Flash advice required for novice

ADSLUSER

I recently purchased a Canon 550D as my introduction to SLR digital photography. I am a complete newbie and have no prior experience to photography but would like to obviously build up this skill!

There is a built in flash on the camera but like all built-in flashes, it's a bit on the weak side. Can anyone recommend a decent flash as I have no idea what to look for? Something that would be powerful enough for family occasions, weddings, portrait and group photos.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

Buckz

Check the manual carefully - many canons can only accept canon and very few other flashes- as I learned with a 5D. The canon Flashes are expensive, so look at the few from Jessop and others made for canon. What Flash do you need? As a rule of thumb the flash will range is a quarter the guide number at 100iso, half the guide number at Iso400. (actual Formula is guide number divided by aperture gives distance at iso 100, range increases by 1.4 (square root of 2 to be precise) for each one stop increase in ISO (ie doubling the ISO))So a Guide number of 20 and an aperture of F4 will be good for 5m at ISO 100, and 10m at ISO 400.Don't be sucked in by elaborate features you won't use- wireless operation etc- if you want this for basic shots, buy accordingly if you decide to go for more elaborate studio type shots later, you will buy the appropriate gear then and use your original flash as an extra light for fill in or side lighting or a hairlight or whatever...

TinyExplosions

I'd go for one of the Yongnuo Flashes -they're cheap essentially clones of the Canon Speedlights. I have one myself (though for my Nikon D300) and they're great for the money!

zerohamster

You could try going for a Nissin Di622 for Canon which would cost you around €110 and should do all your basic needs, there is a Mark II that was announced september 19th so it might be worth waiting for that. If you ever needed a better flash then that flash could be usefull as a slave flash.

zerohamster

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I'd go for one of the Yongnuo Flashes -they're cheap essentially clones of the Canon Speedlights. I have one myself (though for my Nikon D300) and they're great for the money!

Does the Yongnuo have ttl metering? (for canon it would be E-ttl /II for later cameras).
If he was looking for a basic flash for portraits and events it would be a massive advantage to have an automatic mode so that he wouldnt need to use trial and error or work out the maths on the go.

TinyExplosions

zerohamster wrote: »

Does the Yongnuo have ttl metering? (for canon it would be E-ttl /II for later cameras).
If he was looking for a basic flash for portraits and events it would be a massive advantage to have an automatic mode so that he wouldnt need to use trial and error or work out the maths on the go.

A good point, I'm a manual man myself so don't look for that -the YN-468 has TTL though, albeit for a little more money/slightly less power

ditpaintball

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I'd go for one of the Yongnuo Flashes -they're cheap essentially clones of the Canon Speedlights. I have one myself (though for my Nikon D300) and they're great for the money!

+1 for the Yonguno. I have 3 of them. There is no TTL on my ones though, but for the price of a Nikon/Conon flash you can have 4 or 5 of these little babies.

I only use these off camera and set them all manually though.

AnimalRights

Canon 430EX II
It's about 300 euros and has TTL and is powerful and not too large.

Don't know much about flash, but I bough a Metz 48 AF-1 a while ago and it has done me well. Has TTL with my Olympus (I was buying for Olympus so i didn't look into the Canon equivalent).

Set me back about €180 but it's a grand flash. I've been manually adjusting the power since reading the LightenUpAndShoot Vbook (which i recommend highly and must actually look at it again myself - thanks again Borderfox for that recommendation!) and it has been easy enough to adjust the power on as you go.

Though TTL is invaluable at times, too.

I wouldn't mind picking up a flash for my 20D, so that Yongnuo Flash linked to above by tiny explosions has taken my interest considerably. Does it come with a manual, TinyExplosions (as in a manual you read, to figure out how to use it)?


EDIT: Nevermind, just reading the ebay description and it says there's a manual included.



EDIT AGAIN: Jus tlooking at this, as it has 20D in the URL,

http://cgi.ebay.ie/GN58-Flash-Unit-Speedlite-YN-560-Canon-50D-40D-30D-20D_W0QQitemZ250673167830QQcategoryZ48515QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4221.m291QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DTS%26its%3DK%26itu%3DMAGEXP%252BUCK%26otn%3D3%26ps%3D12


Does anyone know what kind of head it has? It is tilt & swivel, or just tilt? Looks like it goes side to side, but I just thought I'd ask to be sure...

TinyExplosions

Deleted User wrote: »

Does it come with a manual, TinyExplosions (as in a manual you read, to figure out how to use it)?

Yup, it's a fairly bad machine type translation, but it's enough, and the controls are simple anyway!

Deleted User wrote: »

EDIT AGAIN: Jus tlooking at this, as it has 20D in the URL,

http://cgi.ebay.ie/GN58-Flash-Unit-Speedlite-YN-560-Canon-50D-40D-30D-20D_W0QQitemZ250673167830QQcategoryZ48515QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4221.m291QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DTS%26its%3DK%26itu%3DMAGEXP%252BUCK%26otn%3D3%26ps%3D12


Does anyone know what kind of head it has? It is tilt & swivel, or just tilt? Looks like it goes side to side, but I just thought I'd ask to be sure...

The head is both tilt and swivel

-KKV - if you're ever up Dublin way I can give you a look at mine if you want?

TinyExplosions

TinyExplosions wrote: »

-KKV - if you're ever up Dublin way I can give you a look at mine if you want?

Ah I wouldn't pester you like that. If I decide to get one I'll just get the one that has "20D" in the URL. If it doesn't work i can moan at the seller and if it does work I'll just try to figure out how ti use it myself or drop you a PM if I get stuck.


I do appreciate the offer though. Cheers

TinyExplosions

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah I wouldn't pester you like that. If I decide to get one I'll just get the one that has "20D" in the URL. If it doesn't work i can moan at the seller and if it does work I'll just try to figure out how ti use it myself or drop you a PM if I get stuck.


I do appreciate the offer though. Cheers

It's no pestering at all -I'm in the city centre so could quickly meet up with ya at some point... sure it's up to you -though I do reckon it's worth the price... bear in mind that you may well get stung for VAT -I did, though even with that added (a whopping 19.55) it's still a bloody good value piece of kit (will be getting a couple more in the next few months)

Well next time I'm heading to Dublin I'll send you along a PM. Could be tomorrow, could be 2011, but if i haven't picked one up before I next head up there, I'll let you know

Cheers man.

ADSLUSER

Thanks everyone for all your helpful advice!

Skidmcmarx

Have a look here too http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.37534

Its the YN-468 model

I ordered on during the week, gets pretty good reviews and DX are great to deal with. Never stung for vat/customs

Promac

AnimalRights wrote: »

Canon 430EX II
It's about 300 euros and has TTL and is powerful and not too large.

I'll second that - I got one recently and it's a great little flash gun.

ADSLUSER

Promac wrote: »

I'll second that - I got one recently and it's a great little flash gun.

I opted for this one (Canon Speedlite 430EX II) in the end - ordered it for €198 from simplyelectronics which included P&P. Worried about compatibility problems so just opted for a Canon model to be sure.