Jump to content

EF-X500 - Unfinished Symphony?

MJarry

By MJarry
in Flash Photography with Fuji X

 Share

Recommended Posts

MJarry Apprentice

MJarry

Posted
Posted

I bought the EF-X500 flash and I like its ergonomics, robustness, power and feature set.

 

Like many, I would have preferred R/F wireless TTL but it simply was not designed that way and we'll just have to live with IR, unless someday, Pocket Wizard...

 

There are two items that IMHO are missing in order for Fuji to have a complete Off-Camera Flash offering:

 

1- A genuine Fuji TTL extension cord for being able to use a single flash with a near camera umbrella or soft box or with flash brackets such as this RRS WPF-QR2:

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

2- A TTL wireless flash controller similar to the Nikon SU-800, hopefully smaller, lighter and cheaper, which would not require us to get an extra EF-X500 just for acting as a controller.

 

I know that the Canon Extension Cord will work but still...

 

Anyone agrees ?

 

Season's Greetings,

 

Michel

Link to post
Share on other sites
pez Contributor

pez

Posted
Posted

Hi I agree about the IR RF issue. RF is just so much better than IR, the Nikon well tried and tested SB flash units one failure was using IR. This resulted in a failure to fire on many occasions and importantly put constraints on the positioning of the flash heads. With all this collective knowledge about the limitations of IR why o why did Fuji go ahead with IR!!!!!. In my view this makes the EFX500 a some what dated technology unit and why did we have to Waite so long for it? Then there is the price - question   can it be that much better than many other offering out there.  Don't get me wrong I am a great supporter of Fuji and invested in top glass but this time its just dated equipment at a premium price.

Link to post
Share on other sites
MJarry Apprentice

MJarry

Posted
  • Author
Posted

"A TTL wireless flash controller similar to the Nikon SU-800"

 

Yes, for me that would be a nice item to have. In the meantime I've found cables that work just fine if I need TTL and HSS. Alternatively, wireless triggers for manual flash triggering are fine too. 

 

I know that the Canon cable works; have you found another brand ?

 

Michel

Link to post
Share on other sites
scott400 Rookie

scott400

Posted
Posted

I know that the Canon cable works; have you found another brand ?

 

Michel

 

Vello Brand has been reported to work.  Haven't tried it personally but will be ordering one.  They are available in a few different lengths from B&H.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/749773-REG/Vello_OCS_C6_TTL_Off_Camera_Flash_Cord.html?_escaped_fragment_=

Link to post
Share on other sites
Jlrimages Rookie

Jlrimages

Posted
Posted

I know that the Canon cable works; have you found another brand ?

 

Michel

Any Canon compatible TTL cable will work. The position of the pins on the Fuji and Canon hot shoes match, thus enabling you to use any Canon compatible cable. I bought the cheapest Canon compatible ttl cable from B&H, and it worked fine with the Nissin i40 speedlight.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Pduce Newbie

Pduce

Posted
Posted

I have also just invested in the EF-X500 .... seems to work on the Xt-2 on the hotshot ... however the Canon cable that works with my i40 does not seem to work with the new Fuji. Have checked the obvious - round right way, manual shutter etc. If I connect it all up and use the i40 - it works ... replace the i40 with the EF-X500 and nothing happens. I presume I am doing something stupid ... but anyone else actually have the Fuji flash working with Canon cable on XT-2 or XPro2 please?

Link to post
Share on other sites
mac1054 Rookie

mac1054

Posted
Posted

Vello Brand has been reported to work.  Haven't tried it personally but will be ordering one.  They are available in a few different lengths from B&H.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/749773-REG/Vello_OCS_C6_TTL_Off_Camera_Flash_Cord.html?_escaped_fragment_=

 

I also have a Vello Canon cable that works and Godox also makes a Canon cable that works fine too.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I use Nissin Air 1 with Nissin i60A and don't care about cables any longer.

EF-X500 would be a great flash 10 years ago. But not today, unless it costed half of the current price. I was fighting problems in IR communication with Nikon flashes many years and I don't want to bother about it once again, this time with Fuji. No way!

But if Fuji develops one day the RF controller and RF flash, both will be mine :-)

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
N3w_Typ3 Newbie

N3w_Typ3

Posted
Posted

Hi Guys,

 

Sorry for jumping in and let me apologise in advance for the poor command of the language.

 

I know it is sad that EF-X500 does not carry R/F signal. Honestly that is a draw back, I myself gotten 1 EX-F500 since I tested between i60 and the latter, the 500 performance is crazy compared to the i60.

 

The question here is, there are currently 2 wireless triggers that support HSS/TTL for Fuji Camera series, namely by Serene Automation and Catus V6II. I wonder if anyone has used it and kindly can share with us/me which is better.

 

I do know that Serene Automation has ability to link via bluetooth and made adjustment via an app from iOS and Android devices. They are both pretty expensive that why, I am asking around because maybe it is better to get another 500 as commander.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • thelostkiwi
      Looking for Full Frame lenses to adapt to GFX

      By thelostkiwi · Posted

      I also use a Nikon to GFX Fringer and it works very well.  24mm f/1.8 vignettes so best used on 35mm mode.  50mm f/1.8 covers the entire frame very well with no issues and is a superb little lens. 105mm Sigma vignettes slightly but is perfectly usable. 300 f/4 likewise the 105.  I have a 70-200 f/20+.8 incoming to test so will report back but I'm expecting a little vignetting.  Even in 35mm mode the image is still 60MP and if you're prepared to manually crop and correct you can get 80-90 MP images.  I also have a C/Y to GFX adapter.  The 24mm Sigma Superwide vignettes strongly. Ditto 28-80 Zeiss Sonnar. 80-200 f/4 Sonnar is perfectly usable. All work fine as 35mm mode lenses.  I also have an M42 adapter which I tried with the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f/3.5 with good results. 
    • Trevor R
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By Trevor R · Posted

      Thank you. I will research it.
    • jerryy
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By jerryy · Posted

      Ahh, the infamous brick wall photos… 😀 According to internet lore, if the dng converter does not properly apply the corrections, you can have it apply custom profiles that should work for you. How to do that is waaaaaay outside of this comment’s scope, but there are plenty of sites listed in the search engines that step you through the processes. Best wishes.
    • Trevor R
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By Trevor R · Posted

      Jerry Thank you very much. That is extremely helpful. It seems that the camera and the lens have the latest firmware update, so it appears that the corrections should be applied automatically. The lens arrived this afternoon and I took some quick test shots, in which the correct lens information appeared in the EXIF files, so that sounds good. I used Adobe DNG converter to convert the Raw (RAF) files, and then opened the DNG files and saved them in PSD format. However, with a beautiful, clear, cloudless blue sky, there were no lines near the edges to check if distortion had been corrected. Another day I plan to photograph a brick wall. Thank you for your help.
    • jerryy
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By jerryy · Posted

      Typically you need to make sure the lens is compatible with the camera, i.e. check the lens compatibility charts for your camera, then make sure the respective firmwares are updated so older issues are resolved. After that, each lens has a manufacturer’s profile which will be embedded into the raw file meta data for the images captured using that lens. From there, it is up to the raw conversion software to apply the lens correction to the image. Different converters do that differently, some automatically, some only if a setting is turned on. For in-camera jpegs, the on-board converter does the corrections automatically, assuming the camera recognizes the lens, it applies a generic profile otherwise. I do not know if that can be turned off or not.
×
×
  • Create New...