SEF580A is Duplicitous Junk

So I do have my hands on an SEF580A again.... and...... it's piece of useless bullcrap with the NX300. I didn't just have a bad one the first time around after all. The claims of NX compatibility are like swiss cheese. The manual says some vague things that aren't exactly this case but maybe are enough to cover their ass from a legal standpoint.  In short nothing works except TTL.  This crippling was done on purpose, the manual modes work fine if the flash is placed on a Canon camera.  This is why that now former marketing manager never answered my questions directly regarding this topic and just said something like that he was pleased with how his worked (aka, NX300 users should be happy with only TTL).

Metz 58, best flash for NX300 in my opinion.

On the other hand it does what it is supposed to on the NX1. ... but the first time around I didn't own an NX1.  This was just plain deceitful to call it compatible with NX cameras in general when not even manual mode works.  No first hand experience, but has anyone tried this on EX2F as well?  It was also supposedly compatible.

It had been reported before to work fine on  the NX500.  Thanks though.   My guess is that it does this for NX from the NX300 and earlier.  But I don't know.   I think it was released around the same time as the NX30 and I think Viking was using it fine with that.   5,10, 20 I really don't know on the one hand maybe they got the functionality because they were the high model, but maybe they didn't because Samsung would have had to integrate the new code with all these older cameras..... except not really (just for... exif data?), actually,  I'm curious what happens if I block the other pins.

Maybe it is my NX300 that is wonky, but it seems totally normal in every other way.

Slight update. ... my go to test for manual was to use the lowest power.... it seems like it is working at other power levels.  Just the lowest one instead fires at full power.  -_-    Well don't I feel a bit sheepish.

OK then what works on NX300

A-TTL and M (except lowest power, 1/256, instead shoots full power)

What doesn't work on NX300

Anything else, even the A zoom doesn't update when it is changed, it needs additional help to trigger that info update to the lens (e.g. by changing the flash position).

No A-TTL HSS or M HSS (expected), no master mode on the flash, etc... OK.   I guess of these the only one that really gives me pause is no strobe mode... since strobing is all manual I don't see why not, but this also doesn't fire using this flash on my 5DSR for whatever reason.

Anyway.... I guess I'm glad there actually is an acceptable regular manual mode, that was my biggest objection.... even if it does have this, bug? at lowest power.

NX flash is not working on NX camera! Do I misunderstand?

Faith Yeung wrote:

NX flash is not working on NX camera! Do I misunderstand?

Well, NX flash is not working as I would have hoped on a particular NX Camera and appears to have some bugs.   This is for NX300+SEF580A.   NX1+SEF580A works perfectly, as do NX30+SEF580A and NX500+SEF580A from the testimony of others.   Some differences are to be expected, for instance I wouldn't expect HSS modes to work on the NX300 because it doesn't support HSS.  But I never would have expected that using it in manual mode at lowest flash power would instead fire at full flash power.  Nor that it would need manual action to trigger an update of the auto flash zoom when adjusting the zoom of an NX lens.  I also would have expected the strobe mode to be available and functional.   And probably master mode as well, controlled only from the flash since the NX300 doesn't have much in the way of flash control built into its own menus.