The Yongnuo YN568EX II showed up this weekend while I was out of town filming and I shot this quick unboxing video to go along with my first impressions. Not sure why, but I also received two softbox flash adapters with my order from Amazon. The softbox adapters are a little big for my taste, but they were unexpected and free, so thanks Amazon.

Yongnuo yn 568ex II 03

In my hand the build quality of the Yongnuo YN568EX II feels decent, solid, and well built, though there is still a noticeable difference between the plastic used on the Canon 580EX II and YN568EX II. The rotating flash on the YN568EX II takes a little more force to turn, but doesn’t “click” as loudly as the 580ex. Buttons click nicely and generate a satisfying tactile feel.

Menu systems work very similar to the Canon 580ex II. A long press on the YN568EX II is required to get to the Master/Slave, HSS, chimes, and channel settings. Sub menu selections are made with the 4 way selector switch.

Yongnuo yn 568ex II 01

From left to right we have the YN568EX II, Canon 580EX II and YN565EX II. The buttons and layout on the YN568EX II are similar to the 580EX II however the on/off switch requires a long press instead of a simple click and the scroll wheel is replaced with a 4 direction selector. The buttons themselves are a noticeable upgrade when compared to the YN565EX II, and cosmetically the black on black looks nicer to my eye then the white on black used on the YN565EX II.

Yongnuo yn 568ex II 05

The YN568EX II (center) is slightly shorter and a few millimeters chubbier than the 580EX II and the battery compartment layout incorporates a slightly different design. Canon uses a slide lock latch on the 580EX II which provides an extra layer of protection, while the YN568EX II slides into place without the extra locking switch.

Yongnuo yn 568ex II 06

In this quick test, I set the Yongnuo YN568EX II up in HSS Master mode and set the Canon 580EX II to optical slave. The YN568EX II managed to trigger the 580ex II with the proper settings and without issue.

In previous Yongnuo models “Flash C.Fn settings” in camera were disabled. However with the YN568EX II I found the menu enabled and was able to fiddle around with a few extra flash control features. The Canon 6d body I was testing seemed to see the YN568EX II as a fully supported Canon flash. The limited number of shots I fired off with the Yongnuo YN568EX II were exposed correctly and the focus assist beam was nice and crisp.

A preset feature of the YN568EX II is a chime that plays each time the flash has recycled. While I can see why this feature would be handy, it was one of the first things I disabled. I do not enjoy my flash beeping at me when it’s ready for the next shot.

So far I feel like the Yongnuo YN568EX II is a pretty solid flash head for the price. I’ll spend some more time playing around with it before I post a full review.

Tags: , , ,