Beginner Neewer EX565 E-TTL on Canon 50D

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Hello, I'm new to this forum, in fact I'm new to forums in general. I've just bought from Amazon a Neewer 565 E TTL for my Canon 50D
The instruction leaflet is badly translated and inadequate. I'm at a family reunion lunch next weekend and would like some shots of the occasion. This is where I need to produce my camera with speedlight already set up without having spent thirty minutes before hand conducting trials on a spectrum from deep gloom to total white-out. The flash is badged as E-TTL (for Canon) but it does toggle between E TTl and i TTL (Nikon) on the settings, I would like advice please on the two options: Totally auto TTL or manual. If it's manual is there a rule-of-thumb setting for aperture and exposure? Will I need to reduce the power output via the camera of on the device? To be honest, I haven't used flash for 35 years when the latest gun was thyristor controlled and seemed very good. Any help please?
 
Ettl and program mode "should" give you auto flash... at least thats the theory. If I remember rightly by default Canons set long exposure in AV mode (the correct speed for that exposure without flash) on program it sorts it out for you if you need easy of use. You may still have to dial the power up or down for correct exposure, theres a lot of factors affecting that, but it's usually a plus or minus button and either two buttons, or a rotary wheel to ajust.
 
I’m concerned that it’s not a genuine ETTL flash if it toggles to iTTL. Has it definitely got a Canon hotshoe? Some cheap flashes will only do ETTL as a slave
 
I’m concerned that it’s not a genuine ETTL flash if it toggles to iTTL. Has it definitely got a Canon hotshoe? Some cheap flashes will only do ETTL as a slave

You might be right.
I don't know the model range with these flashes, a mate bought one a few years ago, no idea what model, it looked the business, another mate a pro even advised him after reading the advert. Long story short it was a pure manual job.
Even had the red IR window. I only twigged after playing silly beggars with it for 10 minutes, when I took it off his camera to try on mine and spotted the single contact on the foot.
Some seem designed to mislead.
 
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I bought a cheap speedlight, but it wasn’t cheap because the first one was pure manual with only one contact and the second was Sony dedicated only but the idiot seller neglect to mention that. Third time lucky and this one is manual and auto with multiple contacts to fit the shoe. Anyway, I shall persevere and act on your advice. I’ve played around with it a bit and got a handle on the manual settings to start with. It’s quite good bounced off a wall, a lot too glaring full on. Thanks for your help.
 
I’ve played around with it a bit and got a handle on the manual settings to start with. It’s quite good bounced off a wall, a lot too glaring full on.
That’s speedlights for you; it doesn’t matter whether it’s an onboard flash on a £200 camera or a £400 speedlight on a £5000 camera, point the flash directly at the subject and you get the same result.

Your speedlight should have a mode switch, to change it from M to TTL.
A couple of general rules:
  • The most important thing is to grasp the fact that you’re balancing 2 separate exposures, the ambient light and the flash.
  • if your flash is the main light source, then use Manual for the ambient exposure (you can choose how much to underexpose it by).
  • If your subject is likely to be various distances, use TTL for the flash, manual flash for studio type setups.
  • Using a high shutter speed is rarely necessary as the flash freezes motion so flash sync speed is usually high enough, the most obvious exception is when balancing flash with bright sunlight.
TTL could be ETTL, iTTL or something else depending on your camera
 
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I’ve got the measure of this speedlight now. It seems to me to work perfectly in the TTL mode. The zoom works in perfect synchronisation with the lens and the illumination of the subject is consistent whether direct or via wall or ceiling bounce. At £45 it’s a good buy. Fingers crossed that it lasts.
 
Glad you’re getting the hang of it,
Oddly I find an auto zooming flash head about the most useless ‘auto’ feature in photography, a flashgun is so rarely used camera mounted and straight on it really is pointless.

Once the flash is ‘bounced’ the zoom is wrong, and even more pointless when off camera.
 
I never thought about the zoom aspect and of course, you’re spot-on. was just relieved to find that it was communicating with the camera.
 
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