Yongnuo YN600EX-RT II Speedlite

[mikew09]

I presently have 2 x Canon 430 EX and 1 x 580 EX Speedlite which are great and durable. I use the yongnuo flash triggers with trigger controller which works a treat. However, it can be a bit of a pain carrying a dozen extra batteries on top of the 12 batters plus spares for all flashes when needed. In all, If am to take all 3 flashes, 3 x remote triggers and 1 x controller, I end up with the weight of 34 AA batteries. The other issue I have just starting having with a purchase of softbox, unbrella etc, is when the flashes are mounted with the triggers to the modifiers, the flash centre tends to be well off centre, especically with the Softbox.

The new yongnuo clone of the latest Canon 600 sppedlight has built in wireless with a dedicated controller that if you covered up brand names could be mistaken for Canon.

My only concern (albeit my triggers have be reliable and robust) is the quality and reliabilty / durability of the flashes.

QUESTION: Has anyone on AP had any experience good or bad with the new Yongnuo 600EX RT MkII wireless speedlites????

Thanks in Advance,

Mike

[Brian500au]

Mike - I personally do not have experience with the Yongnuo flashes but there are quite a few video's on Youtube which compare them to the canon (with good reviews).

The other brand to look at which is getting good reviews is the Godox range of lights / flashes. They have a common trigger for lights and portable flashes so the whole range is compatible.

[mikew09]

Mike - I personally do not have experience with the Yongnuo flashes but there are quite a few video's on Youtube which compare them to the canon (with good reviews).

The other brand to look at which is getting good reviews is the Godox range of lights / flashes. They have a common trigger for lights and portable flashes so the whole range is compatible.

Thanks for the tip. Been looking at the Godox as you suggested. Interesting take with the battery which I do like - fast recycle and up to 650 flashes at full power. It is always a concern what do you do if the battery dies but I see a lot sell with a spare battery in a pack. I am a bit torn now as my experience with the Yongnuo has be very good and I have seen some reviews on problems with both the Yongnuo and the Godox but with this level of the market you have to expect that. Having said that there is plenty of reviews of both that rank them very highly too.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[arthurking83]

Another way to tackle the issue could be from the coming persepctive ...

.... In all, If am to take all 3 flashes, 3 x remote triggers and 1 x controller, I end up with the weight of 34 AA batteries. ....

obviously the weight and space taken up by the batteries and chargers is the issue.
have you thought to try converting to LiIon AA batteries?

I know a lot of folks are scared of them in one way or another, but so far I've had them in my Nikon SB800 and they work a treat.

In terms of usable power they eat 3 sets of rechargeable AAs for breakfast(as all Lithiums do anyhow).
I've had them sitting in my SB800 now for nearly a year I reckon and I just checked and they're still at full power.
And it's important to note that full power for a LiIon is nothing like full power for a rechargeable or alkaline AA battery.

With the normal AA's on the SB800, I think(memory a bit vague) but I get maybe 1 or 2 continuous flashes in succession before the flash needs to pause a moment due to recylce times. No such issue with the lithiums. Ever!!! .. as in ever ever.
They just put out so much more power that I had the flash continuously cycling as fast as the camera could shoot. The again and because the camera pooped out long before the flash did, I re-did the test this time using the modelling flash for about a minute so it sat there flashing it's quick strobe like output for a botu a min, then I quickly shot at 4fps for about 17 frames .. and I still couldn't find a recycle time limit for the batteries.

My conclusion is that these batteries are beyond the ducks guts(whatever euphemism that may be) .. the geeses guts maybe

Only and main problem is they output 3.6v, and people are scared of this voltage rating .. and it's unknown if such a voltage rating is safe via the internal battery pocket. I know that they use lithium power via an external source tho.
An 'almost problem' with them too tho is that the batteries can heat up if used excessively. I have no idea what excessive use requirements most strobist have, but in my durability/recycling testing doing minutes of modelling light testing and wayyy too much boring exposure recycling testing they never got warmer than luke warm. But they did get warm, where the normal AAs stayed cold.
I used the term 'almost problem' only to alert the issue of possible overheating and if you shoot at 10fps for more than two minutes there could be an issue with heat. Havign held the modelling light down for about a minute(I got tired and copped out and the flash wanted to keep going!) .. I didn't think they heated up as much as they got warmer.

So far, so good tho. And my testing now is to see how much self discharge they exhibit .. and it turns out that after a bit of use to deplete them a little and having sat now for about a year, they did discharge to the point where the flash wouldn't turn on.

Because your main gripe was weight, these batteries do save an enormous amount of weight over normal AAs. And as they have about 3x the power ability, you may not need charges and suchlike.
Note that if you do look into them they are called AA when they're lithium, the battery model number is the 14500. And be careful about some makes as they can be a bit taller than the standard 50mm height that an AA is supposed to be.
I got stung with some AAAs that don't fit a lot of my devices as they were taller than std AAAs, so when I searched for these AA/14500's I made sure that the size was 50mm.

So far with both the AAs and AAAs I'm using in various devices I've never had any issue with heating up, nor over voltage issues. But note that some devices simply can't tolerate higher voltages than the specs state should be used.

Hope that helps.

[mikew09]

Another way to tackle the issue could be from the coming persepctive ...



obviously the weight and space taken up by the batteries and chargers is the issue.
have you thought to try converting to LiIon AA batteries?

I know a lot of folks are scared of them in one way or another, but so far I've had them in my Nikon SB800 and they work a treat.

In terms of usable power they eat 3 sets of rechargeable AAs for breakfast(as all Lithiums do anyhow).
I've had them sitting in my SB800 now for nearly a year I reckon and I just checked and they're still at full power.
And it's important to note that full power for a LiIon is nothing like full power for a rechargeable or alkaline AA battery.

With the normal AA's on the SB800, I think(memory a bit vague) but I get maybe 1 or 2 continuous flashes in succession before the flash needs to pause a moment due to recylce times. No such issue with the lithiums. Ever!!! .. as in ever ever.
They just put out so much more power that I had the flash continuously cycling as fast as the camera could shoot. The again and because the camera pooped out long before the flash did, I re-did the test this time using the modelling flash for about a minute so it sat there flashing it's quick strobe like output for a botu a min, then I quickly shot at 4fps for about 17 frames .. and I still couldn't find a recycle time limit for the batteries.

My conclusion is that these batteries are beyond the ducks guts(whatever euphemism that may be) .. the geeses guts maybe

Only and main problem is they output 3.6v, and people are scared of this voltage rating .. and it's unknown if such a voltage rating is safe via the internal battery pocket. I know that they use lithium power via an external source tho.
An 'almost problem' with them too tho is that the batteries can heat up if used excessively. I have no idea what excessive use requirements most strobist have, but in my durability/recycling testing doing minutes of modelling light testing and wayyy too much boring exposure recycling testing they never got warmer than luke warm. But they did get warm, where the normal AAs stayed cold.
I used the term 'almost problem' only to alert the issue of possible overheating and if you shoot at 10fps for more than two minutes there could be an issue with heat. Havign held the modelling light down for about a minute(I got tired and copped out and the flash wanted to keep going!) .. I didn't think they heated up as much as they got warmer.

So far, so good tho. And my testing now is to see how much self discharge they exhibit .. and it turns out that after a bit of use to deplete them a little and having sat now for about a year, they did discharge to the point where the flash wouldn't turn on.

Because your main gripe was weight, these batteries do save an enormous amount of weight over normal AAs. And as they have about 3x the power ability, you may not need charges and suchlike.
Note that if you do look into them they are called AA when they're lithium, the battery model number is the 14500. And be careful about some makes as they can be a bit taller than the standard 50mm height that an AA is supposed to be.
I got stung with some AAAs that don't fit a lot of my devices as they were taller than std AAAs, so when I searched for these AA/14500's I made sure that the size was 50mm.

So far with both the AAs and AAAs I'm using in various devices I've never had any issue with heating up, nor over voltage issues. But note that some devices simply can't tolerate higher voltages than the specs state should be used.

Hope that helps.

Thanks mate - thats very interesting and worth an investigation. Cheers

[Plays With Light]

I haven't used that particular model of YongNuo flash, Mike, but swear by my pair of YongNuo flashes, mine are exact knock-off's of the Canon 580EX II. Very robust, good clean light and reliable as! Not mentioning the value factor.

[mikew09]

I haven't used that particular model of YongNuo flash, Mike, but swear by my pair of YongNuo flashes, mine are exact knock-off's of the Canon 580EX II. Very robust, good clean light and reliable as! Not mentioning the value factor.

Thanx for the feedback Alex. The feedback is great. Three things I really want out of this:

Reduce the number of batteries I have to carry along with weight, not to mention the need to charge a number of additional batteries - I do like the idea of the Godox battery on the flashes but there are drawbacks.
Reduce the number of batteries I need to keep charged - this has over time become a bit frustrating
Remove the need to use the remote trigger set. I do like the Yongnuo YN-622C-TX with the YN-622C receivers, they work well, are reliable and relatively robust as I have dropped them at lease once. But my real pet hate is when mounting on light modifiers they put the flash well off centre and on my light box, makes it difficult to get the flash head well inside the softbox, it is very offset. They do the job well enough but would be great to just need to pack and mount the flash units with wireless comms.

Yongnuo and Godox offer great value as opposed to the Canon 600 series flash. You can buy 3 YN600 flashes and the transmitter for less than the cost of a single canon flash.

Thanx,

Mike

[Brian500au]

Depending on what you are using the flashes for but have you thought about moving to a portable set of strobes like the Elinchrom Quadra - they take modifiers perfectly. I use a pair with canon speedlites - in fact I use one speedlite to fire the Quadra when I mix and match. They are considerable more expensive set up but today you can pick them up second hand for around $1000.

[mikew09]

Hey Brian, I have considered portable strobes for a future home studio and some on site shooting closer to retirement and already considered a set of mixed Profoto units with modifiers at that time but probably more than I want to spend right now.
Thanx for the suggestion. :-)