YONGNUO Updated YN600EX-RT II Flash Speedlite for Canon's 600EX-RT/ST-E3-RT Wireless Signal Camera, Master,USB Firmware Upgrade, 1/8000sec Sync Speed

Works and looks just like the Canon flash except it is a lot less expensive.

This review is in two parts because I actually ordered two of these flashes but the one that came from Amazon (The one with the "free" gifts) was packaged by Amazon very, very, weird.1. Package came and when I opened it was shocked to see a, supposedly, Canon 600EX-RT speedlight. I opened up the box and sure enough - Canon manual, warranty and fact sheet. When I removed the manual and looked underneath surprise two came - instead of the diffuser and the gels/filters I found what appears to be a Canon XF200 eye piece and a Canon filter or lens (50mm or 20mm lens) pouch. Now I pulled out the flash itself - and it was the flash ordered - Yongnuo YN600EX-RT. Except the little flash stand was missing. (And of course the actual Yongnuo manual)I contacted Amazon and they offered me a return and refund of the money paid, but I explained the Flash itself was fine and that was the main thing. I can download the manual from Yongnuo but my main concern was why this was packaged the way it was and also the "missing" parts. Amazon customer service was awesome and they eventually gave me several options - full refund, partial refund, or send me missing parts that I ordered and they would reimburse me. So I ordered the missing parts - although, because I have no way on knowing what brand the "free gifts" were these may not be the exact same missing parts - a Sto-Fen "Omni-Bounce", A CEARI Hot shoe Flash holder and a Neewer gel kit. So all is well - Amazon made good. In regards to the way is packaged the only explanation Amazon offered was product rotates a lot and someone mis-packed it.2. The Flash itself is great so far. Have tried it on my Canon 60D and also on my new Canon 80D. Works great on both. High speed sync is what I have wanted for a while so it is great to be able to shoot at 100 ISO/ASA and use a 1/8000 shutter speed. I also purchased aYongnuo YN-E3-RT and rough tests show high speed sync with both the YN600ET-RT units works. Note to potential buyers - there are lots of configurations between the flash and camera so your mileage may vary in terms of what your needs are. One of my main reason with getting these is because they are firmware upgradeable, so the first thing I did was upgrade both of them to the latest firmware.I also have had a Yongnuo YN460-II for many years so when upgrading my Flash i looked at Yongnuo first. I am hoping these new flashes serve me as well as the YN460-II has.

I have been a professional photographer for 15 years now. Weddings, portraits, real estate, a little bit of everything over the last decade and a half (you know how it goes, gotta make that paycheck!). Anyway, I’ve always been a total Canon snob and always wanted the best equipment and always wanted the name brand. Other photographers had suggested this brand to me and I turned up my nose. Well fast forward to now and it’s the tail end of my wedding career, and one of my Canon 600 flashes decides it no longer wants to play nice with my other flashes in wireless mode. Fine, no worries, I’ll ship it back to Canon CPS to get all fixed up. Well that doesn’t happen bc Canon tells me they no longer support / repair these flashes that I have spent literally THOUSANDS of dollars on over the years. I am not really looking to drop hundreds of dollars to buy another Canon flash that may not work anymore in a couple years that Canon refuses to fix. So I take a chance on this flash. It plays nicely with my Canon 600 flashes. It looks just like them. It performs wonderfully. There are even some feature of this flash that I love more than my “fancy/genuine” Canon flashes - my favorite being that it tells me how charged the AA batteries are inside of the flash. It’s always a crapshoot with my Canon flashes and I’m sure I waste batteries or unnecessarily recharge flash batteries due to not knowing the status. The other thing I like is how easy it is to switch wireless modes without having to press the buttons and cycle thru the menus a million times. For a fraction of the cost of the Canon flashes, I HIGHLY recommend these. It’s become my go-to flash on shoots lately. I trust that it will work and work well, and I will never be a brand name snob again when it comes to flashes — lesson learned!

This thing is comparable to the Canon Speedlite 600ex at less than 3rd of the price? Amazing. I lost my Speedlite 430EX and was thinking about a 470EX, but glad that I stumbled into this product. I don't have a Canon 600EX to compare against, but compared with the 430, this thing definitely beats it in power and functionality. Like most people who bought this thing, there's a concern of durability, but personally, if this lasts me 2-3 years, that would justify the money I spent. The negatives that I can think of: it's a little bulky and putting this on a small camera like the Canon EOS RP just seems like a mismatch. Also the directions for where to find the latest firmware was harder than it needs to be; I had to chase around before finding the site. I will be looking to buy another one of these in the near future to play with the wireless features. Recommend.Update after a week: I discovered that even when the unit is OFF, the unit still drains the batteries. Yongnua probably needs to look at the leakage current for this unit. Small blemish on the review, but I still recommend it; it's easy to remove the batteries when not in use.

After about 5 years of using 2 Canon flashes and a Canon receiver for my portrait photography, I decided to give Yongnuo a try when both of my Canon flashes died at on the same day; I am glad I did. My 2 Yongnuo flashes and the receiver work just like my expensive Canon plus I can still use my rechargeable AA batteries. I paid $500 for each Canon flash and $400 for a Canon receiver. With Yongnuo I paid around $350 for 2 flashes and a receiver and I get the same results. On top of this, the Canon flashes did not have a way to let me know how much charge I had left in my batteries, something I get with Yongnuo. This is a no brainer; in fact, I am now buying additional flashes as backup.