Troublesome flash (Canon 580ex)

[flintlock1]

Hi all,
Hopefully someone here can offer advice. I bought a second hand Canon 580 EX mark 1 flash, knowing that it had problems, basically, it was a really good bargain (a positive steal lol.) It looks ok, everything about it seems to function ok, but it seems to output at full power, no matter what settings i use, on camera, or settings in the flash. I have also reset all custom functions of the flash too. Is it a gonner?

 

[Phil V]

Try cleaning all the contacts.

Does it output full power if you set it to Manual and lower the power settings?

 

[flintlock1]

Hi Phil V. Yes cleaned contacts. And no matter what power settings I try, it's still banging away at what seems full power. I did try an experiment of mounting flash on hotshot of my 5d mk2 and firing into a mirror, flash fires at exposure. But on the resulting image no flash appears. So I tried lowering shutter speed to see if it was a sync issue, but whatever I set shutter too, no flash appears in final image.

 

[Phil V]

Hi Phil V. Yes cleaned contacts. And no matter what power settings I try, it's still banging away at what seems full power. I did try an experiment of mounting flash on hotshot of my 5d mk2 and firing into a mirror, flash fires at exposure. But on the resulting image no flash appears. So I tried lowering shutter speed to see if it was a sync issue, but whatever I set shutter too, no flash appears in final image.

Forget the camera for now. Hold the flash in your hand, in Manual mode turn it down to minimum power (1/128?) and hit the test button, then turn it to 1/1 and test again, you should be able to see a difference.

 

[flintlock1]

No noticeable difference between settings.