canon MT-24EX

chrismoore

I thought this may get more views from macro photographers in this forum rather than Gear. Borrowed the MT-24EX from a friend to try out, he doesnt use it much and is consider selling it. I've read great reviews on it elsewhere, that is gives better depth than the flat light typical of ring flashes. It is easy enough to attach and fire with ETTL, but I was looking for input from anyone who uses this regularly for their macro work-- are there typical power settings you use, or ratio of one flash power to the other? Any advice would help. I'd be using it with the 100mm 2.8 macro and mp-e 65mm macro.
Thanks!

urte

take a look here

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=64695

Lord Vetinari

One point is that you do not need a macro flash to take flash pictures in macro. Both Goldenorfe and myself just use bracket mounted normal flashguns.

The MT-24 is better than most macro flashes (but is expensive). You can use them in manual or ETTL- think most people use them in ETTL mode although there has been reports of it misbehaving with 40D camera bodies. You normally either vary the power to the flash heads or you alter the position of the heads so one is on the subject and the other is providing more background illumination.
The main reasons I haven't bought one apart from expense is that the fixing ring on the lens end makes the the diameter of the lens larger and I take quite a few shots resting the lens end on surfaces (this makes the shooting angle higher) and they are much more diffficult to diffuse easily compared to a standard flash.

Brian V.

chrismoore

Thanks so much for the help. I did a fair bit of reading on it last night and it seems the biggest issue with it is diffusion.

This was really helpful: http://nocroppingzone.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-i-use-mt-24ex.html
him and his hot glue gun!
Thanks also Goldenorfe for the links.