Saturday, June 7, 2014

Working with Yongnuo YN-622N's in TTL

I usually work with my Yongnuo YN-622N-TX and 622N's in remote manual mode.  I love that I don't have to walk over to every flash individually just to change power settings.  I only use TTL when I am in fast moving situations where setting need to change dynamically and I don't have time to dial in the correct settings on top of the TX.

I usually don't run into problems when using TTL, but I have had several readers/viewers who have run into challenges, and they have reported that the order in which you turn things on matters.  Richard F and Larry C (thanks Richard and Larry) reported that you want to make sure that the flashes and 622Ns are turned on prior to the TX, and theorizing that on startup, the TX handshakes with each, so if its not the last one, there are speed lights not taken into the calculations.

I am going to be doing some experimentation in this regarding over the coming weeks/months, but in the meantime, this is the order I do things that seems to work (starting off with everything in the 'off' position:

1) I have put all flashes on the 622N hotshoes.
2) I turn on the flashes and confirm they are set to TTL
3) I turn on the 622Ns
4) I then turn on the 622-TX mounted on top of my camera
5) I then turn on the camera

I do tend to turn my TX off and on periodically to conserve power and to take shots without flash.  I am also one of those people that turns my camera off between shots to save power.  So often I will turn the camera off/on without turning the TX off/on.

As mentioned, I will test a few scenarios over the coming months so you can see results.  In the meantime, if you rely on TTL with the 622Ns, you may want to be careful about the order in which you turn things on and off, take note of what works for you, and go with what you find works best.

If you do find an order that works best for you, or if you have additional findings to contribute, please leave a note in the comments section.  Thank you.

Happy Shooting!

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi David- really like your blog and videos. Having a problem with my 622Ns. System is D-7000 set to FP 250 and/0r 320 and SB-600 flash set to iTTL. When the flash is directly on the camera's hotshoe- no problems. When I put the flash onto the 622N and use it either in pass-through or remote. the flash triggers when I push the shutter release 1/2 way down. i.e. before the picture is actually taken. Have switched units, put it into manual, etc., but problem persists. I did order a 622-TX as well but this won't be here until later this week.
The chinglish manual is understandable and I even brought the books over to the Nail salon that my wife goes to (turns out the owner is also a photo enthusiast as well as a native Chinese speaker!) and he said that it looks like everything is set up OK.
Any thoughts?? If not, going to return it and may have to bite the bullet and get an Odin or something else.
Thanks- Jeff G

David Carrico said...

@ Jeff G

Sorry to hear you are having issues. Nothing off the top of my head. I actually have an SB600 so put it on top of the 622N and put all that on my D300 to test it out and it worked perfectly. Do you have anything else customized in your menu settings that could be throwing things off? I'm not sure what to look for here, but a flash setting like the modeling light (I have mine to set off the modeling light when I press the depth-of-field preview), or maybe an AF assist setting or something?

The other thing you can try is a factory reset (holding down CH and Mode buttons at the same time until it cycles). Good luck and let me know how it turns out! - David C

Unknown said...

David- thanks for the suggestions. Did the reset, made sure the modeling light is off, put the camera into FS mode but still no success. Even called up the camera store where I got the D7000 and SB600 and that recommended the Yongnuo to me. They said it is a new problem for them but it didn't surprise them given the variability of quality control.
Next step is to send everything back for refund.

David Carrico said...

@Jeff G

Sorry to hear you didn't have better luck with it. If you end up getting the Odin instead, post your impressions back here! Happy Shooting!!

LRKR said...

Hi Dave - I just found your blog. I hope you can help me!

I have a D7000 and two SB-600's. I have two YN-622N's and a YN-622N-TX. I prefer to work in manual.

When I attempt to adjust the power of my SB-600's by making adjustment using the TX it does not work.

My settings on the TX are Manual, Channel 1, Group A.
My 622n' settings are Manual, Channel 1, Group A. Can you tell me what settings you use or suggest.

Thanks-Larry

LRKR said...

David- It's Larry again. I just tried putting the SB-600 in TTL, it didn't help. Hope you can help me!

Thanks - Larry

LRKR said...
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LRKR said...


Hi David - I'm back for the third time! After more testing I found that I am able to adjust the flash power using the TX as long as I'm not in Manual Mode - my normal shooting mode! As long I'm in A,S or P everything works fine. Do you have a fix for this or Is this normal? I have a large job coming up in a week and I would prefer shooting it in Manual - any suggestions?

David Carrico said...

@LRKR
Sorry to hear about your issues. Lets review your exact setup one more time. From reading your posts, you have the following setup:
1) D7000 camera set to Manual exposure mode. What is your shutter speed, your aperture setting and what is your camera's sync speed set at in your flash settings?
2) You have the TX on top of the D7000, you have the channel set at 1, and you have group A set to Manual. Do you have groups B and C turned off?
3) You currently have two YN-622Ns and on top of each you have an SB600. Currently you have the SB600's set to TTL and the YN-622Ns set to channel 1 and group A.

Is that correct? If so, lets try a few things:
1) First, take one of the 622N's that your SB600's are on and set it to Group B, so now you have one SB600 set to group A and one set to group B.
2) Now, go to the TX, and enable Group B in and set it to manual. Also set it to 1/1 power.
3) Now on the TX, set group A to 1/16 power.
4) Verify your camera shutter sync speed is set to something under 1/250 of a sec (we want to make sure it is not in FP mode).
5) Set your camera shutter to 1/100 sec and your Aperture to F8.
6) Take a test shot. It may not expose correctly, but you should see something.
7) Next, dial down your Group B setting on your TX to 1/8.
8) Take another test shot.

Two questions now: What did you see? And did you see a difference in the exposures in the two test shots?

LRKR said...
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LRKR said...

Hi Dave, Thanks for your post.

I have tried everything including those recommendations in your post of today.

The good news is late last night I thought I'd try one more time. So I followed your steps 1 - 5 - still didn't work manual mode.

Then I remembered you mentioning the handshake. So I turned everything off. Again followed steps 1-5 (had the TX in manual) but added one more step. I hit the test button on the TX to firm up the handshake - it worked!!!
I can now control the power of both the SB-600's
in manual mode.

Thanks for your help.

Larry


David Carrico said...

Larry,

I think you give me more credit than I deserve on that one :-). But glad you found a way to get it to start working for you!! I'll have to remember your solution if anyone else inquires with a similar issue. Thanks for letting me know what worked! Happy Shooting!

D.Gallo said...

Incredible! I have a D800 and D7100 with some SB800 and 910. Sometimes I've had problems to work with and other times all worked flawless but I had no idea why. Have tested your order and its worked perfectly! Thanks man.

Unknown said...
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