23Aug Yongnuo YN 565EX – First Impressions
I don’t do a lot of flash photography so i’ve been considering selling off a few of my Canon 580EX II speedlites and replacing them with some cheaper off brand models before the new Canon 600EX-RT drives used 580EX II prices into the ground.
But before I sell off two out of the three 580EX II’s in my collection, I though I would get my hands on both the Yongnuo 565ex, and the Nissin DI866 Mark II to see how well they stack up. Both the 565ex and Di866 are popular off brand equivalents to Canon’s 580EX II and both support E-TTL. More on the Di866 once it shows up.
Setting the Yongnuo 565ex next to the Canon 580EX II, it’s easy to tell what flash the 565ex was modeled after. Even with the white buttons on the Yongnuo, at a quick glance it’s hard to tell them units apart. Holding the two units in my hands, the 580EX feels slightly heavier, the rubber flaps on the 580ex also feel like they might be made of a higher quality material then the flaps and seals on the 565ex, however the plastic body of the 565ex feels just about as solid as the Canon 580ex II.
Both units have a metal attachment shoe that should last longer then some plastic options. On the left you can see that the Yongnuo 565ex uses a threaded twist tight adapter with no weather sealing, while the Canon 580EX II has a rubberized seal around the mount with a quick slide to lock adapter.
The Canon 580EX II has the ability to act as a Wireless TTL optical IR master, while the Yongnuo 565ex can only be used as an optical slave. Which means I’ll still be holding on to at least one of my 580ex speedlites.
In the little bit of time I’ve had to play around with the Yongnuo 565ex, the controls and menu seem very similar to Canon’s setup, so if you’re used to using the 580ex’s hold and long press menu system there shouldn’t be a huge learning curve with the 565ex. Even though the Yongnuo is missing the slide lock shoe, locking battery door, and flash head swivel lock, it still feels surprisingly well built for $135. I’ll have to see how well it performs on and off camera. It’s in the review list, now I just need to find time to do some testing.
August 24th, 2012 at 8:25 am
Amazon buyers give good reviews but say it has reliability issues.
August 24th, 2012 at 9:20 am
From the research I’ve done, the 565 units sold before May of 2012 had capacitor issues in the Canon models. The problem was addressed and models after May of 2012 are supposed to be much more reliable. Yongnuo didn’t change the label on the units so the only way to tell which version you have is to check the inspection stamp under the flash head by rotating it 90 degrees. The unit I will be testing is stamped with June 2012 so it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll be sure to make a note of that in the full review.
August 24th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Thanks for your blog. You always seems to be looking at the items I am interested in owning!
August 24th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
[…] was loading my old Energizer 2000mAh batteries into the Yongnuo YN 565EX speedlite to start doing a little bit of testing and found that they no longer hold a charge. So I started […]
August 26th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Thanks for your impression. I want to get into flash works myself but the price has scared me some. With my local classifieds, sometimes a 580 EX II can show up for around $300.I owns a T2i so would I be able to use the flash as a remote shutter without anything else? I know I can’t fire the flash from my camera, but that’s fine by me. Also, if I could fire my camera from my flash, could I use the pop up flash at the same time?
August 26th, 2012 at 11:52 am
Although the t2i does have the flash “master” feature that the 60d and 7d have, you can still set your flash to manual and have it triggered from the flash on your t2i. You just wont get any ttl information sent to the flash so you’ll have to set the output manually. Also you Can fire the flash when it’s mounted to the camera with out any problem.
Hope that helps.
April 23rd, 2013 at 10:47 am
any review of the yongnuo, how does it hold up compared to the canon speedlite ?
thanks
April 23rd, 2013 at 1:00 pm
I’ll see if I can get a review out for them in the next few weeks, completely forgot about doing a follow up post. Just a heads up they don’t support HSS, and don’t work as an optical master. For most things 1/250th is more than enough and I use them with a ettl transmitters or my 580ex II as master so It’s not really a problem. Otherwise the menu and operation is pretty much identical to my canon 580ex ii. They perform pretty well for the price.
April 24th, 2013 at 3:26 am
thanks. i borrowed the 580 ex ii over the weekend for a job and the results were really good. never got that milky washed out flash look which is common. i ordered the yongnuo yesterday, will see how it compares to the cannon in a few weeks. glad to hear you are happy with it, and that they perform well for the price.