Meyin RF-604

The Meyin RF-604, a wireless flash trigger, first got my attention because of its name.  I assumed that this was a new product evolved from the Yongnuo RF-603.  I’m probably not the only person mislead by the name.  The “RF-604” is not a Yongnuo product but it sure appears to be an evolved version of the Yongnuo RF-603.

Although it was the product name that caught my attention, it was the locking wheel that caught my eye and convinced me to buy one.  (The Yongnuo RF-603 does not have a locking wheel and fits loosely to the camera hot shoe.)

The Meyin RF-604 is somewhat larger than the Yongnuo RF-603 and 602.  So, far the RF-604 appears to be compatible with both.

I’ll have more to say about the RF-604 after I’ve exercised it a bit.  So far, so good.

YN565EX Returns!

In August, I reported that my Yongnuo 565EX had failed. Since this flash was purchased directly from China (ThePhotoGadget), I agonized over whether to return it, have it repaired or simply absorb the loss. Eventually, I decided to return the 565EX to The PhotoGadget and see what would happen.

The good news is that Yongnuo repaired my 565EX under warrantee at no cost. The repaired 565EX has the same serial number as the original.  It seems to work.

The bad news is that shipping to China cost $65 and that the ship/repair/return process took over three months!

Yongnuo did not include a report or notes on the failure or repair. The PhotoGadget noted that mine was an older version of the YN565EX and that the latest version is more reliable. I hope so!

My conclusion is that I’ll use the YN565EX with reduced confidence for a while. Also, I’ll be buying Yongnuo products from USA vendors in the future.

RF-603 PC Connection

In addition to the hotshoe and shutter connections, the RF-603 also has a threaded (“screw lock”) PC connection at the squared off end of the body, see above.  (In the world of photography, “PC” once meant Prontor/Compur and not “Personal Computer”.) The intent of the PC connection is to connect to flashes that do not have a hotshoe. My set of  RF-603s did not include PC connection cables so I ordered some from eBay (search for “Male to Male Flash PC Sync Cable Cord for Yongnuo RF-603” – can’t get much more specific than that!). My order was placed with “Jiakgong” in China. These cables were less than $3 each so I ordered 4 cables. Shipping was only $1.40; seems like it took about two weeks to receive the cables. The cables were loosely packed with no documentation but seem OK and I gave positive feedback on the transaction.

The eBay cables indeed fit the RF-603 – first test passed. Next, I wondered if the RF-603 could trigger two flashes in the same way that worked for the  RF-602. The trick with the RF-602 was to use one flash in the hotshoe and connect the second flash with the cable. I tested this configuration with two old Nikon SB-24 flashes, the RF-603 and the PC cables as shown below.

It works!

RF-603 Triggering Modes

Most of the time, my RF-603 will be used in the simple manner shown above: transceiver in the hotshoe of my 7D and wirelessly triggering a remote flash or two. However, the RF-603 can be used as a shutter trigger or even combined shutter and flash trigger.

In the previous post, I noted that the button on the RF-603 transceiver activates only the shutter release (side connection using 2.5mm plug) and not the hotshoe functions. As shown above, the RF-603 can be used as a simple wired shutter release. Press the shutter button and the camera fires but remote flashes will not be triggered.

The configuration shown above will trigger both camera and remote flashes.  Place a transceiver in the hotshoe of the camera and connect its shutter release to the camera. Add a second transceiver to trigger the hotshoe transceiver. Now a press of the button on the second transceiver triggers the shutter release on the first transceiver (the one mounted on the camera hotshoe) and the camera fires. When the camera fires, the hotshoe mounted transceiver transmits a signal to any RF-603 that are listening and those flashes will fire. To operate in this mode, three transmitters are needed: one on the camera hotshoe, a second transmitter to be the shutter trigger and a third transmitter mounted on the flash.

Actually, the “third” transmitter (the one mounted on the flash as shown above) can be used to trigger the transmitter mounted on the camera hotshoe so really only two transmitters are needed. In other words, set up a RF-603 on the camera hotshoe and wired to the camera release connection plus a second RF-603 mounted on the flash hotshoe as shown below. When the button on the flash mounted RF-603 is pressed, the camera will fire and activate the RF-603 on the camera hotshoe which will trigger the flash mounted RF-603 to fire the flash having the transceiver that began the cycle.

All this is simpler than the words necessary to describe it.  Just remember that the button activates the 2.5mm connection and the hotshoe activates remote hotshoes.

Yongnuo RF-603

The Yongnuo RF-603 is a wireless system for triggering flash and/or camera shutter using the FSK 2.4 GHz channel. Control distances up to 100 meters are claimed. Transmitter and receiver are identical and are called transceivers. The transceivers are powered by two standard AAA batteries; 45 hours of standby are claimed. Sixteen channels are available to provide isolation from other RF-603 that might be nearby.

The RF-603 is offered as the RF-603C for Canon cameras and RF-603N for Nikon cameras. I’ve not seen the Nikon version but apparently there are slight electronic differences in addition to differences in the hot shoe and cable connections. The Canon version uses a 2.5mm socket for connection to the camera and a standard PC socket for connection to studio flashes. On the camera end, the connecting cable varies according to the camera connection. Cameras such as Canon’s 1D, 5D, 7D, 20D use the “C3” cable whereas the 60D, 450D, 1000D and similar use the “C1” cable. My G12 and G1X also use the “C1” cable.

The RF-603C came well packed and worked right out of the box. I must admit that, at first, I thought the triggers were defective because I immediately mounted a flash to the hotshoe of a transceiver and tried to trigger it by pressing the button on the other transceiver. The RF-603 doesn’t work that way. It turns out that pressing the transceiver button does not activate the hotshoe on another transceiver. The button activates the shutter release connection – not the hotshoe connection on the receiving transceiver. As a flash trigger, the RF-603 can be tested by mounting the flash to the hotshoe of one transceiver, placing the other transceiver on the camera hotshoe and firing off a shot.

Channel selection is done by setting the switch that is beneath the batteries.  I immediately changed the channel from the factory setting.  Each transceiver must be set to the same channel.

Here’s a funny about the RF-603 package: The box has dual labels in English and Chinese (I assume). The User Manual is also in English and Chinese. Inside the box was a small package of desiccant label “DO NOT EAT” – but only in English!

Prior to getting the RF-603, my preferred remote trigger was the RF-602 although I first learned about remote flash triggers by using the Cactus V2. The Cactus V2 had an iffy performance that seemed mostly related to connections and wiring. After getting the RF-602, I stopped using the V2.

So far, I’ve not seen much difference in the performance of the RF-603 as compared to the RF-602 when used as a simple flash trigger. I had hoped (in vain!) that my G1X fitted with the RF-603 might not exhibit “screen blanking” as it did with the RF-602. However, this is obviously more of a problem (or undocumented feature) with recent PowerShots than it is related to the specifics of the flash accessory.  The RF-603C worked fine with my 7D.

Compatibility-wise, the RF-603C seems to trigger every flash I have access to – even the Nikon SB-28 and SB-24. Remember though, that all the RF-603 does is to signal “Fire” to the flash. The flash power must be set manually on the flash. It appears that the RF-603 cannot be triggered by the RF-602 and vice versa.

There are two main gripes about the RF-603:  First, the OFF/ON switch is virtually inaccessible after the flash is mounted to the trigger hotshoe.    This means that the trigger must be turned ON before mounting it to the flash.  Second, the trigger just slides into the camera hotshoe – there is no lock.  Although this friction only mounting is actually relatively secure, it does not fill me with confidence so I’ll be applying a bit of gaffer tape.

The RF-603 is very versatile and can be used in a variety of triggering modes but I’ll save those details for a separate post.

YN565EX Cross References

Here are cross references to previous posts on LightDescription about the YN565EX flash:

Introduction to the YN565EX
External power
YN565EX with the Canon G12 
YN565EX with the Canon 7D

Posts on LightDescription about the older, simpler YN460EX flash:

Introduction to the YN460-II
YN460-II with the Canon 7D

Additional articles and information on the YN565EX:

ThePhotoGadget
Speedlights Review
An ongoing discussion on POTN forum

I continue to use and like both the YN460EX-II and the YN565EX. 

YN565EX

The Yongnuo YN565EX flash is a near clone of the Canon flagship 580EX II. I say “near clone” because the YN565EX does not look exactly like the 580EX II and is not controlled exactly like the 580EX II. Even so, the YN565EX is obviously intended to be a low cost variation of the 580EX II. Although I already have a 580EX II, you can never have too many and at one-third the price, the YN565EX was well worth investigating. I ordered my YN565EX from ThePhotoGadget and waited more or less patiently during the two week delivery period.


I’ve had good experiences with my Yongnuo YN460-II and use it regularly as an off-camera manually adjusted flash. My intention was and is to use the YN565EX as an ETTL slave unit to be wirelessly triggered and controlled by either my 7D on-camera flash or by the 580EX II. Alternatively, the YN565EX can be triggered as an optical slave or by the RF-602 wireless triggers; however, these simpler alternative triggers do not include ETTL control.

Because my Canon G12 has bugs – undocumented features – in flash mode, I was fully prepared for the YN565EX to be incompatible with the G12. In this I was not disappointed as the YN565EX does display a few quirks when mounted on the G12 (more on this in another post). As I’m always reminding others, flash on the Powershot G is not the same as flash on Canon’s DSLRs.

ThePhotoGadget site and the Yongnuo store but especially Speedlights contain specifics and technical details of the YN565EX so I’ll just say that it is generally expected to perform like a 580EX II. On the other hand, the YN565EX does add the two optical slave trigger modes that have been very useful to me on my 460EX-II.

My YN565EX arrived in a sort of soft and squishy cardboard box but the package inside (top photo) was well protected and undamaged. The flash survived its journey from China apparently intact and undamaged. My quick inspection and abbreviated tests so far indicate that my YN565EX works as it is supposed to work but I’ll have more on this in future posts.

After a few test shots, I was forced to skim through the instruction manual in order to turn off the very loud and irritating BEEP-BEEP (page 58, custom function 14).

The YN565EX is a nice looking flash and much more robust than the YN460EX II – especially the battery door.  I do prefer the foot locking mechanism of the 580EX II but the more conventional screw lock on the YN565EX is OK.  The YN565EX flash head is swiveled and tilted without having to press and release any locking buttons.  If the friction resistance holds the head in place, this is an advantage -- time will tell.

The controls are just enough different from the 580EX II that I’ll have to remember both systems but, if anything, the YN565EX controls actually seem more intuitive.  Button presses all seem OK to me. 

Next: Using the YN565EX with the Canon 7D

RF-602 Wireless Flash Trigger

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Although I learned wireless “Strobist”flash techniques using the Cactus PT-04, I recently switched to the Yongnuo RF-602. In addition to being more reliable, the RF-602 can be used as a wireless shutter release for my Canon 7D. When I twisted off yet another PC connector from a Cactus PT-04 receiver, I gave up and ordered the RF-602. Perhaps I was just looking for an excuse but, whatever the reason, I now use the RF-602 for wireless flash triggering.

Like the Cactus units, the RF-602 is a simple trigger; that is, the flash is told “Fire” but flash intensity must be set in advance by the photographer. The transmitter, shown above, mounts on the camera and sends the signal to the receiver. The transmitter does not have an On/Off switch but does have a large button that can be used to trigger the flash or camera by hand. The transmitter uses one 3V CR2 lithium battery. The battery was included in the kit. The RF-602 system uses 16 channels but out-of-the-box is set to “ALL” so the first thing I did was to set a channel. The little switches are covered by a piece of tape. I left the tape on the switches and used a pencil point to change them.

The RF-602 receiver, shown above, uses two AAA alkaline batteries that were included in the kit. The battery door is a bit difficult to open – probably a good thing. The little switch on the receiver must be set to match the switch on the transmitter. The receiver does have an On/Off switch. The receiver has a flash shoe on top and a screw mount on bottom.

The RF-602 kit included a shutter connecting cord for my Canon 7D and a flash connecting cord. The flash connecting cord has a 3.5mm plug and a 6.35mm adapter plug. The basic kit does not include a PC cord so I've ordered one. Normally, I'll be using the hot shoe connection.

So far, the RF-602 system has handled everything I've thrown at it: Nikon SB24 and SB28 flashes, Vivitar 285HV, Canon 380EX, 420EX, 580EX, Yongnuo 460-II. The system works from my Canon G3, G9 and 7D. It triggers my Canon 7D. It appears to be more robust than the Cactus PT-04 system.

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Yongnuo Speedlite YN460-II

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In the end, I couldn’t resist ordering the YN460-II even though my arsenal of flashes is (mostly) built around the Nikon SB series. In a previous post, I wrote about replacing the foot of a damaged SB-24. I actually did not expect to win that damaged SB-24 and had, in fact, ordered the YN460-II just two days prior. Fifteen days later, the YN460-II arrived in a plain brown wrapper, shipped via airmail from Hong Kong.

The YN460-II is a simple and inexpensive flash unit that is an upgrade of the (what else) YN460. The upgrade consists of more power (claims Guide Number of 53 instead of 33), faster recycling and fine tuning for the flash power. The flash head has both tilt and swivel. The YN460-II has two operating modes: manual flash and optical slave flash. In either operating mode, the YN460-II flash power must be set manually.

Here are my first thoughts and impressions.

My first concern was the packaging. Although the shipping envelope was lightly padded, the YN460-II box was simply placed inside it without additional padding. There was no padding inside the box although the flash was inside a plastic bag which was inside a nice black cloth bag. In spite of my concerns, all parts arrived in good condition.

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The YN460-II is a nice looking flash with a better quality appearance that I expected. The tilt/swivel head position is held by friction; that is, just grab it and turn/tilt – no release buttons to push. This is fine for now but I wonder if it will become sloppy loose with much use.

I dropped a set of PowerEx NiMh rechargeables into the YN460-II and pressed the ON button. Nothing. Press again – nothing again. Did I get a bad flash? A quick glance at the instructions confirmed that I was indeed pushing the ON/OFF button but should have been holding it down for 2 seconds. Duh. Firing a few quick pops manually, the YN460-II took about 8 seconds to recycle to full power; the SB-28 from which I robbed the batteries took about 9 seconds. (Time to recharge?) Recycling was near instantaneous at minimum power setting. (A fresh set of PowerEx reduced the recycle time to less than 5 seconds.)

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Changing the flash power is easy and very visual: Press the Power +/- button and watch the lights change. However, the button must be pressed for each step change. Same for changing modes: Press the Mode button and watch the lights change. When the YN460-II is turned on, the mode is set to manual and the flash power is set to the minimum; it does not remember the previous settings.

In contrast to the simplicity of setting flash power, “fine-tuning” was not so simple. Well, I could follow the instructions but the flash power output level lights do not remain as set so I had no confidence in what I’d done. The procedure is to press and hold the MODE and PILOT buttons until the middle light blinks then use the +/- button to fine tune. This seems OK except that the output level lights soon revert to the non-fine tuned display. Pressing MODE and PILOT again shows the fine-tuned setting. I quickly resolved not to use the fine tuning feature (for now anyway). Illustrated is 1 stop down from maximum (i.e., would be half power) but then 2 clicks farther down using "fine tuning".

Somewhat skeptically checking the YN460-II in optical slave mode, I found that it works very well with my Canon G9. In fact, the YN460-II was triggered by the G9 flash in both the S1 and S2 settings when the G9 was in P mode. With the G9 in manual mode (no pre-flash emitted), the YN460-II was triggered only in its S1 mode. Even more surprising, these quick tests were shot at 1/500 second! I was impressed. With my 7D, the YN460-II also worked in both S1 and S2 modes when the 7D was set for ETTL; however, at 1/200 second and faster, S2 is necessary. In a dimly lit room, triggering is easily possible at a distance of some 20 feet. The obvious conclusion is to use S1 for pure manual flash and S2 for triggering with ETTL -- as advertised.

Next up was to test the YN460-II with my Cactus wireless triggers. The only way to connect to the YN460-II is through the hot shoe. This is OK with me because my Cactus units are more reliable when connected via the hot shoe. The YN460-II worked fine with my Cactus wireless triggers and could be triggered at 1/640 second using the Canon G9.

Finally, I compared the flash power of the YN460-II to some other flashes. I did this by shooting the flashes directly mounted on my Canon G9 camera in full manual mode. Just firing shots across a dimly lit room, it seems to me that the YN460-II is not as powerful as the Canon 580EX but is similar to the Nikon SB-28 and more powerful than the SB-24. In fact, the relative power of all those flashes seems to be about as listed in my post on guide numbers. I also noticed that the YN460-II seems a bit “cool” in color cast, especially in comparison to the Canon 580EX (which seems a bit warm).

All in all, my YN460-II works and seems to work as advertised. I’m pretty happy with this one – in fact, am thinking about getting another one.

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