Advice needed - Canon off-camera flash

J

JonnyBoy757

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Hi all
I'm new to the forums so please be gentle.
I'm looking for some advice on off-camera flash for my Canon 450d. I'm looking to get something afordable that can be used wirelessly. I'm likely to be using mostly for macro work and some portrait stuff but that's about it.

I've viewed various forums about this, which to be honest, has just added to my confusion. My local photography store was not much use either unfortunately.

The options I appear to have are as follows:

1) 430EX II
This is around the top of my price range at £200ish for the flashgun alone. In order to use this wirelessly, will I need to purchase the Canon wireless trigger (the ST-2 I think) or will some of the much cheaper wireless triggers (ebay type ones) still fire the flash wirelessly?
Also, if the cheaper ones will fire the flash will i have to rely on manual settings which appears to be the case? Not a problem for the macro stuff but for the portrait stuff it could be problematic.

2) A cheaper non-Canon flash
Are there any non-Canon flashes that anyone can recommend for my uses? The Metz models I've looked at seem to be approaching £170, for which I may as well get the 430EX II I guess?
Will any of these cheaper models fire remotely with the cheaper triggers mentioned above?

Any help, suggestions, advice would really be appreciated. You can tell from the incoherent ramblings above that I'm pretty clueless in this regard.

Thanks in advance

Jon
 
This is a pretty common question so if you search you'll find plenty of information.

If you want to use eTTL (the Canon automatic flash exposure technology) off-camera then you would need the 430ex II and either an ST-E2 or 580ex (both of which allow you to control an off-camera flash, the 580ex also being a flash itself). An option with wireless off-camera flash is going to be over your £200 budget.

Another option would be to get an eTTL flash and an off-camera flash cord (OC-E3 or equivalent - Flash in the Pan - a forum member - sells a version of this for about £10-15 )

There are cheaper eTTL flashes (again, search for Flash in the Pan, or else he'll be along to this thread shortly!) which do a decent job at a fraction of the price of the 430ex II but reportedly not quite such consistent results (I say reportedly as I've never used the non-Canon ones)

If you're happy to go manual, the wireless triggers (again Flash in the Pan sells these - pretty much sells everything!) will fire pretty much any flash - no need for it to be Canon at all. As you say though, this does leave you having to set the flash output manually - a mixture of blessing and curse.

FWIW, I would suggest starting off with a 430ex II (second hand if you can find one) and an off-camera cord. This gives you the benefit of off-camera and eTTL. If you find you need to go wireless you can then buy some wireless triggers at a later date and hopefully be better prepared for the steep learning curve of digital.
 
Many thanks for your response Mark, it's much appreciated. Finding a used 430EX II is proving a little problematic, but I'll probably keep looking.

Thanks again
 
If you can stretch to a 580EX, that is a superb gun.

For macro, you can then fit one of these, RayFlash ringflash adapter http://www.ray-flash.com/products.php There is also a cheaper copy branded a 'Coco' on Amazon/Ebay.
 
Thanks guys. Unfortunately there's no way the Mrs will allow me to spend over £200 for the flash alone.
 
FWIW I recommend that you start off with learning all about manual flash. It'll give you a really good basis for understanding how light works and is much cheaper than jumping straight into eTTL.

I, like you, started off with thinking I wanted the exact setup you're talking about. I bought a 430EX and a 580EX and thought it was the bee's knees. Then I started learning about how to light, and most of the time I now use a couple of cheap old nikon flashes on fleabay triggers firing on manual.

I've kept the 580EX as for occasions where you dont have the luxury of time (or inclination) to think, but sold the 430EX as I found I didn't need it's capabilities. (bought 2 old flashes and a lightstand and lighting mods with the money!)

I know a lot of people will disagree with my view, but for me, going back to basics really helped me understand how to use light, and lets you get a taster for considerably less dosh. Now, realising that I love lighting things I have the option of using eTTL or not (and 90% of the time it's not).
 
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