
<p>One of the two Canon Speedlite flashes above is fake. Can you tell which one?</p><p>About a month ago I walked into the Canon Quick Repair Centre in Shanghai. I had a minor problem with a Canon 580 EX II: the high-speed sync refused to work.I had reasons not to be worried: the ash was less than two months old, I had my warranty card and apart from having been red a few times the unit was as good as new. So when I walked up to the counter to explain my problem, the worst I could imagine happening was being told I wasn't very smart followed by a brief demonstration. It wouldn't be the first time when electronics are involved.</p><p>That didn't happen. Instead, batteries were exchanged, coworkers called from lunch breaks and superiors consulted. Nobody could understand the strange behavior of my ash until finally, an engineer spotted the issue: we were looking at a fake.</p><p>I had bought a counterfeit ash.</p><p><a href="http://petapixel.com/2013/09/03/spot-fake-canon-flash-learned-hard-way/">Keep reading...</a></p>