Need flash for 20D

Darwin36

What after market flash will work with the 20D?I Need it to bounce with lots of power, and how important isTTL-II compared to normal TTL? I would like the zoom head to work with auto power adjustments. I really don't want to spend more then I have to on a another flash Thanks Darwin

ScottMcLeod

Darwin36 wrote:

What after market flash will work with the 20D?I Need it to bounce with lots of power, and how important isTTL-II compared to normal TTL? I would like the zoom head to work with auto power adjustments. I really don't want to spend more then I have to on a another flash Thanks Darwin

Sigma DG500 Super if you're on a budget.

Canon 580EX if you're not.

Practically identical flashes, but the control interface on the back of the 580 is much nicer than that of the sigma.

That being said, if you shop carefully, you can buy 2 sigmas for the price of the 580. Oh, but the Sigma doesn't have the option for an external battery pack.

DanielB

ScottMcLeod wrote:

Sigma DG500 Super if you're on a budget.

Canon 580EX if you're not.

Practically identical flashes, but the control interface on the back of the 580 is much nicer than that of the sigma.

That being said, if you shop carefully, you can buy 2 sigmas for the price of the 580. Oh, but the Sigma doesn't have the option for an external battery pack.

also Sigmas can't have slave over Canon flashes....


i just ordered the 430 from B&H and am looking forward to using it.

ScottMcLeod

DanielB wrote:

also Sigmas can't have slave over Canon flashes....


i just ordered the 430 from B&H and am looking forward to using it.

Uhh... if that's so, then the magical flash fairies must've been firing my flashes for me on the fashion shoot the other day.

I was shooting with 2x 500 Sigma DG's, and 1x Canon 420EX, and they worked FLAWLESSLY in union together, ETTL-slaved to my 10D with one of the 500's on it as a transmitter.

cmason

ScottMcLeod wrote:

Uhh... if that's so, then the magical flash fairies must've been firing my flashes for me on the fashion shoot the other day.

I was shooting with 2x 500 Sigma DG's, and 1x Canon 420EX, and they worked FLAWLESSLY in union together, ETTL-slaved to my 10D with one of the 500's on it as a transmitter.

Sigma's have an optical slave. Canon's do not have an optical slave, instead they fire over their proprietary IR wireless system. The Sigma will fire off of a Canon, but it will be via the optical slave, and it will be manual only.

Canon's IR wireless transmits ETL info to the flash, automatically setting them to the right power, etc.

DanielB

cmason wrote:

Sigma's have an optical slave. Canon's do not have an optical slave, instead they fire over their proprietary IR wireless system. The Sigma will fire off of a Canon, but it will be via the optical slave, and it will be manual only.

Canon's IR wireless transmits ETL info to the flash, automatically setting them to the right power, etc.

thats what i meant:uhoh









:hide

ScottMcLeod

cmason wrote:

Sigma's have an optical slave. Canon's do not have an optical slave, instead they fire over their proprietary IR wireless system. The Sigma will fire off of a Canon, but it will be via the optical slave, and it will be manual only.

Canon's IR wireless transmits ETL info to the flash, automatically setting them to the right power, etc.

Well that's strange, because my Sigma was firing via IR, as well as the 420, in unison.

And the on-camera sigma knew that it was firing seperate flashes and had ratio controls for all of them.

cmason

ScottMcLeod wrote:

Well that's strange, because my Sigma was firing via IR, as well as the 420, in unison.

And the on-camera sigma knew that it was firing seperate flashes and had ratio controls for all of them.

OOPS! My bad...just re-read this review:

http://photonotes.org/reviews/sigma-ef-500-super/

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]"Sigma have even figured out Canon’s wireless flash system, so the EF-500 DG Super can be used as either a master or a slave unit with wireless E-TTL."

[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]There you go, you arent seeing things Scott[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE][/FONT]

ScottMcLeod

cmason wrote:

OOPS! My bad...just re-read this review:

http://photonotes.org/reviews/sigma-ef-500-super/

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]"Sigma have even figured out Canon’s wireless flash system, so the EF-500 DG Super can be used as either a master or a slave unit with wireless E-TTL."

[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]There you go, you arent seeing things Scott[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE][/FONT]

Yup. That's part of the reason I'm going to try to find a broken or burned out (flash wise) Sigma 500 that will still transmit Infrared. I wish Sigma would just bring out a stand-alone unit to compete with canon's overpriced ST-E2...