Review Sigma 500DG super, first opinion.

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Hugh
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I bought the Canon fit flash from Onestop Digital on Saturday the 13th, it was despached on the 16th and arrived on Saturday morning 20th, delivered with the normal post. Seven days from order to delivery from HK is top notch, and no fees to pay.

First impression, good god it's huge! but then when I hold it up to my old flash I realise it's only slightly bulkier and certainly not heavier. It comes with a case, made of typical Sigma tough cavassy material, no padding but a small pocket inside for filters I suppose.

Build quality seems excellent, I've seen reviewers speaking of plasticky feel etc but it doesn't seem that way to me, likewise the battery compartment cover, I had no problem opening/closing it and it also seems strong and fits well.

The flash head can be tilted from horizontal to vertical plus a little bit (7deg) past that at either end, the head is stiff enough to sit happily at the angle you leave it as long as you don't swing it about wildly, this brings up an oddity about the flash, though it does have set positions for elevation it only locks into place in two of them flat and 7deg past vertical. When in a locked position you must press the release stud on the side before you can move it again. There is also a release button for the swivel movement, this time the head locks in place only at the centre position.

It has built in Zoom from 105mm to 28mm and out to 17mm if you use the nifty diffuser that is housed in the top of the flash (to use it you pull it out swing it down and clip into place, do the reverse to store it away) I'm not sure yet wether the zoom range will have any effect on images taken with my longer lenses, though tbh I can't see me taking many shots at 300mm with it.

It's come at the worst possible time for me, on call all weekend and would you know it the phone doesn't stop ringing :( all that is my excuse for not having any sample pics to show yet. From the shots I have taken the unit does a very good job of exposing so it must be talking to the camera well enough. The instruction book is 12 pages long and reasonably well translated and understood but I think for me at least it's going to be a case of hands on with the book to read before I get to grips with it properly, there are a lot of features to learn.

I have a couple of days off this week so I'll spend some time with it and post some samples from each of my lenses.

To be continued...
 
I'll be interested to read some more about your time with the 500, and look forward to seeing the results from it.

I considered getting the 500 to sit on top of my 20D, but decided Canon's own flashes might have been able to talk to the camera easier. That was probably an unfounded fear because the 500 always has good reviews.
 
I've had mine about three months and I agree with everything you've said. (y)

regards
 
hmm...something else to add to my wishlist :D
 
the one i have is also very good, cant complain about the unit at all
 
I've got one and it's great. Usually sends out just the right amount of light, well built, reasonably quick recycle time as well.

There's one problem I'm starting to experience though, it has no means of taking power from an external battery pack. If you anticipate being in a situation where you will be taking a lot of shots with flash it might be worth considering one of Canon's own variants.
 
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