Flash Misfire, Intermittent Black Picture

The intermittent black frame is caused by a lack of power to the flash and there are a number of solutions.

1) Never use a power greater than 1/4. You’ll need to confirm the flash is NOT in ETTL mode, which uses far more battery capacity than manual mode. You’ll want to change the flash power according to the table on in the manual. Never use the power at 1/1 – 1/4. Only use it at 1/4 – 1/128. If you find your images are too dark, simply increase the ISO a little. Flash A and B should not be at different powers, is there a particular reason why you are doing this?

2) Batteries: This is most likely a result of the rechargeable batteries beginning to lose initial capacity. Although rechargeable, over time they lose the ability to hold a charge for longer. I add labels to all my AA rechargeable with the date I started using them. This helps me keep track of batteries that are older and; therefore, need replacing. You would need to slow down image capture time if you think the batteries are not the problem.

3) Another solution is to slow the rate of capture with the controller. This gives the recharge on the flash more time. You an do this by going to setting on the Stackshot, clicking settings > “axis settings” > clicking the axis you’re using (likely x) > and change the settle time and stack speed.

4) I can’t remember if Michael ordered the external battery pack from me or not (CP-E4N), but I was under the impression he had. There were some Canon components he removed from the package to save cost. Somewhere in the pack might be an 8 AA external battery pack that is meant to be used with the flash. Can you confirm you have this?

Flash: If you are indeed using the Quantum external AC adapter; then the problem is undoubtedly the batteries. If your flash is not firing when using the Quantum, then your batteries must not be sustaining the charge. It’s also likely the Quantum AC adapter is what damaged the batteries. I’ve heard reports of this melting the flash heads due to overheating. A much better and more controlled way to extend the life of your flash is to use the external pack made for it. A 3 second settle time is more than sufficient so it’s unclear to me what the problem is. I saw on your forum post that you are changing the output power of each flash head. May I ask why you are doing this? This should have no influence when diffusing light, it only makes a difference if your light is coming form a preferred angle to help with contrast. However, if using the Micro Kit and diffuser, it’s simply not needed.

To better address the flash problem, it would be good to know details like 1) How many pictures are you taking in the stack? 2) Confirm 3 second settle time 3) ISO, Exposure time, Aperture, and Flash power. Of the possibilities I sent you, what do you think is most likely? Batteries?

About Zerene Stacker, it sounds like you are not following the method that I recommend. For instance, the the system is better controlled using EOS Utility and NOT Zerene Stacker. There is a 3rd party hardware controller called CamRanger that more seamlessly combines Zerene Stacker with the StackShot Controller; however, I do not recommend. It’s an unnecessary complexity. The USB cable is intended to tether the Camera Body to EOS remote utility.

There is not a way to split a complete stack into sub stacks in Zerene Stacker; however, there is a way to do it on your computer. This method is described in video 1.2.3 here: http://macroscopicsolutions.com/tutorials/

“Buggy Stackshot” Again, this is not the recommended method; however, it sounds like the software is putting your stackshot into High Precision Mode. This is not a bug, it’s a feature allowing you more stable shooting under microscopic conditions. The servo emits a frequency that keeps pressure against the threads to ensure the sample does not shift between stacks. However, this is something I do not recommend using because Zerene Stacker is very good at aligning frames that may have shifted so long as you have sufficient stacks. My guess is, you have turned on High Precision mode in the software and did not turn it off. You can turn this off through Zerene Stacker or by entering settings on the controller.

If you have not done so, I would review the videos in the tutorial section in order and follow along. http://macroscopicsolutions.com/tutorials/ If you have already done this and decided to use alternative methods, its going to be difficult to help simply because we have performed a number of methods and tests to find the most effective/efficient method for image capture. This is the one we recommend for reasons pertaining to workflow, camera/flash longevity and overall quality.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Macroscopic Solutions.