Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT

Great workhorse but has room for improvement – I am using 4 of these for my jobs as a photographer. One on each camera body (carrying 2) and two off-camera in slave mode. The great advantage of these compared to the 580EX II and all the other older ones is its RT (Radio Trigger). This allows you to remotely control the other units from the masters. As described I am using 4, but when I trigger either camera, 3 flashes are going to light up (the on camera one and the two off-camera ones).

The recycling time is pretty good, could be better though. However I must say that they are good, it's just up to the photographer and their required settings.

I would give it 5 stars if there weren't the following problems:

- No battery capacity indicator. This is a simple feature, not sure why this high-end flash is missing this (none of the canon's have it, no idea why).

- If you use a multi flash setup, you need to ensure that each unit within the same channel has enough/sufficient battery capacity. If any unit is running low on battery, it will slow down it's recycling time and along with that, will stop other units from firing! It took me several gigs to figure this one out. According to this, I understand that the units do communicate very well with each other to ensure that everyone is ready before firing, however it would be better to have the option to ignore flash heads on low battery and to keep firing. Another improvement would be to show the battery level's on the master of all units.

- It can overheat and can stop firing. You can however turn it off and turn it back on to overwrite it. For me, it is handy as getting the shot is quite important.

The multi-flash setup problem I described above could be worked around using optional triggers, which could ignore low battery capacity members of that channel, but I tend to think that the more units you introduce, you tend to make things more complicated and it is more difficult to identify the issue.

My workaround is to just place fully charged batteries in after several shots to ensure I don't walk into this problem.

Would I recommend this flash unit? Yes, they are still my workhorse and it's only the above limitations but I am so far working around it. Not too confident to go to a third party brand as of yet.

Great wireless flash – The second flash I purchased. I'm using it as my walkaround flash as part of my larger kit - as the master when attached via ettl-ii cable or on flash with a 480exii as the slave. It is a good deal bigger, brighter and easier to adjust that the older series of canon flashes - the on screen menu is grear. Setting it up wirelesly also makes it a lot easier to get light to places that are not in line of sight of the camera or a master flash. I have the canon wireless radio unit and it works brilliantly. It is a good second flash, although if you already have 430 or similar and are looking for a master, the 580exii is currently a lot cheaper and gives all but the wireless - the 600 cannot control the 480 if the 600 is set up to operate wirelessly. Screen is easy to use, wireless works great and is easy to use, well built, very flexible Cannot act as a master to adjust earlier models of flashlights (e.g. 580ex ii),