Canon Speedlite 580EX Flash for Canon EOS SLR Cameras

Rating:
Summary: The Power is in your hands!!
Review: Absolutely the best flash out there!! It will tell you the distance at which your shooting by communicating with the lens and add more or less power output to adjust. It will light up any subject and give you exellent exposure!! You can also adjust the flash exposure yourself on the flash. I can go on and on about this flash, but I'll stop here. I would HIGHLY recommend this flash to serious photographers or beginners alike. You won't be sorry!!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing flash
Review: This is expensive, but worth it. When I bought my 300D in October of 2003 I got the 420EX flash with it. When I upgraded to the 20D I also upgraded my flash to the 580EX. The difference between them is astounding. The 420 did basically nothing. Well, it flashed, but that is it. The 580 has a stobe setting! I can set my camera for a 10 second exposure and tell the flash to operate at 1/10 power and 1hz to get stop motion pictures!

It seems to have a rocket-fast recycle time, even with the partially used batteries I stuck in it out of my 420. I accidentally had my 20D in continuous mode with the flash on, and accidentally took four flash photographs in less than a second (the flash didn't fire on the fifth photograph). Once my battery pack arrives I should be extra-dangerous.

The 580 is a master flash, so I was able to wirelessly control my old 420 flash and have them both go off at the same time.

The flash is complicated. The manual on the flash is 172 pages long (admittedly in 3 languages, however). The manual for the 20D is 168 pages long (in only one language).

As for effectiveness, the 580EX and 20D combination far outshines the 420EX on the 300D. I haven't tried the 420EX on the 20D yet, but it is only E-TTL and not E-TTL2 like the 580EX. My pictures come out much better with the 580. The old 300/420 used to blow out the highlights all the time. I've only taken a few flash photos with the 580, but it seems to meter tremendously better.

If it doesn't meter right, you can manually set the flash, or use flash exposure compensation, to get the exposure you want.

I'm sure tihs flash does more, but I've barely had time to play with it, so I've reachde the end of what I can write authoritatively about.