Yongnuo Flash Reliability?

[Deanimator]

Someone recommended that I get a couple of Yongnuo YN560 IVs for desktop macro.

From what I've read, there have been a lot of issues with them, primarily with them being irretrievably locked in full power mode. The "fix" involves opening them up, desoldering a component, and replacing it with a better item.

I might be willing to go that route if somebody gave me a busted one for free, but I'm not going to buy something (for full price, no matter how cheap) knowing it's likely to fail in a short (sometimes in a single use) time.

Does anyone know if those issues have been resolved?

[ChrisR]

Pass on reliability, but I've had two out of two not working in some modes. They told me my camera was listed, but too new. If I'd like to post it back to China at my cost, they'd fix it.
The first one went back for refund, the second one's fault didn't come to light for a long time.
It was a later model of flash (..610?), but the problem was the model of camera.(80D)

[Lou Jost]

I have six. They do slowly fail; after two years, two of mine have partially failed. I find this failure rate to be acceptable given the cost of buying a set of four expensive flashes. I use multiple flashes so I can have all of them turned down to their shortest flash duration, to freeze motion blur, and also to average out random irregularities in flash output strength. Can't beat them for the price. Love their optical slave trigger and the ability to control the power settings of all of them from the Yongnuo radio controller.

[Deanimator]

It seems that perhaps the YN-660 is a stealth replacement for the 560 series without admitting there were problems with them.

So far, I haven't found any reports of "stuck on full power" with the 660.

[mjkzz]

I have 6 YN560s, the first generation, now only two of them are working after about 5 years with heavy useage (at least 50,000 shots each). I have two YN560II, second gen, one failed and one is stuck at full power (after 3 years).

Later I got 6 YN560 clones (yeah, there is a clone), very basic speedlights, cheap but perfect for my needs.

I found that the output, both from YN560 and its clone, is not consistent, sometime can be off by a full stop. This can be improved by extending time between shots so the caps are fully charged, but I still get inconsistent outputs, maybe off by 1/2 stop.

[Lou Jost]

The variation of output is independent between flashes, so if you use several at once the output is fairly consistent (and shorter-duration).

[nathanm]

Exposure inconsistency occurs with every speedlight style flash I have tried, whether name brand (Canon) or the Chinese flashes like Yongnuo which might be a clone, or might be made by the same factory that makes the more expensive name brand flashes.

The same thing happens for the Canon MT-24 twin flash unit.

It is usually not too bad in practice but it can cause stacking artifacts.

Using multiple flashes averages down the variation but for most things I have shot it would be hard to do that physically because of size constraints, and because I want some directionality - i.e. surrounding a subject with N flashes makes the lighting pretty flat. One could use filters or diffusion to block some of them, but it gets awkward.

I am trying the Quantum Qflash at the moment - it has a detachable flash tube which is pretty small. I need to do more tests to see if it has the is better in terms of exposure inconsistency.

[Lou Jost]

The Yonguo flash tubes can be easily extracted and are much more compact than the head. I use these "naked" flash tubes, still connected by wire to the Yongnuo body, when I want to get them close to the subject:

http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewt ... 8f5f51cc15

[nathanm]

I have taken apart older Canon flashes to take the tube out the same way.
The tube is really small, as you say.

But the exposure variation has been a problem.