Yongnuo RF-603 + Olympus OM-D: Reloaded

Do you remember my RF-603 modification post? In that post I was able to modify my Canon version of the Yongnuou RF-603 trigger to make it work with my Olympus camera to trigger external flashes.

Now thanks to member Earlack and his post in this dpreview thread, I was able to further modify the camera cable of the triggers so that they can also wirelessly trigger my camera. Full details after the jump.

Below is a typical YN RF-603 kit, except that there is another transceiver. I have bought two kits, so I have four transceivers in total. With these, I can trigger up to three external flashes, and I can even trigger the camera (from one of the other triggers) using the supplied cable, however, this cable has only a Canon connector, and Yongnuo doesn't sell cables with the Olympus USB connector.

This brings us to the modification, thanks to dpreview member mentioned above, I did exactly what he did, and instead of buying a USB connector and connecting it, I bought the cheapest wired trigger for Olympus I could find, the one shown in the opening picture.

Here's the Olympus USB connector, this is what I bought the intervalometer for, to salvage the USB connector (don't feel sad for the intervalometer, I have a much better one, with an on-off switch, not fully-on-until-the-battery-runs-out like this one).

Operation begins by cutting the two ends of the RF-603 cable, and the intervalometer. Thankfully, they both have the same color code.

I connected both whites together, red with yellow and yellow with red, the picture below is not the final one, just roughly made for demonstration.

 

 

 Once done and tested, I insulated each of the wires separately.

 

And because I didn't have a good black sealing tape, I used Gaffer's tape to hold both ends of the cable together. I will be removing the ugly looking tape and using a more elegant solution.

And it works, however not fully as expected, the half-press doesn't do anything, and only a full press initiates the focus and triggers the shutter, but I don't mind since most probably, when remotely triggering the camera as such, I will use fixed focus. In case you're wondering, it doesn't matter if the RF-603 is mounted to the camera hot-shoe or not, and I also tried connecting the reds and yellows together, but when I tested it, the camera had the shutter "half-pressed" all the time.

This modification will give me two important uses:

1. I can trigger the camera wirelessly, useful for group photos, self photos, camera positioned far away (on a pole for example with a fisheye for a unique perspective).
2. I can trigger both the camera and flash together, for example if I'm light painting a large area with flash, I can leave the camera on the tripod, and take the flash with me and point it at different areas of the photo, and every time I trigger the flash, the camera will snap a picture. How cool is that?

Finally, all these pictures were shot handheld with the OM-D and the 12-50 lens in macro mode, ISO 3200, shutter speeds ~ 1/10 to 1/20 seconds, ACR standard noise reduction.


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Yongnuo RF-603 + Olympus OM-D

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Yongnuo RF-603 + Olympus OM-D

OM-D + RF-603 working happily, excuse the quality, picture taken with my phone

During my DSLR sale, I kept all of my lighting equipment, one of my recent purchases were a couple of YN RF-603 wireless triggering kits (Canon 5D version), I never had a chance to use them on a real shoot with the 5D, however I tested them and they worked as advertised. I bought 2 kits, so I had 4 transceivers, they can trigger 3 flashes from the 5D, and they could be used to trigger the camera wirelessly as well.

 

Anyway, that's not the point, when I bought the OMD, I ordered an FL600R flash as my TTL, on-camera bounce flash, and I had a couple of YN-560 II powerful manual flashes to be used in lighting setups. I kept the RF-603 kit when I wanted to trigger all three flashes for setup shots, I know the YN-560 II flashes have optical triggers, and the Olympus FL600R can can be controlled remotely from the OMD, but I wanted the reliability of wireless triggers, especially if there are line of sight issues. When I tested the RF-603 triggers, I discovered they don't work with Olympus, I had totally forgot that I bought the Canon version, hmm, I thought, that's a bummer, let's see what I can find on the interwebz. Hit the jump to find out.

 

First thing, I went to Amazon and checked if Yongnuo made a version of the triggers for Olympus, nope, they don't, so, let's search for "Olympus OM-D and YN RF-603", I found a few results, and it took me a while to stumble on this trigger-saving thread on dpreview.

 

DISCLAIMER: All the coming methodology and modifications are done under the guidance of The Ginger Avenger's post on dpreview, full credit on this discovery is his, what I want to show is how it worked out on the Olympus OM-D specifically.

 

I checked his method and found it fairly simple that I didn't worry about breaking my trigger, I followed the instructions on his post, but kept all the pins on my trigger, and put a sticker on it to differentiate it from the others.

 

Trigger taken apart, I thought first of connecting a wire between the springs of the two concerned pins

 

Then I decided against it, as it might move around and cause a short or something

 

Soldering done in 10 seconds

 

Then a little bit of filing to lower the height, since the pins would be pushing against it

 

Assembly was very easy, and it worked very well from the first try as you can see below, see that red light? The OMD triggered the flash while taking this picture, that's why you can see the red light, otherwise it would be green during standby.

 

 

I found a few replies on the original post stating various sync speed issues, I was worried, the OMD has a maximum sync speed of 1/250, and I am happy to report it worked absolutely well up to 1/200, not too bad, that's the same as my 5D sync speed.

 

Sync speed, starting from 1/200 on the left, up to 1/500 on the right

 

Now I can trigger any 3 flashes reliably (my brother & friends have Canon flashes, so I can trigger those with the RF-603 and trigger the YN-560II via the built-in optical slave, for 5 light setups). One more benefit, the modified trigger can be used as a receiver on other flashes, in case I need to use all 4 transceivers on a Canon system.

 

Finally, I did a burst rate test, the flash recycling time would be a bottle neck, but I wanted to see how fast the triggers could go, so I turned the flash power down to 1/64, and fired away with the OMD at 9 fps, then I did another test at 1/16 power. Here are the results, I was using Sanyo Eneloops on the flash:

 

• 1/64 Power: first frame ok, second frame black, then the next 14 frames were ok. An amazing result, didn't think the flash and the trigger can keep up with 9 fps, could be very useful for water drops photography.
• 1/16 Power: first frame ok, second frame black, 6 frames ok, 4 black frames, then the last one was ok. Respectable, but I wonder about the regular black second frame.

All the close-up shots were taken hand-held with the incredibly versatile 12-50 lens, used in macro mode.

Posted with Blogsy

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Better Point-and-Shoot Shots with an External Flash

Last weekend, one of our friends celebrated their daughter's birthday party.  On this kind of occasion, I don't usually bring a DSLR anymore - I feel it is a little too much when we're not the celebrants.  Instead, I brought our trusty Lumix LX5 (reviewed here).  However, to get the best image quality out of the LX5, I paired it with an external flash, the Yongnuo YN-560EX (reviewed here).

Yes, the 560EX is a manual not TTL flash.  (I don't have a dedicated TTL flash for the Lumix LX5.)  However, using a manual flash while shooting run-and-gun is actually easier than it sounds.  (See: Therapy for TTL Addiction: How to Use Manual Flash).

In this post, I'll discuss my thought process in setting the flash and ambient exposures.

THE LOCATION
The birthday party was at a My Gym play area.  The room was about 4 or 5 times as long as it was wide.  The ceilings were white, and about 12 to 15 feet high.  One side of the room had mirrors while the other side had a mural and colorful playsets.

Not the same party but the same location, showing the ceiling

OVERALL STRATEGY

The first thing I do is assess the ambient light.  The party was late in the afternoon, almost sunset.  The storefront windows were covered by blinds to prevent glare.  There were fluorescent lights all over the ceiling, so the ambient light from the ceiling was soft.  Direct sunlight was streaming through and illuminating part of the room.  The direct sunlight was of course hard but it was coming in at an angle, so at least it had an interesting direction.

One possibility is to use ambient only.  There were two issues with this.  First, the fluorescent would be too dim, forcing the LX5 to struggle with much higher ISOs.  Second, there would be strong contrast between the sunlight and the fluorescent-lit areas.  Flash was definitely a useful tool under these circumstances.

Since I've decided that flash would help, the next thing is to figure out the respective roles of the ambient and flash.  One option is to expose for the ambient then use flash as fill.  It would solve the contrast between sunlit and fluorescent-lit areas.  However, it would not fix the dim fluorescent light (I would have to use high ISO).

On the opposite extreme, I could use flash only with no ambient, for maximum control.  The LX5 has an unlimited sync speed which facilitates 'deleting' the ambient.  But in this case, the subjects and the rest of the room were evenly lit with the ambient.  If I deleted the ambient for the subject, I would also be deleting the ambient for the room.  If I did that and used flash on the subject, then it would look artificial, like this (one of my early flash photos):


Or I would have to simulate the light in the room, which would have required at least a couple more flashes given the size of the room.  Not practical.

The compromise here is to use flash as the dominant light source, but to allow enough ambient to look natural.  How much ambient to allow here depends on a number of factors, such as: does the ambient look good or not, how consistent are the ambient and the flash, etc.  In this case, the ambient was fine (it's soft, comes from a reasonable direction, has a reasonable color, is consistent with the flash).  The more ambient I allowed, the more natural the image looked and the less the flash would have to work.  But because the camera can't handle high ISOs, I had to allow as much ambient as the camera could handle competently then use the flash for the rest.

I used manual exposure for the ambient.  In this case, I used the highest ISO the camera could manage, the widest available aperture, and used the slowest shutter speed that would not result in blur.  In the case of the LX5, I chose 400 ISO.  As for aperture, the LX5 can go as wide as f/2.0 to f/3.3 depending on the zoom; DOF is not really an issue for point and shoot.  For the shutter speed, I tried 1/100 first but it was too slow to get sharp enough shots of the kids.  So I tried progressively faster shutter speeds.  Of course it would be nice to shoot at 1/500 for sharpness but again, there would not be enough ambient in that case.  I settled at 1/200.

The rest of the exposure was lifted by the flash.  I wanted the flash to blend with the ambient - soft, overhead, white.  The logical choice was to bounce the flash against the ceiling.  That's exactly what I did, although I varied it slightly from pointing just straight up.  I also made sure to shield the flash with my hand so it wouldn't shine directly on the subjects.  In terms of intensity I just chimped it to lift the underexposed ambient to the right level.  That was around 1/4 power at 105mm zoom, although I was adjusting it up and down from time to time.

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
An alternative approach was to use automatic exposure, underexposed -1EV.  Closer to 0EV would be natural but again, the ambient was too dim -- plus shutter speed may be too slow).  I used aperture priority then chose the widest available aperture (again, DOF is not an issue for p&s), then I used flash to bring up the rest.  It's a simpler approach but with less control over the variables.

FILL FLASH
You recall that one of the issues is the contrast between the sunlit area and the fluorescent-lit area.  For those parts, the exposure was set for ambient, and the flash acted only as fill.

Aperture priority, 0EV.  No flash.

Aperture priority, 0EV. Flash added.

FLASH BLUR
One of the activities at the party was riding a zipline.  To capture that, I used intentional flash blur.  I set the exposure to a slow enough shutter speed.  Then, because the subject would be moving and the LX5 isn't fast enough to focus continuously, I used a narrower aperture to get a deep DOF.  Then I used the ISO to bring the exposure up to around normal.  Given that the aperture was somewhat narrow and the ISO on the low side, I set the flash to full power, then tweaked ISO upward as needed to get the desired exposure.

MORE SAMPLES
Here are a few more shots from the party.

Freeze!

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Yongnuo YN-560EX (EX600) Review

This is a follow up to my preliminary review of the Yongnuo YN-560EX.  For convenience, I'm going to incorporate the information on the previous review in this one, so this will be the main resource page for the 560EX.

ABOUT THE YONGNUO YN-560EX
The YN-560EX (formerly EX600) is a manual flash but can act as a wireless TTL slave via Canon or Nikon's wireless flash commanders (yes it is cross-compatible with Canon and Nikon).  I was excited about this model because it's only $109.99, less than the YN-565EX (which has wireless TTL as well as on-camera TTL and costs around $160 for the Nikon version).  It is one of the cheapest wireless TTL flashes available.  (At the end of this article I will post other wireless TTL alternatives.)

The YN-560EX should not be mistaken with its similarly-named predecessors, the YN-560 (a purely manual flash) and the YN-560II (an updated version of the YN-560, also purely manual).  The 560EX was previously known as the EX600 but its name was finalized as the 560EX.



YONGNUO'S FLASH LINEUP
Here's a brief comparison with the other current flashes in Yongnuo's lineup:

• YN-560 - Manual only flash.  Simple interface.   Compatible with external power pack.
• YN-560II - Manual only flash.  LCD interface.   Compatible with external power pack.
• YN-465 - TTL flash (Canon or Nikon version available).  No optical slave, no zoom.
• YN-467 - TTL flash  (Canon or Nikon version available) with built-in optical slave and zoom.
• YN-467II - update of YN-467.  Adds metal foot, PC port and improved buttons and battery compartment.
• YN-468 - Similar to YN-467 but adds stroboscopic mode and LCD display.
• YN-468II - update of YN-468.   Adds metal foot, PC port and improved buttons and battery compartment.
• YN-460RX and TX - manual flash with Yongnuo's built-in radio-based wireless TTL system.
• YN-560EX (formerly EX600) - When mounted on-camera, it is a manual only flash.  However, as a wireless flash it is capable of TTL with either a Canon or Nikon commander.
• YN-565EX - When mounted on-camera, it is a TTL flash (Nikon or Canon but not both).  Like the 560EX, it is capable of TTL as a wireless flash with either a Canon or Nikon commander.  Compatible with external power pack.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX

I ordered my 560EX on eBay from seller thephotogadget.  Three days after I ordered it, it was shipped out from Shanghai, then I received it just 10 days later.  It arrived in a package with bubble wrap around the 560EX's box.

The box contained the flash itself, a ballistic nylon case, a flash stand, an instruction manual in Chinese and English, and a brochure describing Yongnuo's flashes.  The case is handsome and includes a pocket for the included flash stand.  However, the material is thinner than similar cases for the Nikon SB-800 or SB-600.  The velcro is also kind of weak.  If held upside down and shaken, the case could open and your flash could drop.

The flash stand accommodates the standard ISO foot and has a receptacle for a locking pin.  There is a 1/4-20 socket at the bottom for mounting on a tripod or light stand.  However the socket is plastic.

THE 560EX BODY

The 560EX seems to take its design cues from Canon's 580EX, although it's not likely one will be confused with the other. 

Optical sensor on top; ready light indicator on the bottom

The front of the flash has a large red window.  In Canon and Nikon flashes, this red window is used for AF assist.  In the 560EX, the red window covers a "ready lamp" that pulses to indicate the flash is ready when it is being used as a slave.  Above the red window is an opaque cover that houses the 560EX's optical sensor for the wireless slave function.

At the back of the flash, there is a large LCD panel, unlike the YN-560 which had a simple panel with LED lights.

560EX and 560 comparison of interfaces and head rotation

In terms of size, the 560EX is about the same size as the YN-560.

Nikon SB-800, YN-560EX, YN-560

Nikon SB-800, YN-560EX, YN-560

The 560EX build quality seems about the same as the YN-560, but the LCD screen makes it look more polished.  The buttons are also different from the YN-560 and are hard plastic instead of squishy rubber, another improvement.  The hotshoe is mostly metal but the middle is plastic.  It is probably plastic to avoid activating the TTL contacts of a hotshoe.  There is a collar around the foot, and when the collar is rotated, it brings down the locking pin.  The 560EX doesn't look cheap at all.

On one side of the flash is the battery compartment with a spring-loaded battery cover with a hinge, so it will never get lost.  The battery chamber has a clear label to show the polarity of the batteries.  The other side of the flash has a rubber-covered port that covers a 2.5mm (not 3.5mm) miniplug sync port.  There is no port for an external battery.

Spring-loaded battery cover

The 560EX's head rotates 180 degrees in both directions, and has a vertical bounce angle of -7 degrees to 90 degrees.  The head has a built-in diffuser and catchlight reflector.  When the diffuser is pulled out, the zoom does not change.

OPERATING THE FLASH

By default, turning the flash on or off requires the power button to be held down for about 4 or 5 seconds while the LCD shows some simple animation.  If the power button is released before that time, it won't work.  Fortunately there is an option for 'quick startup/shutdown'.  If that option is activated, then pressing the power button immediately turns the flash on or off.

The 560EX has a simple and intuitive interface:

From L to R: Optical slave mode (S2 looks similar), Manual on-camera mode, Stroboscopic mode, Wireless Nikon mode (Wireless Canon mode looks similar)

The first button is for the backlight and sound.  Pressing the button activates the backlight.  If it is held down, then the sound will toggle on or off.

The second button is the mode, which cycles from Slave 1 (simple manual optical slave) --> Slave 2 (optical slave with delay) --> on-camera manual flash --> stroboscopic mode --> Canon wireless --> Nikon wireless --> Slave 1.

In Slave 1, Slave 2, manual flash, and stroboscopic modes, you can select the power level and the zoom.  To select the power level, you press the directional pad.  Pressing left or right adjusts the power down or up by a full stop.  Pressing up or down adjusts the power up or down in increments.  By default the increments are 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7.  There is an option to change the increments as discussed below.  In stroboscopic mode, you can only adjust power in full stops (incremental power changes are not available).

To change the zoom, you just press the zoom button which cycles from 24mm --> 28mm --> 35mm --> 50mm --> 70mm --> 80mm --> 105mm --> 24mm.

In stroboscopic mode, you specify the number of times the 560EX will flash and the frequency of the flashes.  The number of flashes is anywhere from 0 to 70 (however from 20 to 50 times, the number changes by 5, and from 50 to 70 times the number changes by 10).  The maximum number depends on the power level selected.  At 1/4 power, the maximum number of flashes is 3.  At 1/128 power, the maximum is 70.  Adjusting the power level upward automatically decreases the number of flashes to the maximum.  The frequency is anywhere from 1 to 100 hertz (cycles per second).  The frequency is not affected by power level.  As with the number of flashes, the number changes by 5 above 20hz, and changes by 10 above 50hz).

In the Canon and Nikon wireless modes, you can change the channel (1 to 4) by pressing the channel button, and/or group (A, B or C) by pressing both mode and channel at the same time, as clearly labeled by the buttons.  This simple interface is a huge improvement over the YN-565EX which was much less intuitive.  As with the other modes, you can also change the zoom.  Changing the power level or flash exposure mode (TTL or manual) is of course done through the commander.

There is a pilot light / test button left of the directional pad.  It glows green when the flash is recycling and then red when the flash is ready.  You can press the button to fire a test.

As mentioned, the flash has some options available.  Holding down the zoom button activates the options menu.  Pressing up and down cycles through the 5 available options, while pressing left or right cycles between the parameters for each option, and pressing the middle button on the directional pad exits the option menu:
-

Options mode.  Maximum vertical (bounce) angle also shown.

1. Power saving in non-slave mode ("SE Sd").  It will show 2 numbers.  The first number is the number of minutes before the flash enters a standby mode.  At "--" the flash doesn't standby.  The second number is the number of minutes before the flash automatically shuts down.  Available choices are: (3 30, 15 60, 30 120, -- 120).

2. Power saving in slave mode ("Sd").  30 mins or 60 mins.

3. Power level increments ("Inc"). 0.3 stops, 0.5 stops, or 0.3/0.5/0.7.

4. Backlight time ("lcd").  7, 15, or 30 seconds.

5. Quick startup or shutdown ("qu"). On or off.

Power (Guide Number)

To test the 'real' guide number of the 560EX, I attached it to a lightstand, outdoors, away from a bounce surface.  I positioned the flashmeter (a Paul Buff CyberCommander) on an identical lightstand, and used a tape measure to position the flash 10 feet away from the flashmeter.  I triggered the 560EX by mounting it to an RF-603 trigger which was in turn connected to a Paul Buff CSRB+ receiver.  I used the flashmeter function of the CyberCommander at ISO 100, 1/250 sync. I took 3 measurements each at 35mm and 105mm zoom, waiting 30 seconds between firing.  I converted the f-stop to guide number using the information here.  For comparison, I did the same to an SB-800.

YN-560EX Results

35mm: 
test1: f/8 1/10 = GN of 82.8 feet
test2: f/8 0/10 = GN of 80 feet
test3: f/8 0/10 = GN of 80 feet
average GN = 80.93 feet = 24.67 meters.
105mm: 
test1: f/8 9/10  = GN of 109 feet
test2: f/11 0/10 = GN of 110 feet
test3: f/11 0/10 = GN of 110 feet
average GN = 109.67 feet = 33.43 meters.

Nikon SB-800 Results

35mm: 
test1: f/8 3/10 = GN of 88.8 feet
test2: f/8 2/10 = GN of 85.7 feet
test3: f/8 3/10 = GN of 88.8 feet
average GN = 87.77 feet = 26.75 meters.  At 35mm, the SB-800 is 2/10ths of a stop more powerful than the 560EX.
105mm: 
test1: f/11 2/10 = GN of 121 feet
test2: f/11 2/10 = GN of 121 feet
test3: f/11 2/10 = GN of 121 feet
average GN = 121 feet = 36.88 meters.  At 105mm, the SB-800 is about 3/10ths of a stop more powerful than the 560EX.

Note: speedlights.net publishes an extensive power comparison here.  To compare the data above with the speedlights.net power index: add 1 stop (I asked speedlights.net why they add 1 stop but I didn't get a reply).

Flash duration
Used an LX5 (which has a digital shutter therefore unlimited sync).  Killed ambient by setting exposure at ISO 80, f/8.  Started with a shutter speed of 1/125, then fired full power at progressively higher shutter speeds (allowing 30 secs recycle time) until there is noticeable drop in output.
Result: no reduction in flash exposure observed at speeds up to 1/640.  At 1/800 there was a slight reduction in flash exposure.  The flash duration at full power is therefore between 1/640 to 1/800.

Max Wireless sync speed
- S1: 1/8000 tested ok on Nikon D70 (manual external flash attached).
- S2: 1/2000 tested ok on Lumix LX5 (popup flash was on TTL mode).  Could not test higher speeds.
- Nikon wireless mode:
1/500 tested ok on D70.
1/250 tested ok on Fuji S5
1/200 tested ok on D90.
The 560EX wireless mode works at all Non-HSS shutter speeds tested, up to 1/500.

TTL comparison with SB-800.
-3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3 FEC
TBA

Recycling speed
Test: connected flash to camera, fired full power
Counted amount of time it took to fire 10 shots.  Got the average time.
Result: 25.6 seconds to fire 10 shots.  Average recycling speed: 2.6 seconds.  Please note that this needs to factor in my reaction time, which at 1:30am is not really very good.

Wireless compatibility:
The list below shows the commanders I tested.  For each commander, it shows the groups tested, channels tested, whether TTL worked (+1, 0 and -1 FEC), and whether wireless manual worked (tested 1/64, 1/16 and 1/4).

• D90 popup.  A ok. B not ok. / Channel 1-4 ok. / TTL ok / Manual ok.
• SB-800 on D90.  A,B,C ok. / 1-4 ok / TTL ok / Manual ok.
• Fuji S5 popup.  A,B ok. / 1-4 ok / TTL ok / Manual ok.
• D70 popup. A ok / 3 ok / TTL ok / Manual ok.

Wireless Accessories:
SG-3IR: tested ok with Nikon D70, Nikon D90, Fuji S5.
Aokatec AK-TTL wireless radio trigger: see Aokatec review.


OTHER THIRD PARTY WIRELESS TTL ALTERNATIVES
Other flashes you may want to check out:

• Yongnuo YN-565.  Same wireless capabilities as 560EX but in addition has TTL when mounted on-camera.
• Oloong SP-660.  Same wireless capabilities as 560EX.
• Oloong SP-690 II.  Claims to have both master and slave wireless modes.

Nissin and Metz also produce flashes with wireless capabilities, but for me the price difference between their flash and Nikon's flashes is not that significant.

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