EOS Documentation Project

540EZ Operator's Manual

by Jim Strutz

Contents

• Introduction
• Control Buttons and Lights

  Power Switch  Mode Button  Select/Set Button  Sync Buttons  Zoom Button  Pilot Button/Light  Confirmation Light  Light Button  Other Controls 

• Power Options

  AA batteries  External Battery Packs 

• Power Ratings
• Summary
• Revision History
• Comments

Introduction

The 540EZ Speedlite was Canon’s top of the line shoe mount flash for use with all EOS cameras, and is capable of TTL and A-TTL flash metering with Canon EOS Cameras. The flash reverts to straight TTL with the flash tilted or swiveled to bounce positions. Some cameras enable A-TTL only in P or full auto modes.

The most complete information about Canon’s flash technology, metering and theory can be found at: http://teladesign.com/photo/eos-flash/

Control Buttons and Lights

Power Switch

POWER switch - “O” position is off. “1” position is on. “SE” position is also on but with a power save feature, so that the flash will automatically turn itself off if it has been inactive for more than 90 seconds.

Mode Button

MODE button selects between TTL (or A-TTL) flash mode, Manual flash mode and Multi Strobe flash mode. Most of the time TTL or A-TTL is used as this provides automatic flash exposures. You can use FEC to change the flash exposure up or down three stops while in TTL/A-TTL mode.

In TTL (or A-TTL) mode, when the camera’s shutter button is pressed half way down, the LCD on the flash will display the selected aperture. In addition, when the camera is set to M, Tv or Av modes, the camera will show a distance scale at the bottom of the flash with a bar above the scale indicating the auto flash range. In the 540EZ’s this scale can be changed to feet or meters by a micro switch in the battery compartment.

In M (manual) and MULTI modes the LCD displays the same distance scale but with just a dash showing the proper distance for the selected aperture, zoom setting and film speed. You can use this to easily find the proper aperture for a given distance by pressing the shutter half way and changing the aperture until the dash appears over the distance you want. You might have to set the power to a lower level to use closer distances.

In MULTI mode the exposure/distance calculation is for each pulse, and should be compensated for if the pulses will overlap on the subject.

Select/Set Button

SEL/SET button. In TTL or ATTL mode this button enables the Speedlite to select a Flash Exposure Compensation with the +/- buttons. If you would like more or less flash than normal, you can use this to achieve your desired results. Press the SEL/SET button again to “set” the selection and stop the blinking of the FEC symbol in the LCD. The FEC symbol stays on anytime FEC is set to anything other than “0”.

In M (manual) flash mode the SEL/SET button allows you to set the power level of the flash in conjunction with the +/- buttons. Press SEL/SET and the power level setting on the LCD will blink. Use the +/- buttons to select the desired power level (1/1 is full power and 1/128 is the minimum). Press the SEL/SET button again to “set” the power level and stop the blinking.

In MULTI mode the SEL/SET button alternates between setting the frequency of the flashes, the total number of flashes, and the power level of each of the flashes. Press in once and you can set the Hz (frequency), with the +/- buttons, between 1 and 100 cycles per second. Pressing the SEL/SET button twice will allow you to set, with the +/- buttons, the total number of flashes to be fired between 1 and 40. If you do not enter a number the flash will continue until the flash capacitor is discharged. The total number of flash pulses that can be fired this way depends on the flash power level setting, the frequency and the power source of the flash.

Sync Buttons

SYNC buttons (pressing both the + and – buttons together) turns on second curtain sync. This only effects flash exposures with relatively long shutter speeds. Its primary purpose is to get light trails to follow the flash instead of leading it. In normal sync mode the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure. If the exposure is long and the subject moves, some of that movement might be recorded on film, and it will look like it’s in front of the flash exposure. Scenes like moving cars with headlights on will appear to be moving backwards. Setting the sync to the second curtain makes the trailing movement appear behind the subject. Second curtain sync can usually be left on without any negative results. There will be a multi headed arrow symbol that shows on the right side of the LCD when second curtain sync is on.

Zoom Button

ZOOM button cycles the flashes zoom head from Auto to 24, 28, 35, 50, 70, 80, 105 and then back to auto. The LCD will show you what flash zoom setting is being selected and if it is not on auto zoom there will be an “M” to the left of the zoom setting. You usually leave this to the auto setting unless you have reason to change it. If you use the manual zoom settings the only thing to keep in mind is to keep the flash head zoomed to the same focal length, or less, as your lens. This way the flash will cover the whole area that the lens is seeing. Lenses longer than 105mm are not a problem. Maximum flash distance increases with a longer zoom setting since the light beam is more concentrated. The flashes manual distance calculator includes this info in its calculations. If you need to cover a lens wider than 24mm, you can pull down the built-in flash diffuser that is stored above the flash head. It is rated for lenses as wide as 18mm, but it actually has a lot of light fall off near the edges so I wouldn’t use it for lenses wider than 20mm. For better wide angle coverage you can attach a bounce reflector to the flash head. Maximum flash distance will be reduced by about half, but that’s usually not a problem.

Pilot Button/Light

PILOT button/light will glow red when the flash capacitor is nearly fully charged. A true full charge will actually take a few seconds more. The Ready Light will glow green for the “quick flash” mode. This will allow you to take a TTL or A-TTL flash picture before the flash has fully recycled. Be careful that you don’t exceed its more limited range when doing this though. Pressing the ready light will discharge the flash, normally at full power or whatever power level you have manually selected if it is in manual mode.

The flash also has a Quick Flash mode where the pilot light shows green when it is partially charged. You can take a picture then if you are in TTL or A-TTL mode, but it’s maximum distance is reduced to about half. This can be handy for rapid firing, but can also cause underexposed pictures if you aren’t careful.

Confirmation Light

CONFIRMATION light (the one that’s not labeled, just to the right of the PILOT light) will glow green for about two seconds if the camera’s built-in flash meter determines that there has been enough flash to give a proper exposure. This can be useful if your subject is at a great distance of if you are bouncing the flash off a tall or dark ceiling.

Light Button

LIGHT button (just to the left of the MODE button) turns on the back light for the LCD. It goes off by itself after a few seconds.

Other Controls

On the back, just above the LCD is the swivel release. Push it before swiveling the flash head from straight forward. On the right side at the center of the tilt joint there is the tilt release button to be pressed before raising the flash head. This combination of swivel and tilt allows the flash to be bounced off the ceiling or wall regardless of whether the camera is held in a horizontal or vertical position. The head can also be pointed down 7 degrees for close objects.

There is a pull out flash diffuser just above the front lens of the flash. It is rated to cover the viewing area of an 18mm lens. This is somewhat over rated but it is a nice feature. When you pull it out the flash will automatically zoom to its widest position. Its guide number is reduced to 52 feet with ISO 100 film.

When you are using the flash to bounce off the ceiling the flash diffuser can be pulled almost all the way out but not pulled down over the flash lens. This way, with your flash pointed straight up, the diffuser acts as a small bounce card to reflect some of the light directly into your subjects eyes for both shadow reduction and catch lights.

On the front of the Speedlite there is a near infrared auto focus assist light. It is good up for to nearly 50 feet coupled with the EOS 1n’s center AF point and a 50mm f/1.4 lens. It enables the side AF points as far as 20 feet. On most EOS cameras this AF assist light will be used instead of the one on your camera, but on the EOS 5/A2e/A2 and EOS 10/10s models the camera will continue to use its own AF assist light.

The 540EZ also has a flash foot locking pin that mates with a hole in most Canon flash shoes. This keeps the flash from slipping back and loosing connection with some of its contacts. By partially screwing down the locking ring you can lower this pin before attaching it to the camera and still slide the flash on quickly and securely.

Power Options

AA batteries

This flash uses 4 AA Alkaline, NiMH or NiCad batteries.

NiCads offer the fastest recycling. 4-6 seconds until nearly exhausted, which usually happens between 80 and 140 cycles, depending on the MiHr rating of the battery.

Alkalines last the longer if you are patient enough for the slow recycles. They Start out at 8 seconds but after 20 pops it’s down to 11 seconds. After 70 it takes over 15 seconds and speed continues to decline until at 200 cycles it takes 45-60 seconds, depending on how warm the batteries are. They will continue beyond this, but what’s the point?

NiMHs offer recycles nearly as fast as the NiCads. I recorded 4.5 to 5.5 seconds for the first 120 full power cycles with 1300 MiHr AA’s. At 150 cycles it was still just 8 seconds and they continued to the 170 mark where it took a full 40 seconds to charge. These have power characteristics that are very similar to NiCads but last longer.

Lithium AAs can be used for the 540EZ as well. They last longer than other AAs and cycle the flash somewhat faster than Alkalines (7 seconds for fresh ones).

All of my recycle tests were done with full power pops in manual mode, timing to when the red indicator light first came on. A full power recycle actually takes about 50 percent more time and provides about ½ stop more light according to my flash meter.

External Battery Packs

Quantum offers 540EZ adapters for the Battery 1, 1+, 1 Compact and Bantam external batteries. The same adapter is used for the 550EX. These are 6 volt external batteries that have a dummy AA battery pack on the end of the adapter cord that slips into the flash’s battery compartment. Recycle times are similar to fresh NiCads but last longer.

High voltage battery packs like the Quantum Turbo also work with the 540EZ via the high power port on the left side, just above the foot. These will do full power recycles of the 540EZ in about 1.5 seconds.

Canon offers external battery packs for the 540EZ as well, but few people use them because third party manufacturers offer reliable solutions with more power and features for the money.

Be careful not to do too many flashes too quickly, as this will overheat the flash unit and it may self-destruct.

Power Ratings

My tests with my reasonably accurate flash meter show my 540EZ to have an actual 100 ISO guide number of 95 feet at the 28mm zoom setting which is about the same as the 97 feet that Canon reports. But at the 105mm zoom setting Canon reports 180 feet and I only found 140. However the 540EZ is more accurately advertised than most of the other flash units I have tested. They all seem to be over rated. I suppose they test them in optimal conditions, like long, narrow, gloss white hallways. I test in a medium sized room with furniture and pictures on the walls.

Summary

The 540EZ is a good shoe mount flash unit with many features and plenty of power. The only things it seems to lack is the ability to do E-TTL metering with Canon’s newer designed cameras. The 550EX is the logical upgrade where you would get not only E-TTL metering, but high speed sync (FP Flash), Flash Exposure Lock (FEC) and wireless E-TTL mode. But the 540EZ offers quite a lot of flash for about $100 less.

Specifications can be found at Dave Herzstein’s Canon EOS Speedlites Comparison Table: http://www.kjsl.com/~dave/speedlites.html

Revision History

v2.0c2002Sep28 jul: minor reformat
v2.0 2002Feb02 J.Strutz

Comments

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