TTL Passthrough doesn't work. HSS-sympathy mode does not work.
I just upgraded the firmware and the behavior, if anything, has gone from bad to worse.
I bought a pair of RF60 & V60. (two of each item)
Initially only one of the V60 would allow TTL passthrough -- and then only intermittently and sometimes scrambled the cameras's shutter speed above the sync speed. (I am using Pentax K3 with AF540-FGZ on the hotshoe, and the AF540 profile on the V60). After the firmware upgrade, neither unit allows TTL passthrough.
I even have the V60 TX on the camera (also tried with the AF540 on the hotshoe).
I then have a second V60 RX with another AF540 in the hotshoe.
The remote flash does not fire. It sounds like the TTL profile will only fire another TTL flash in the remote hotshoe.
Correct? So the RF60 is useless for actual TTL, assuming the feature worked in the first place.
The documentation on TTL usage with the V60 is really confusing.
Do I need the AF540 or PTTl flash on the hotshoe or does the profile handle all that on its own?
Regardless, I cannot get the remote RF60 to flash in any situation or configuration when the camera is above the sync speed. This is regardless of using the V60 (with or without the flash in the hotshoe).
Even with only the AF540 in the cameras hotshoe (no V60 involved), there is no delay (50ms - 120ms) that allows HSS sympathy mode to fire the RF60.
The manual is so very ambiguous I cannot make heads or tails of what is supposed to work or how.
It is possible I have a bunch of bad hardware, but I doubt it.
I am pretty sure I am just doing something "wrong".
Any help? :-)
Comments
I recommend using Manual mode (or another mode where you control the shutter speed) to make sure that you don't exceed the sync-speed.
There are ways to use the RF60 in HSS mode with a Pentax camera. Have a look at the respective section in my RF60 review at pentaxforums and the respective section in my V6 review at pentaxforums.
Second, the V6 does not support P-TTL via radio communication. The only P-TTL support is via TTL pass-through for a P-TTL flash that is mounted on top of an on-camera V6. Note that for this to work optimally, the flash profile of the on-camera transmitter should be set to "AF540-FGZ" in your case. This should result in the AF540-FGZ working as if it were mounted on the camera directly. You still cannot fire off-camera flashes via radio alone when going beyond the sync-speed, though (see above).
All off-camera flashes are controlled manually (from the V6 or an RF60 in master mode). I trust you got your RF60s to work, correct?
For remote controlling the AF540-FGZ, your off-camera V6 receiver must be configured to use the AF540-FGZ flash profile. Once you have configured the V6 correctly, you will be able to adjust the AF540-FGZ's power levels from a V6 transmitter. You can check the radio communication (e.g., whether you have the same channel setting and whether the group of the receiver is active) by pressing the test button on the V6 transmitter. This should fire the AF540-FGZ (unless the respective group has been deactivated).
Note that you can downgrade to an earlier firmware with the firmware updater. If everything else fails and you feel that the latest firmware is to blame, you can load an older version to your V6 units again.
1. The simultaneous triggering of flashes (with a delay) and the camera.
2. Optical triggering (either on the pre-flash or the main flash with the latter only supported for shutter speeds up to 1/2000s or so).
If you are concerned about not being able to use optical triggering for triggering external flashes, try the approach I described in my review that involves triggering a V6 optically (right next to the on-camera flash) and using this V6 to trigger all off-camera flashes via radio. You can even put the V6 on the camera's hot-shoe, enable TTL pass-through, and guide the light from an HSS-capable flash mounted on top of the V6 into the V6 sensor. This works very well and the only downside is that you have to use a full P-TTL flash on camera, just to get a trigger signal for the V6.
The AF540 FGZ profile is provided so that a V6 can control the power level of an AF540 FGZ. Without such a profile, you would not be able to get calibrated light output levels from an attached flash.
So it has a purpose for enabling precise manual control over power levels, but does not support automatic exposure control P-TTL style.
If you are using multiple off-camera flashes, you will be much better of using manual level control anyhow. P-TTL offers precious little in establishing lighting ratios between multiple flashes. It is a very poor system that only works well for a very limited range of applications and multi off-camera flash control is not one of them.
You should be able to get the TTL pass-through to work. I've used it a lot with my Pentax gear. If you see the small "TTL" symbol to the left of the V6 display, but the camera does not recognise a flash mounted on top of the (on-camera) V6, try downgrading to an older firmware. I don't know of any respective bugs in the latest version, but I do now that P-TTL pass-through worked for me with very recent firmware versions (I haven't tried the latest one, though).
Once we go past the sync speed, the fun begins...
In another post you said you got optical triggering on the main flash to work (e.g. 1/3200s). Was that just with RF60s and not involving the V6? Or can you not replicate the success you once had?
You write the AF540 FGZ is in HSS mode but you don't specify how it is connected to the camera. If it does not sit on the camera directly, but on an inbetween V6, the latter V6 must be set to TTL pass-through.
Do you see the AF540FGZ emit a pre-flash and main-flash? If the AF540FGZ does not emit a flash at 1/200s, the optical triggering cannot work.
To keep things simple, you should not use an older lens (e.g., ones with no "A" contact). Such an old lens may stop the camera from using P-TTL mode and you hence won't get a pre-flash and main flash out of the AF540FGZ. The "S2 MAIN FLASH" triggering may only work if there actually is a pre-flash (I'd have to confirm this, not 100% sure at the moment).
If you don't have a modern lens, select "S1 FIRST FLASH" but still keep the delay at 0.
The next item on the check list is to ensure that the V6 that you want to use to trigger the external flashes with can see the light emitted by the AF540FGZ. You may need to get the optical sensor at the front of the V6 fairly close to the head of the AF540FGZ, as the V6's sensor is not very sensitive (optimised for flash profiling, not for optical triggering).
I typically just point the V6's sensor to the flash head in rather close proximity. If you don't want to do that, you can mount the V6 on the camera, set it to TTL pass-through mode, mount the AF540FGZ on top of the V6 and use a big piece of paper or so to guide the light from the AF540FGZ into the sensor of the V6. I've done that successfully, but I'd try to trigger the V6 first and then find more convenient solutions.
Start with slow shutter speeds (e.g., 1/200s) , 0 delay, and S2 (MAIN FLASH) triggering first (provided you are using a relatively modern lens).
Once that works, you can proceed to S1 (FIRST FLASH) triggering but then need to find the correct delay value. 95ms sounds like a good starting point and you should be able to search around in increments of three (3) in order to find the right time (which will only work optimally for a particular aperture, so make sure you are using a mode that keeps both shutter speed and aperture fixed).
I did notice one HUGE problem with the V6 that is causing me a bit of concern.
the V6 unit DOES trigger flashes off camera.
HOWEVER... I'm having an issue with the way the V6 slides into the Olympus OMD EM-1.
It will not slide all the way into the hotshoe. There is a bit of room left until the V6 unit
can sit flush in the hot shoe, but the V6 unit gets stuck and will not slide in any further.
It looks and acts as if the pin closest to the front of the V6 unit is getting stuck. I was careful enough to ensure that i retracted the pin by moving the V6 units locking mechanism but the problem persists.
The problem is the same with both V6 units i own.
I tried pushing and wiggling the unit with a reasonable amount of SAFE force, but I still
can't make it sit in the hotshoe the way ALL other hot shoe devices do.
I activated the TTL pass through feature on my V6 unit and mounted a Nissin i40 flash
on top it. Unfortunately this did NOT work. TTL data was not passing through and the mounted flash would not even fire.
my Olympus OMD EM-1.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thank You in advance.
Have you checked that it isn't the opposite problem, i.e., that the V6 slides too far into the hot-shoe?
On the Fuji X-pro someone had to slightly pull back the V6 before the TTL pass-through mode started working.
I did try triggering the Nissin i40 flash as i slid the V6 into the hot shoe. Stopping at different increments to see if I can get it to trigger the flash. Unfortunately... Nothing worked. I did this test whil having TTL pass through activated on the V6 and the Nissin i40 in TTL mode.
However... I did find out that the Nissin i40 CAN be triggered by the V6 unit while in TTL pass through mode but only if the Nissin i40 is in MANUAL mode. So still, there is no TTL data passed to the Nissin i40.