My current flash lineup consists of one Canon 580ex II
, a Nissin Di866 MK II, and two Yongnuo YN565EX. Last night I was working on some product shots and my Nissin Di866 stopped firing, i’ve only been using it a year so it doesn’t give me a lot of faith in the quality of their products. On the other hand I’ve had the two Yongnuo YN565EX flashes for about the same amount of time and they’ve proven to be very reliable even with the lack of HSS and master control.
I was about to pick up another used Canon 580ex II to replace my Nissin, which ironically replaced an old 580ex II last year, when I thought about Yongnuo. It’s been awhile since I’ve taken a look at their flash offerings and I’ve been pretty happy with their YN-622c wireless TTL flash triggers as well as the YN565EX.
It looks like Yongnuo has really raised the bar. Just a few months ago they announced the Yongnuo YN-568EX II
. Not only does this flash head support HSS (high speed sync), but you can also use it as an optical master. On top of that, as a slave flash, it’s also able to accept commands from either Canon or Nikon flash units. Of course there’s also the price, you can find the Yongnuo YN-568EX II on Amazon for $186 and if you don’t mind waiting for shipping form china you can get them for as low as $168 on ebay.
Before I make the call to switch back to repurchase some Canon 580ex IIs, I think i’m going to give the Yongnuo YN-568EX II a shot and see how well it performs. If it’s a winner I might just replace my Yongnuo YN565EX‘s with 568EX II’s while i’m at it. That way no matter which flash I grab, i’ll have the option to use it as a optical master if needed. I have one on order right now so I’ll post some more info once it shows up. Should be interesting to see.
Tags: Canon 580EX II, Yongnuo YN 565EX, Yongnuo YN-622C, Yongnuo YN568EX II
September 5th, 2013 at 9:17 am
Thanks for this I need to buy my first flash, this one looks prefect.
September 5th, 2013 at 9:29 am
It actually looks like a great priced alternative to the 580ex II. Still a little disappointed in my Nissin, it was a great little flash right up to the point when it stopped working.
September 5th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
Since getting some YN-622c’s I’ve been debating between this flash and a used Canon 430exII. I’ve got a 580exII so I don’t need master. I have 2 YN-560IIs but upgrading to get TTL. Optical triggering can be a hassle. I’m all radio now.
This and all Yongnuos have a really cheap plastic hotshoe tightening ring. I’d pay $30 more a flash if they’d have copied Canon’s lovely latch, while they were copying everything else about Canon, why not this? Even when you hand tighten the thing as hard as you can, it can still move a little. Not good.
Another bummer? The 568exII has no external power pack port. That’s a PC port on the side. When you’re popping off a lot of flash those 4 AAs only last a couple hours max. Well the 430exII doesn’t have a power port either.
One last thing I really don’t get. If the 600exRT is the 580exIIs upgrade, why is the 600exRT $599 and the 580exII $699?!
So I dunno Dave, the Yongnuos are wonderful speedlites on a budget, but we rich blog captains can spring for the best ya? 🙂
September 6th, 2013 at 7:33 am
The shoes on mine are metal and all of them have a latching pin. When you snug down the wheel a metal pin drops into place and holds the flash secure, it’s pretty good actually. As for the power port, if you have good rechargeable batteries in you flash, you can get through a whole day of shooting or a wedding on 3 sets of 4 or 2 sets of 4 if you’re using good Sanyo eneloop extremes.
The 600exRT’s new price is lower because they’ve had a lot of problems with the first batch, similar to the problems the mark I 580ex’s had.
September 6th, 2013 at 4:49 pm
I`ve been a big fan of the Yongnuo flashes over the years. I still use my YN-460 but have been a big fan of the YN-560 mk3 since it came out, the build quality has been very impressive though the YN-622 TTL triggers don`t have the same feel to them they are still working without fault.
December 4th, 2014 at 6:55 pm
How do you find 568EX as compared to di866 which you replaced?