I've been using a Canon 420 EX Speedlight on my 5DmkII with absolutely no problem for the last three years. Over the last few months, I've noticed that anytime I use it my images are horribly underexposed. One of the things that I realized is that it seems to be firing early. I was suspicious of this because I seemed to be seeing the flash as I was looking through the viewfinder--I hadn't noticed this before, and I would think that normally the mirror would go up and you wouldn't see the burst of light. I think I confirmed this was the problem by taking a shot of myself in the mirror. No flash showed up in the image, once more leading me to believe it is firing too early. I also put the flash on my old Rebel XTI and got the same result, so I'm fairly certain the issue is not with the camera.
I've cleaned the contacts not flash and that didn't help. The 420ex does not have any manual controls, so I'm really at a loss. Playing with the flash exposure compensation did nothing, further making me think it's a timing issue. Has anyone else run into a problem like this? Maybe it's time to retire the old 420ex...
Bookmarks