Flashes - Do you get what you pay for?

I have recently purchased a Canon 400d, and have started thinking that I
will need an external flash for some situations.

Checking online, I have foud many similar looking flashed with wildly
varying prices.

Vivitar - about $50.00
Sunpak - about $200.00
Canon - about 500.00

What gives?

Any suggestions? The flash would be used rarely but for photos that would
be relatively important (Special occaisions, work erlated functions)

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There are great differences in flashes and nothing new about that.

Features, quality and quantity are all a part of the differences.

Most cameras today come with some sort of flash and that is all most
people are going to need. For the rest the choice should start with "What
is it that the built in flash is not doing well that I need a different
flash for. Then add in your photo skill and interest level and financial
situation. The recommendations for a professional wedding or sports
photographer will be far different than for a studio photographer and they
will be different than those for a father taking photos of his kids.

 

Not to familiar with Canon. I have a Nikon D40x and was thinking the same.
Finally I decided to go for the best: SB800. At first reading about it, of
course. It seemed a little "overkill" at first, spending almost as much on a
flash as on the camera, but after I had it now for about 2 months, I don´t
feel sorry. I use the flash much more then I ever thought I would be. Still
finding new things to do with it and trying out experiments, I am very
satisfied.
I don´t believe a Sunpack or other third party can come close to the
original. A lens maybe, but a flash is too specific for a brand, at least
IMO.
I just did a portrait shoot of my girlfriend yesterday and the results
astonished the both of us. I can honestly say, hard to tell the difference
from professional pictures I have seen ;-))

 

I have a problem with a flash together with digital SLR. I have bought a
special adapter SCA 3102 M3 for my Canon 20D, but without success, of
course. The speedlight Metz 40 MZ-3i and this adapter didn´t bring good
results, unfortunately. By my opition if you have a digital SLR camera,
you have to use brand new type speedlight originaly builded for digital
using.
it´s all from my experience. Van
http://www.photo-vandark.eu

 

I have a problem with a flash together with digital SLR. I have bought a
special adapter SCA 3102 M3 for my Canon 20D, but without success, of
course. The speedlight Metz 40 MZ-3i and this adapter didn´t bring good
results, unfortunately. By my opition if you have a digital SLR camera,
you have to use brand new type speedlight originaly builded for digital
using.
it´s all from my experience. Van
http://www.photo-vandark.eu

Sosumi napsal(a):

 

Yes, you get what you pay for. All of the brands make various levels
of flash, so you can't compare a $50 Vivitar with a $500 Canon. So do
two things. First, get the best possible flash you can afford. Drop
$500 on one and it'll last you a lifetime with not regrets.
Otherwise, same up for it. Then, get a bracket for it to get it off
you camera. It look much better that way.

Here's an example of what it provides you with. This weekend I was
shooting a nice, simple picture -- a wedding cake on a table. How
hard is that? Well I'm shooting down at an angle so I can see the top
of the cake. I need to bounce my flash off the ceiling that 15' over
my head (that takes some light to do that). So in order to bounce the
light, I needed to turn the flash-head around backwards and then point
it up at the ceiling while putting out enough light to make the bounce
work. That's not a $50 flash.

 

One thing to be aware of is that Canon has it's own proprietary flash
metering system (Called E-TTL). Many flashes out there don't support
E-TTL and you'll need to manually set your exposures if you use one.
If you buy a flash for your 400D, look for E-TTL compatibility
in the specifications.

Also.. The newer Canon flashes have better communication with the
body. They can tell if the camera has a full frame sensor or an APS
sized sensor and then fine tune the flash pattern to match the
crop factor.

And of course, the more expensive flashes have additional features
such as built in transmitters to trigger remote flashes and receivers
that allow them to be used as remotes.

 

While I generally agree with the rest of your message, and even partly
agree with this part, but remember that next year your new camera, even the
same brand may not even talk with that $500 flash or more likely you will
not be able to use the flash with some of the new advanced features.

 

True, but the chances of Canon making the ex550 or ex580 obsolete in
the near future is pretty remove. Nor will Nikon, with their
equivalent flash. By then, you might want to upgrade to new
technology anyway. After all, you wouldn't be worried about that
unless you were upgrading your camera, too. So if the new cameras go
to ETTL-15, they'll probably still allow the older flash to work in
some manner. But if you're hankering for a new camera with ETTL-15,
you'll want the ETTL-15 flash, too. By then, it'll probably make
coffee for you.

 

No, but a $50 flash firing into a reflector held above your head might have
achieved the same result (or better) ...

 

Thanks to all for your advice. I ended up choosing a Canon 430EX. A few
generations old but I hope it will work ell for me.

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As it happens, I just bought one of those myself. But it's not "a few
generations old": it's the current model (I think).

It's seriously cool: with the 5D + Tamron 28-75/2.8, it figures out where
you've zoomed to and zooms the flash angle accordingly.

Both Evaluative and Averaging modes seem to simply work, even if there's
something white or black under the AF point.

Oh, well. Time to go out to Friday bowling league. After that, I'll figure
out how to make bounce flash work.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

 

A $50 flash plus a $500 flash meter (or a lot of time taking test shots).

But it's not $500: I just picked up a used 430EX for US$225 and it simply
works (the new price here is about $290). The only way I've succeeded in
persuading it to get the exposure wrong enough to be a problem* is to shoot
at less than 1/2 the minimum distance it's advertised to deal with.

The 430EX covers 24 to 100mm lenses with its automatic zoom function (that
works with third party lenses!), and has a fold-out lens to cover 14mm. It
has an AF assist light, and the metering works in bounce mode. Lots of bells
and whistles _that are actually useful_.

Life may be different in the Nikon universe, but with Canon the midrange
model has all the features of the larger one.

My take on all this is that Canon and Nikon have been bashing each other
over the head on automatic flash performance for the last 20 years. Nikon
got it right first by using the distance the lens is focused at to set the
exposure (this one's a real "Doh! What took you so long?") and was ahead
until Canon added that in. Now the flash systems are simply amazing.

*: Exposure variation seems to be about +/- half a stop depending on the
subject; I hung a black jacket and a white shirt on the bookcase, and the
damn thing came up with reasonable exposures for both. Time after time. And
those subjects should have confused it something fierce. My $50 flash I use
with my 645 camera would mess up completely.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

 

Pat posted to rec.photo.digital:

Mostly true. the 50$ Vivitar is not all that versatile, but i doubt
that the 500$ Canon will do as much as the 200$ Sunpack. let alone
with so many different cameras.