My brain hurts - Yongnuo flash choices!

davidndc wrote:

Hello,

I'm currently using a Canon 550EX and 420EX along with my 7DMKII. I either put the 550EX in the hotshoe, setting it to master and the 420EX to slave or put them both to slave and use the on-board flash to trigger.

The 550ex is listed as partially compatible and the 420ex isn't listed at all. If you have a friend with a 622c pair, I'd test those flashes before committing to the system.

What I'd like to do; Put a Yongnuo YN-622C-TX controller on the hotshoe and attach YN-622C's to my two existing Canon flashes. Based on all the reading I've done, this should work fine and give me ETTL support without the limited distance and results of my current way of doing it (using pop-up to trigger).

Yes, that is precisely what I do, TX on camera, 622c's on flashes, much more reliable than the optical triggers. I used the optical remote trigger setup with my 7D for a while, did a couple of shoots that way, but it would misfire too often. The 622 system works much better and I've shot several events on location (some pretty remote), studio setups, etc with them.

I'm also considering adding a YN685 to the mix to give me a three light setup.

I just did that, the 685 is a bit more powerful and I like the built in trigger, probably going to pick up a 2nd one and relegate my 565 to a backup/background light flash.

Now here is where I'm stuck - since the YN685 has onboard 622C support, I can just add it to the mix and not have to buy a third YN-622C, correct? The two existing Canon units (attached to TN-622C) should play along nicely with the YN-622-TX and the YN685 and I'll be able to take advantage of wireless ETTL triggering along with setting up groups/rations/FEC, right?

Yes, the YN685 acts just like any other flash that would be mounted to a 622c trigger, it just has the trigger built in. So yes, in your situation (assuming your Canon flashes work properly with the triggers) you would buy 2x622c triggers + 1x622c-tx + 1x685 and you'd have 3 flashes that remote triggered with control from the TX. You can use ETTL or M with this setup and control everything from the TX, including flash zooms (again, if your flashes are compatible).

I wanted a couple of 685s because I sometimes use a quite large soft box with a 3x flash mount and don't like the notion of stacking 622c triggers and flashes in a non vertical orientation. Most of my modifiers get used with the Cheetah stand bowens/flash mount, which clamps onto the flash head, works great, but my 50x50 softbox is an umbrella mount.