B&H recently lent me two of Canon's brand new 600EX-RT Speedlites to test out for one month. I was so excited to get my hands on these because they have radio transmission capability built in so the idea is that you no longer need pocketwizards. I had to see this for myself.
I tested these babies out at my wedding Saturday and wanted to share the results with you.
A little background: I've been using this set-up for years. I've gotten great results with it but at the price of a whole lot of fiddling, frustration and inconsistency. My off-camera flash with my pocketwizard set-up fires inconsistently. It is really hard to diagnose why. When it's not working, I fiddle with the cords and connections and sometimes it miraculously starts working without any rhyme or reason. Other times, it doesn't work all-together. It seems that the venue has a lot to do with it. Maybe some venues eat radio waves? I don't know. But it's frustrating and nearly impossible at times to diagnose the issue.
Last week I read part of the manual for the 600EX-RT and played with it a bit at home. I talked with my friend Jared Platt who has tested them out himself fairly extensively and he said he never once had a mis-fire in all his tests. So going into Saturday's wedding, I was hopeful. And the main result I was looking for from these new Speedlites was consistency. Firing EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Saturday's outdoor reception was the ultimate test for radio transmission because outdoors there are no walls or ceilings for the signal to bounce off of. I tested them during the toasts and a video montage, capturing the couple's reactions. I had the camera up to my eye for 20 minutes straight aimed at them to capture these emotions and neither flash failed once. I was so thankful to have the off-camera flash in the background. Without it, these photos would have been so flat with a black whole behind the subjects.
During the groom's welcome speech, the off-camera flash was three tables, a dance floor plus some away (I'm horrible at judging distances. What would that be -- 60-80 feet?) and you can see it going off even at that distance. Outside. With no bounce.
Cake cutting is rapid fire for me and I didn't have a single shot where they didn't fire:
I took the light stand out front to document the car decorating. It was pitch black and they fired every time:
I didn't do a ton of open dancing shots at this wedding, like I usually do, because there were so many other things to occupy me, but here's one example. The OCF fired every time. There were a handful of times that my on-camera flash didn't fire, but it's possible that was because I use an older Lumedyne Battery Pack on it and I was shooting so rapidly.
And for the sparkler exit, I switched my on-camera flash to a setting where it didn't fire but did transmit to the off-camera-flash and had my assistant hold the OCF just up and to the right of me. Great result, and again fired every time:
I came home from the wedding and bought them. I'm thrilled with the results.
The pros:
-VERY consistent. Stronger radio frequency than pocketwizards.
-A feature where you can scan 15 channels and the Speedlite will tell you which channel is the strongest at that particular venue.
-Comes with color filters (didn't get a chance to play with these, but seems like a cool feature).
Limitations:
-These are made to work optimally with Canon cameras released this year or later. I shot Saturday's wedding with my 5D Mark II and only had the option to shoot with both Speedlites on ETTL or both on Manual. I'm used to shooting with my on-camera flash on ETTL and my off-camera on Manual so this was different for me. But with the 5D Mark III (which I also placed an order for -- eek!) you can shoot with your 600EX-RTs on different modes. I still think, even with the 5D Mark II, these are far superior to my old pocketwizard set-up. So I wouldn't let this limitation hinder you from purchasing them.
I still have a lot to learn with these, but I'm excited about their capabilities! If you shoot off-camera-flash at receptions, buy them NOW. I know they're a little expensive, but remember -- you can sell your pocketwizards. They are a flash and pocketwizard in one so really, a great value.
We just finished Ben & Cecilia's album design! Yay! These two were married Saturday at their home in Paradise Valley and the day was absolutely lovely.
Ben & Cecilia ordered my newest luxury Queensberry Duo Album. It is 18x10 inches in size and horizontal in format. This album fuses traditional matted and flush-mount digital images. The white pages are beautifully textured white mat within which images are pagemounted but you also have the option to include images that span flush to the edges of the page. Click here to see images of my sample to get a visual of how gorgeous their album will be when it is finished.
Ben and Cecilia originally met years ago when they were both married. Their lives went separate ways and they lost touch. But as fate would have it, after a decade passed, their paths crossed again. This time, neither were married and Ben didn't hesitate to ask Cecilia out. They've been by each other's side ever since.
These two are a match for one another in so many ways. Both are exceedingly accomplished in business. Cecilia is originally from Portugal and knows seven languages. Ben has three children and eight grandchildren who all adore her and have welcomed her into their family with open arms. They both love traveling and staying fit and they joke about how they're "not too shabby for elderly folks." Haha! They adore one another and just glow when the other is around. I'm so happy that they've found one another and I was so blessed to be able to be a part of their wedding day.
These two were married on Saturday and Cecilia started off the day getting ready at the Montelucia. Her Liancarlo gown was a jaw-dropper:
Stunning:
See what I mean about how adorable they are together? This is a moment I LOVE from their first look:
More stunningness:
The couple took a vintage Rolls Royce to their nearby Paradise Valley home where the ceremony and reception was held.
I love this private moment I caught as the two relaxed before their ceremony:
A sweet moment with Cecilia and two of her new granddaughters:
The reception set-up was yet another gorgeous jaw-dropper. Could anyone ask for a more beautiful setting?
I think this the prettiest cake I've ever seen in real life:
I caught the granddaughters hanging out here during cocktail hour:
Before asking them to smile for the above photo, I caught this. Can't decide which one I love more.
Ben & Cecilia's family put together a very sweet video of each of them talking about the couple along with photos from their lives. They were so touched:
And the evening ended with a fun sparkler send-off!
Gave blood and even though the phlebotomist dug around in my left arm for awhile trying to find my veins that like to hide, I was determined. The only thing worse that getting stuck twice is making an appointment, driving all that way, going through the never-ending verbal questionnaire for the umpteenth time and having it all be for nothing. Thankfully my right arm cooperated.
Highlight of the week: Got to see the all-girls choir from my alma mater APU perform on their tour near my house. I was in this choir my freshman/sophomore year and then in the University Choir & Orchestra for my last two years. We recorded CDs each year, sang year-round at churches and toured after the end of each spring semester. On one of those tours, I drove a Penske truck through middle Kansas and nearly got run off the road by an oncoming semi. SO many great memories. Seeing the choir was amazing but also made me realize most of the girls were in diapers when I was in their shoes. Seriously can't believe it's been 15 years!
Yes, I did this:
1 -- Got up at 5am and had a fight with my smoke detector a la Phoebe on FRIENDS. Getting it to stop beeping wasn't so much the issue as figuring out where the beeping was coming from.
2 -- Stumbled through a dust storm that hit Dixie and I half-way through our walk. Dust storms are pleasant really, except for the part where dust lodges in your eyeballs.
Got a text from my sweet friend Camille that her plane was delayed on a layover in Phoenix and dropped everything to run over and pick her up for dinner. Love it when the unexpected turns into such a sweet, fun memory.
Shooting this sweet couple's wedding tomorrow and can't wait to try out these Canon 600EX-RTs that B&H lent me. No pocket wizards required! Radio transmission is built in! I have played with them a little and have a feeling I will end up keeping them. Review to come next week!
Feeling Blessed: I can't imagine facing the trials and sadness this world brings without the peace, joy and hope Christ offers. So blessed that I don't have to.
I stumbled upon a new feature in my Google Analytics recently -- real-time beta. Have you guys seen this!? It's amazing. If you have Google Analytics set up on your site, you should be able to use it and see who is on your site at that moment in time, where they are from, which page they are currently on, which website referred them and which key-word they typed into Google to find you. SO much useful real-time data!
I'm still playing with this and trying to figure out how it can be useful -- other than just being fascinating and a fun time-waster (it's so fun to see the number go up and the little dots appear) -- but one thing I've found helpful so far is how it can be used to gauge the response of social media campaigns. When I post an update on Twitter or Facebook, I'll click over to my Google Analytics Real-time to see what the response is. The above screen shot was taken after I posted simultaneously to Twitter and my business Facebook page. Even though I have nearly an equal number of followers for both, I always see a much faster and larger-scale response from Facebook.
Another time, B&H Photo (one of my workshop sponsors) tweeted about the Annapolis workshop in June. They have 67,000+ followers so I was pretty stoked at the time. I looked at the real-time analytics for my workshop site, and only 1 person clicked over from Twitter around the time the tweet went out. That just goes to show that quantity of followers doesn't always translate to a real response. There is SO much information assaulting us through social media these days, that sometimes, it can just end up being a lot of noise that people tune out.
If you have Google Analytics set up for your site and want to access real-time, click on the "home" tab and you should see it in the left-hand navigation.
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