canon Speedlite 600EX-RT switched to sleep mode mid shoot?

VfxByArt wrote:

Hey gang,

Ive used the Speedlite 600EX-RT, five at a time, since they came out. Initially with a 5d3, then an R, and just recently with a rented R3.

I use them to photograph musicians in bars.

I set them up high before the event, clamped into place, slaved to a canon speedlite transmitter st-e3-rt (version one) on the camera hotshoe.

I was able to shoot hours on end... even with the transmitter shut off then on, transmitter moved outside the range (outside the bars' brick structure) and was able to reestablish a link. Always had the flashes wake from from any standby mode, if any, in the past.

This stime, with the R3, set up the flashes, did some test firings, everything was set. Half hour later, performers came in and ... nothing... 1 out of the 5 flashes fired!!

I thought it was a battery thing... I went to the units, removed them from lock on the on button, touched the test flash.. boom back on... then was able to use them

A little while there same thing... non responsive.

Truned the transmitter off, then on, hit the test flash, cycled thru the radio settings... nothin'!

this was the graphic on the back of the flash..

Again, season user here, granted possible having a pre-senior moment. Flash and transmitter setting unchanged since their first set up years ago.

Again: track record was they always worked for HOURS until battery exhaustion, even with he transmitter/camera woken from sleep, out then in transmitter range.. flawless.

The only variable was using a rented R3 instead of my usual R. I made sure the flash setting were similar to my R, exposure simulation off in the viewfinder, etc... Maybe I missed something in the camera's flash setup. Considering canons new screen-less transmitter, it looks like canon is steering toward using get back of the camera for speedlight transmitter settings. That last thing I need is having to dive into a camera menu to adjust what used to be a button on top of the camera. Call it the fuji xt3 rubbing off on me..

Any clues?

Thanks for reading!

Link loss is a pretty common occurrence with my 600s. Sometimes I have a shoot without a single link loss, and then 2 days later the same exact flashes will drop the link several times over the course of a shoot. Cycling the power on the flash that dropped the link works for me. I thought I had a problem with my units so I arranged for a free trial through CPS and used their units on a shoot; same thing. I work with another photographer who has 2 600s and he is experiencing similar problems.

If I had no easy access to the flashes or if I had to rely on them to fire every single time, I would never use the Canon system.