Is my flash any good... Aquired it!

[captures.in.time]

Hi

A while back my uncle bought me a flash for my EOS 3... and now I've moved onto digital my EOS5d.

It's a Canon Speedlight 220EX!

Now i've only used it once to take some point and shoot shots one family christmas and have had it for a few years now. I def feel I want to keep it as although I tend to stick to Landscape and travel photography it seems a perfectly fine wee flash to me... but then I know nothing about flash photography.

As ive lost the manual... can someone please tell me a few things about this flash... whats its effective range? Im guessing not much more than 5m??

Is it actually a decent wee flash... what are its limitations... and how should I use it????

Now I know thats a rediculously wide open question... but im just after peoples thoughts on this flash???

Thanks

 

[cowasaki]

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...categoryid=141&modelid=7271#ModelTechSpecsAct

 

[tdodd]

As per the specs, the Guide Number for the flash is 22 (meters). This means that its reach at 100 ISO is as follows, depending on lens aperture used....

f/2.0 = 11 meters
f/2.8 = 8 meters
f/4.0 = 5.5 meters
f/5.6 = 4 meters

Each time you double the ISO you increase the range by a factor of 1.4X. Each time you quadruple the ISO you double the range. e.g. at 400 ISO with an f/4 aperture your range would be up to 11 meters.

By way of comparison the builtin pop up flash has a Guide Number of 13 meters. That means that for an equivalent ISO and aperture the 220EX has a range 22/13 = 1.7X further than the popup flash.

The advantages the 220EX brings are....

- a bit more range;
- puts a little more distance between the flash light and the lens, thus reducing the chances of redeye a little;
- gives you the option to remove the flash from the camera and trigger it by a cord or wireless trigger. This will allow you to change the direction of the light or even to bounce it off ceilings/walls/reflectors.

The biggest weakness in comparison to more advanced flash units, other than power, is that there is no tilt/swivel option, so if the flash remains mounted to the camera, you will still get flat boring light for portraits and, if you turn the camera to portrait orientation the shadows cast by the flash will fall beside your subject rather than behind them, which can look pretty awful. You may also get hotspots on shiny skin wherever the light reflects straight back to the camera.

For fill flash in daylight it will be fine mounted on camera. For shooting indoors, or for more creative and pleasant lighting you want to try to get the flash off camera and bounce the light off a neutral surface. You can buy an OC-E3 compatible sync cord for about £20 on eBay. The real deal from Canon is around £40.

Here is an album of sample shots with different flash configurations using a 580EX. As you will note, the two examples with direct flash look pretty yuck compared to the bounced options....

http://picasaweb.google.com/EezyTiger/POTNFlashShadow?authkey=90e0hbk5dfQ#

Here are the two direct flash examples. Note the hotspots on the nose, cheeks and throat area. Also note that the room is not well lit. In more extreme examples you can end up with a very dark background. Finally, look at the ghastly shadow on the wall behind the subject in the portrait example...

and an example with the flash bounced. Note that the light is soft and even. The hotspots have diappeared and there is no nasty shadow. The whole room is well lit...

 

[captures.in.time]

Thanks... that was really informative... and must have taken some time to reply...

It's good to know... I might get a cable then as looks like bouncing is the way forward... I will rarely use it though appart from a little day light fill in possibly...

Appart from portraits... can you use flash fill in for other things... do you have any examples... just on our cruise this summer i'll be shooting in the middle of the day prob... just a function of the cruise times... dont have evenings in places... will the flash be useful to take with me... I hadn't thought of taking it up till now?

M

 

[cowasaki]

Thanks... that was really informative... and must have taken some time to reply...

It's good to know... I might get a cable then as looks like bouncing is the way forward... I will rarely use it though appart from a little day light fill in possibly...

Appart from portraits... can you use flash fill in for other things... do you have any examples... just on our cruise this summer i'll be shooting in the middle of the day prob... just a function of the cruise times... dont have evenings in places... will the flash be useful to take with me... I hadn't thought of taking it up till now?

M

Have you thought about a reflector? You can get one that folds up and goes in your kit bag for under £10 and this might be more flexible for you. You should certainly have one of these before the additional cost of extra lighting and it may well do what you want for far less money.

 

[captures.in.time]

Im not sure I actually want to do anything... certainly not buy another flash...

It's just good to know... the £20 cable is maybe the only possible future purchase...

M

 

[cowasaki]

Im not sure I actually want to do anything... certainly not buy another flash...

It's just good to know... the £20 cable is maybe the only possible future purchase...

M

Check ebay, I think you can get one delivered for half that

 

[tdodd]

Appart from portraits... can you use flash fill in for other things... do you have any examples... just on our cruise this summer i'll be shooting in the middle of the day prob... just a function of the cruise times... dont have evenings in places... will the flash be useful to take with me... I hadn't thought of taking it up till now?

M

In theory you can use fill flash on any subject at all, be it people, animals, plants, statues, anything at all. The limitations are basically...

- the range of the flash;
- the angle of coverage (perhaps won't provide good light for lenses wider than 24mm on full frame);
- awkward reflections from steel/glass/glossy paintwork etc..

The real kicker regarding range is that in bright daylight the limited sync speed (1/200 on the 5D) means that you will need to stop down to f/11 at 100 ISO in bright sunshine (Sunny 16 Rule) in order to avoid blowing the background. Well at f/11 your flash range is only good for 22/11 = 2m. Now you would normally knock back the strength of fill a bit, perhaps to 1 stop below full illumination, so actually your range might be good for up to 3m as a fill light. That does limit the value to reasonably close subjects.

Here are some fill flash examples. I'm afraid I have very few examples other than people.