external flash for my Canon 350D

Hi again all

Just started to think about Christmas. Father Christmas was good to me last
year with a new Sigma lens 18-125. This year I'm thinking of an
external flash for my Canon 350D. Any suggestions and/or recommendations

Kind regards
DAVE
Bristol UK
Picture website http://djmp.co.uk/slr/

420EX


"Dave" wrote in message
. ..
Hi again all

Just started to think about Christmas. Father Christmas was good to me
last
year with a new Sigma lens 18-125. This year I'm thinking of an
external flash for my Canon 350D. Any suggestions and/or
recommendations

Kind regards
DAVE
Bristol UK
Picture website http://djmp.co.uk/slr/

* Dave is quoted & my replies are inline below :
Hi again all

Just started to think about Christmas. Father Christmas was good to me last
year with a new Sigma lens 18-125. This year I'm thinking of an
external flash for my Canon 350D. Any suggestions and/or recommendations

If you want a new flash, the Canon 430EX is what I just bought.
Very happy with it. I decided the 580 was too much for me at my
experience level. There is a Sigma 500 DG Super (IIRC) that is
supposed to be just as powerful as the Canon 580 but much
cheaper, but on the negative side I've read reviews that it's
build quality doesn't feel as good as the Canons.

May pay you to read these sites I collected while researching for
my purchase:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=138907
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...splay.php?f=35
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/flashes/fl...ls.asp?id=3257

Hope that helps.

--
Troy Piggins

"Dave" writes:
Just started to think about Christmas. Father Christmas was good to
me last year with a new Sigma lens 18-125. This year I'm thinking
of an external flash for my Canon 350D. Any suggestions and/or
recommendations

Here is a page about buying an external flash for Canon:
http://hannemyr.com/photo/flash.html


--
- gisle hannemyr [ gisle{at}hannemyr.no - http://hannemyr.com/photo/ ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sigma SD10, Kodak DCS 14n, Canon Powershot G5, Olympus 2020Z
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave wrote:

Just started to think about Christmas. Father Christmas was good to me last
year with a new Sigma lens 18-125. This year I'm thinking of an
external flash for my Canon 350D. Any suggestions and/or recommendations

Read and understand
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
first.

If you are short on money, 420EX. Note that you cannot override
any camera settings on the flash, e.g. flash power compensation!

If you have the money, a 580EX II is the newest (with weather
sealing, but wih the 350 it'll not help). Thus the 580EX or
550EX are almost as good --- they can drive slave units, too
(e.g. 420/430/550/580EX) --- but may be much cheaper.

If size is a problem, maybe the 430EX.

-Wolfgang

On 5 Sep, 00:21, Troy Piggins wrote:
There is a Sigma 500 DG Super (IIRC) that is
supposed to be just as powerful as the Canon 580 but much
cheaper, but on the negative side I've read reviews that it's
build quality doesn't feel as good as the Canons.

It's true that it has a horribly plasticky build, but OTOH, it can do
all a Canon 580 can, and then some. Unless you really need a rugged
flash, I'd say you waste your money buying a 580 instead of a Sigma.
And the same goes, mutatis mutandis, for ring flashes.

Jan Böhme

Jan Böhme wrote:
On 5 Sep, 00:21, Troy Piggins wrote:

There is a Sigma 500 DG Super (IIRC) that is
supposed to be just as powerful as the Canon 580 but much
cheaper, but on the negative side I've read reviews that it's
build quality doesn't feel as good as the Canons.

It's true that it has a horribly plasticky build, but OTOH, it can do
all a Canon 580 can, and then some. Unless you really need a rugged
flash, I'd say you waste your money buying a 580 instead of a Sigma.

Knowing the, aeh, compatibility of some of their older EF lenses,
I would not be surprised if the master/slave flash functionality
would be a bit iffy. If you ever plan on using that, you might
want to do extensive testing before relying on it.

Oh, and you might want to check out how good the Sigma AF
help light works with off-center AF points.

-Wolfgang

Wolfgang Weisselberg wrote:
Dave wrote:

Just started to think about Christmas. Father Christmas was good to me last
year with a new Sigma lens 18-125. This year I'm thinking of an
external flash for my Canon 350D. Any suggestions and/or recommendations

Read and understand
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
first.

If you are short on money, 420EX. Note that you cannot override
any camera settings on the flash, e.g. flash power compensation!

If you have the money, a 580EX II is the newest (with weather
sealing, but wih the 350 it'll not help). Thus the 580EX or
550EX are almost as good --- they can drive slave units, too
(e.g. 420/430/550/580EX) --- but may be much cheaper.

If size is a problem, maybe the 430EX.

-Wolfgang

You can't beat the 580EX. I also have a 350D and I
do have to tell you that the 580 EX makes the 350D
a little hard to handle. It makes the camera
very top heavy but the combination of the flash
and camera working together is very good.