 30D has it) where the camera will drop the shutter speed in Av to 1/60sec, but no more, to prevent blurring and let the background go dark instead.

Personally, I'm usually happy to go a bit lower than that and put up with a bit of ambinent blurring knowing that the flash will freeze the foreground subject. Maybe it would be nice if you could select the slowest speed in Av, but on the other hand, I would probably elect to bump the ISO if things were dragging too far.

Maybe that could be automated too! But IMHO there comes a point where it's harder to work out which auto setting to make than it is to use your loaf and just do the changes manually. With experience, it's easy enough, instinctive, but that experience takes time to acquire.
Click to expand...

It's difficult when you're old to realise how many decisions you're making when you lift a camera up to your eye. Like driving - it becomes a bit '2nd nature' and also like driving, there's decisions you made about your 'style' years ago that you don't revisit.
 
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