Weird behavior on Canon 6D

woodlink

Here's the setup I was using.    

V6 in transmitter mode mounted on Canon 6D

Another V6 in rec' mode mounted to 430 EX Canon flash...Group A

RF 60....assigned to Goup B

Both flashes off camera.

For some strange reason, whenever I rotated the 6D to portrait, the 430 EX would not fire, even when the V6 LED attached to it indicated it was getting the signal to fire.

RF 60 fired EVERY time.

When held in landscape, both the V6 / 430 and the RF 60 would fire. EVERY time.

For the life of me, I cannot think of some esoteric setting on the 6D that would affect this.  Once again, the V6 attached to the 430 EX was indicating it rec'd the signal.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

Class A

This is weird indeed.

The orientation of the 6D should be completely immaterial to the 430EX.

The only possible explanation I have is that perhaps the 6D and 430EX are in close proximity and that the orientation makes a difference regarding some interference between the 6D and the 430EX.

Can you try to turn the Wi-Fi off on your 6D?

Does the V6 attached to the 430EX show a green (instead of just amber) confirmation blink with its LED?

Can you try to take a picture of the V6 + 430EX showing the green LED and the flash not firing? Make sure you are a good distance (say 3m) away from the V6 + 430EX combo and try both orientations of the 6D to see whether you can replicate the phenomenon.

I suggest to exclude the RF60 in the above, just to eliminate another influence on the 430EX. I understand the 430EX has no mode that could detect another flash and consequently not fire ("A-mode") but for the experiment the RF60 is not need and it would be better to exclude it no matter how unlikely its influence is.

woodlink

Just a follow up to the post above.  I noticed in another post about setting th V6's into short range mode.

That prompted me to...read the manual.

...and corrected my issue.

Given that both flashes setups mentioned above were within 30 cm of the Tx. unit on the 6D, it's quite possible that the mere rotation of the camera to portrait placed the two V6's within a range (or made the radios work wonky) that made operation sporadic.

Radio frequency stuff is a dark art.

Take away?

1.  Short range mode can make a difference.

2.  Read the manual

3.  Thanks to Cactus for making a good great product.

4.  Nothing wrong with my 6D

This is weird indeed.

The orientation of the 6D should be completely immaterial to the 430EX.

The only possible explanation I have is that perhaps the 6D and 430EX are in close proximity and that the orientation makes a difference regarding some interference between the 6D and the 430EX.

Can you try to turn the Wi-Fi off on your 6D?

Does the V6 attached to the 430EX show a green (instead of just amber) confirmation blink with its LED?

Can you try to take a picture of the V6 + 430EX showing the green LED and the flash not firing? Make sure you are a good distance (say 3m) away from the V6 + 430EX combo and try both orientations of the 6D to see whether you can replicate the phenomenon.

I suggest to exclude the RF60 in the above, just to eliminate another influence on the 430EX. I understand the 430EX has no mode that could detect another flash and consequently not fire ("A-mode") but for the experiment the RF60 is not need and it would be better to exclude it no matter how unlikely its influence is.

Good suggestions...thank you! 

I took the RF60 out of the equation and was able to replicate the behavior.  So that wasn't the source.

I was able to replicate the phenonmenon where the V6 lights up amber when shutter is actuated for focus, but would not turn green to fire when focus was achieved.  

Oddly enough, I could get the V6 / 430EX to fire when I pressed the test button on the V6 mounted on the 6D.

All of this was in long range mode.  Switching to short corrected it all.

Class A

Switching to short corrected it all.

Great to hear!