YONGNUO YN568EX II Master & Slave TTL Flash Speedlite with High Speed Sync

+ Shipping from HK was fast. Arrived in 5 business days. + On off button is easier to use. + Bigger display + Head adjusts easily without having to hold down the unlock button, yet it stays in place just fine. + Has a pull out diffuser + a bounce card. + Bottom locking ring is simple and easy to use. Better than the Canon button lock. + You can turn off the chime noise. + The back of the flash will display the aperture setting from your camera. + Rear d-pad is better than the 430EX's buttons which tend to get stuck down. - Battery door is not so strong, but even the door on the Canon looks like it could break easily. Yongnuo offers a replacement door on ebay. - Requires good batteries. Old NiMH batteries that worked in my Canon flash didn't work in the Yongnuo. - Flash exposure lock will fire the flash, but ends up over-exposing the image.

Only just received it, but the YN-568EX II performed flawlessly at a lengthy party shoot. So far, I couldn't be more pleased with its quality and results - and especially the price! Given my Canon 580 EXII has only consistently FAILED at embarrassing moments (I thought it was me, until it was too late) and has been a complete waste of money, this Yongnuo is a gem. So far. My Canon 430 EXII has always performed reliably. Seems I'm hardly the only customer disgusted with Canon's 580 EXII, yet pleased with the 430 EXII. If this Yongnuo holds up (seems others have had battery door issues), I'll definitely be acquiring more of them! UPDATE: I'm more than sold! I've used the YN-568EX II repeatedly and consistently for two months. Indoors at parties, direct and bounce. Outdoors for team shots (25 corporate teams, daylight, over 4 hours; using this for fill. Completely natural looking.). On the road for 10 days. Flawless, reliable performance in every situation. Perfect integration with my Canon 7D on-board controls. No battery "issues" whatever: they last as long as on Canon Speedlights. No issues with the battery door. At this price? A no-brainer. I'll be getting another.

These flashes are really a mixed bag. I would like to give them four stars, mainly because of the value they represent, but I believe Yongnuo chose to cut some corners on quality that make the flashes a bit difficult for me to use. I’ll start with the good: Let me first say that these flashes honestly can’t be beat for the money. The ettl functionality works as well with my camera as the canon flash I own. The hi-speed sync function works flawlessly 95% of the time with an occasional shutter line through the screen. In terms of flash functionality they are every bit as good as my canon flash. I also purchased a set of YN-622c wireless radio flash triggers and a YN-622c wireless radio flash controller. I won’t review those components here but suffice to say they allow me to move my Yongnuo YN568ex 2c’s off my camera with full hi-speed sync and ettl functionality. I can’t believe how well the entire system works for the money. After reading several reviews claiming these flashes tend to overheat, I purchased 6 of them to use in two triple flash brackets, each in a soft box for my outdoor portraiture so I can keep the flash power lower to prevent overheating. I have had no issues with heat or the battery compartment doors to date (several reviewers have complained about the battery door breaking). I’ve used them quite extensively so far and I find the menus to be very intuitive and easy to navigate. As of yet I haven’t had to pick up the manual. As I stated above, the HSS works brilliantly outside allowing me to shoot at f2.8 in broad daylight (with my client in the open shade) giving me beautiful bokeh and saturated background colors. Also, the battery life is fantastic with rechargeable NiMH’s, and the cycle time is less than 1 second at ¼ power. Outside the flashes have a lot of pop. I rarely use a bank of three flashes any higher than ¼ power to get a perfect exposure on my clients. This is the highest power setting recommended by the manufacturer for heavy usage to prevent overheating. So, for just about thirteen hundred dollars I got a mobile lighting setup that allows me to use all my cameras (Canon 5d mark 3) flash functionality on and off camera, and all controllable from the YN-22 flash controller. So far the flash tubes haven’t overheated on me and I get pro-level consistency in the flash power and color temperature output.

This is a very early on assessment of the YN-568EX II. I received my unit last night, and put it through its paces.... + I can say that issue with the battery door seem to have been addressed with my unit. The door latches seem as "big" as the ones on my YN-560EX II which I have had about a year with no issues. + The Issue reported on many sites regarding the loss of output when tilting the head around while in Evaluative mode, is not present on my unit. It works very well in both Average and Evaluative with head-on or bonce flash. - My only gripe is the flap that covers the 2.5mm jack, pops open, but this is way toooo minor a deal to have it replaced. Over all, I am very happy with my flash. I tested it while walking in and out of differently lit places an it behaved like a champ! I highly recommend Yongnuo flashes. There is no better value in speedlites out there!

EDIT: Had it for about two months now. The battery door is bulging out. Looks like the "teeth" on one side of the battery door broke off. Still works but I'm unhappy about that. That means I'm sure the other "teeth" will break off sooner or later as well. I am pass my return date and have contacted Amazon. Amazon instructed me to contact the manufacturer and provided me with the information to do so. I received no replies from them. This has confirmed my belief that their warranty is nonexistent. I went back to Amazon and asked if there is a way it can be fixed or if I can get another one. They can't provide me an exchange due to it being sold by a seller and only being fulfilled by Amazon. So my case would be reviewed for a refund. They emailed me saying they'll give me a refund and I'll have to send back the speedlight. Then received another email with a restocking fee attached. All of this was decided without my input. At the end of the day, I am sad that this speedlight didn't work out when I have had great success with their other ones. It also looked like many other people had the same problem with the battery door. It was a decently built flash but the weak link is the battery door. Yongnuo responded to one of their Facebook post saying they admit there is a problem with the battery door and suggest we buy a new version after October 2013 since a new batch is coming out. So basically anyone that bought one already is out of luck and will need to buy a replacement battery door. I would seriously pass on this flash. Don't buy it. Original rating: 3 stars. Original review: My Canon 580ex II stopped working and I was looking for a replacement. The 600-RT was just too much for me. I have 4 Yongnuo 560 II and love them. I decided to give this 568EX II a try. The primary thing I was looking for was an assist beam and TTL. I use this speedlite during weddings as my on-camera flash with the 560 II as my off-camera. The good: It feels beefy and it feels solid. Much more so than the 560. There is no "cheap" wobble. I love the build quality. The hyperspeed worked really well and the auto zoom did as well. I don't really use it as a master flash so I can't comment on that functionality. The bad: I am sad to say that I am disappointing with the assist beam. It does this criss-cross laser pattern. 1, it doesn't go very far. 2, You'll need a good focusing system to go along with it. I use a 6D and normally stay on the center focus point. It doesn't line up with the criss-cross pattern. Compared to the Canon 580ex II, the camera takes a few seconds longer to focus on it. I can possibly see the 5D Mark III do a little better if the focus point was set a little to the left/right. I also found the TTL to be inconsistent. I don't feel it reads the scene well. For the same shot, one would be nice, the next would be too bright. Or one would be too dark then the next would be to bright. I am not on bracketing either. I got too frustrated with the inconsistency that I just went back to manual. I decided to keep it. I like the hyperspeed sync, the auto zooming, the build quality, and rear sync. Honestly, I am keeping it because there is no other alternative for the same price.

Great product, at a great great price. I am so thankful that I came across this product while researching flashes on YouTube. This flash would be comparable to the Canon 580ex II. When I first decided to get into off camera flash, I foolishly bought two Canon 430ex II flashes ($250 each). In my naivety, I just assumed that, because I owned a Canon DSLR, I needed to buy a Canon speedlite. Big waste of money. Of course, I still use them, but all future purchases will be Yonguo flashes. I am that happy with them. At the time of this review, I see the Canon 580ex II for sale on Amazon for $470. With the Yongnuo at under $100, I can almost buy 5 flashes and fill my softboxes full of them. To me, knowing what I now know, this is a no-brainer. I will NEVER buy Canon flashes again. I really don't do (or try not to do) on camera flash. So, I trigger this flash with the Yongnuo YN-622C-TX E-TTL transmitter and YN622C receivers. Yongnuo, you have created a fan here. Just keep producing good, inexpensive products that do what they're supposed to do, and I'll keep buying.

These flashes are really a mixed bag. I would like to give them four stars, mainly because of the value they represent, but I believe Yongnuo chose to cut some corners on quality that make the flashes a bit difficult for me to use. I’ll start with the good: Let me first say that these flashes honestly can’t be beat for the money. The ettl functionality works as well with my camera as the canon flash I own. The hi-speed sync function works flawlessly 95% of the time with an occasional shutter line through the screen. In terms of flash functionality they are every bit as good as my canon flash. I also purchased a set of YN-622c wireless radio flash triggers and a YN-622c wireless radio flash controller. I won’t review those components here but suffice to say they allow me to move my Yongnuo YN568ex 2c’s off my camera with full hi-speed sync and ettl functionality. I can’t believe how well the entire system works for the money. After reading several reviews claiming these flashes tend to overheat, I purchased 6 of them to use in two triple flash brackets, each in a soft box for my outdoor portraiture so I can keep the flash power lower to prevent overheating. I have had no issues with heat or the battery compartment doors to date (several reviewers have complained about the battery door breaking). I’ve used them quite extensively so far and I find the menus to be very intuitive and easy to navigate. As of yet I haven’t had to pick up the manual. As I stated above, the HSS works brilliantly outside allowing me to shoot at f2.8 in broad daylight (with my client in the open shade) giving me beautiful bokeh and saturated background colors. Also, the battery life is fantastic with rechargeable NiMH’s, and the cycle time is less than 1 second at ¼ power. Outside the flashes have a lot of pop. I rarely use a bank of three flashes any higher than ¼ power to get a perfect exposure on my clients. This is the highest power setting recommended by the manufacturer for heavy usage to prevent overheating. So, for just about thirteen hundred dollars I got a mobile lighting setup that allows me to use all my cameras (Canon 5d mark 3) flash functionality on and off camera, and all controllable from the YN-22 flash controller. So far the flash tubes haven’t overheated on me and I get pro-level consistency in the flash power and color temperature output. All that said, it’s time for the bad: The clamp and hot shoe plates on these flashes and triggers are a joke. I haven’t seen anyone else mention this fact, but since I did purchase 6 flashes, 6 triggers and one controller I’m going to assume it’s a design flaw or a poorly conceived cost saving measure on both the flashes and the triggers. Either way, the result is a flash and trigger that are never fully locked down on a mount (or a flash on a trigger). Even with some serious cranking they can still fall off a camera or cold shoe fairly easily. Also, once locked down, the locking wheel on both the flashes and the triggers are almost impossible to unscrew, but it still doesn’t hold the flash securely, partially because the locking wheel doesn’t make good contact with the top rim of the shoe, and partially because the metal plate on the flash is too small to make solid contact with the inside edges of the shoe so it constantly wiggles and slides around. Even when fully clamped down I can still slide the flash off my camera or an off camera bracket quite easily. I’ve been very careful with them so far, but today a trigger finally slipped off my triple flash mount with the flash attached and fell about 4 feet onto my hard tile floor. The flash hit pretty hard and nothing broke on the housing. Oddly enough, the metal contacts that complete the circuit on the bottom of the inside of the battery compartment flattened out from the impact preventing the batteries from completing a circuit and cutting off the power. I was able to gently bend the contacts back up with a micro screw driver and got the flash head working again, but I doubt it will be a permanent fix. Fortunately the flashes are cheap so I ordered another one just in case the dropped one stops working. I’ve only owned them for three weeks so I hope this won’t be a common occurrence. This is unacceptable! However, I don’t have the money to drop on 6 Canon 600ex’s or a couple of Phottix Indras so I’ll have to live with it for now. I’ve purchased off brand and used flash guns for years and have never run into a problem with the hot shoe and clamping mechanism. If these weren’t so cheap it would be a deal breaker. However, if I have a flash or trigger com loose every three weeks and wind up losing a flash because of it, the value will become non-existent in short order. I would definitely recommend these to any flash photographer on a budget, but be very careful with them when they are mounted. If I had about double the money on hand I would have gone with a Phottix Indra set up to get the HSS functionality I need but I just couldn’t afford it. If you have a little more money but still can’t afford to fork out the cash for 600ex’s or pro photo b1 heads and you need HSS and or ettl functionality the Phottix Indra looks like a good system (for Canon and Nikon users plus I believe a Sony version is on the way). If you’re poor like me, then get these. I hope this was helpful.

As a pro photographer, I use a lot of flashes on location shoots. I was looking for a little more reasonably price unit that would do what I needed and not break the bank. Man, was I in for a surprise! These flash units offer all the capabilities of the high end flash units at about a third of the cost. What really surprised me is when I did a side-by-side test of the Yongnuo 568EX ll and the Canon 580 EX. The Youngnuo was 1/10th of a stop BRIGHTER! Full ETTL functionality and high speed sync capabilities, as well. I Liked it so much, I ordered another the next week and then a third 2 weeks after that! Very highly recommend these flashes! The quality of light and the build of the unit is remarkable. All at a very reasonable price. Buy one today and you will want another one very soon after.

I'm fond of features of cheap, and this flash product by Yongnuo fits the bill. Why would you want to go for the 3x costlier Canon alternative then? Well, that one is more reliable! In my usage, I faced syncing issues at times, more particularly when NiMH batteries run low. Also on generic Alkaline batteries, I faced syncing issues. That can be troublesome when you're working on a project and shooting continuously. Give the flash a break when such a problem is faced, and charge the batteries meanwhile. Should work just fine! Apart from that, the flash works just as it is supposed to be!

I'm new to photography but my pro friends tell me that these are excellent for the price. I did use it to take a few photos of my son's wedding and had great success.

Everything was as described. Better than expected given the good price. Came very quickly.

The Flash light was delivered right on time. Light body but looks solid. The only issue I felt that it bits hard to pull down/move side ways the upper part. But over all its functioning well.

Le flash est défectueux mais le vendeur a bien coopérer le colis envoyé j'attend mon remboursement