Canon 550EX flash

[lluscombe]

Hello,

I would be interested in some opinions of the Canon 550EX flash unit. I own a Nikon SB-28 (last piece of Nikon equipment from my previous system), but purchased a Canon 550EX flash shortly after purchasing the 10D.

I have some complaints about this flash. First of all, it is ugly - looks like a yard sale item from the 70s. Secondly, the interface is difficult to learn, and limited, compared to the beautiful and full featured Nikon offering. Thirdly it whines incessantly when on - the Nikon is almost completely silent. And fourthly, the color is slightly biased toward warm, which gives a terrible (though slight) cast to light colors, especially. These points have somewhat put me off, as I paid 3 times more for it than the Nikon. Does anyone else have these complaints?

In its favour, I have never experienced flash exposure this accurate. Point it at anything, and it will give wonderful exposure without a hard flash look. That is the only reason I am keeping it. The Nikon in A does OK for most situations, but is not as trustworthy. On the other hand, for studio work, I always use the Nikon, because I can't match the color temperature of the Canon to anything. Even the color of the lens of the 550EX the ghastly yellow/green cast can be seen, whereas the Nikon is a pure white. Any comments?

The Canon system is wonderful, but I miss the Nikkor 20mm f2.8 and the SB-28 flash.

[D60wannabe]

Buy a d100 and go take some pictures! Whatever! How can you tell a 550ex is ugly if your taking pictures. Man! Some of you people will whine about anything...ugly...come on!

Paul

[lluscombe]

Paul,

I hear you. I could easily put up with the looks. I guess I have my complaints in reverse order of importance. :)

[RichardtheSane]

Two Words...
Stofen Omnibounce

They work a dream with the 550EX unit on ETTL :)

IMHO the 550 looks tidy, functional and very professional.
:)

[Longwatcher]

I have a pair of 550EX and overall love them.

The only complaint I have is it is a pain to use them in manual mode. They do a great job of self-adjusting to correctly cover even lighting, but sometimes I want to use them for more dramatic effects and then they are a pain. The 10D is easier to figure out then the flashes.

I recently used them for shooting a family reunion (my mom's side) and they worked great as portable lighting.
However, when in auto modes, they will automatically compensate, even when I don't want them to and it took awhile for me to figure this out.

The darn things are fairly powerful also and can spotlight someone at about 20 meters (at least it seemed that far). I really love the ability to use one as master and the other as slave.

Take into account that prior to getting the 550's it had been 20 years since I last used a flash (it had been 20 years since I had a real camera too). So my last memories of flashes,prior to 2002 was a simple power setting on the flash and the on/off switch.

[justme_dc]

In no particular order......

Ugly? Maybe....I too think that the nikon flashes are a bit nicer looking but pretty is as pretty does so I'll live with it. At least it isn't that awful biege like my L lenses.

Noisy? I personally have never owned a Canon branded flash that didn't Howl like a banshee when it was charging and chirp imtermittantly while just sitting charged. I just assumed all flashes do this. My Sunpaks are noisy and so were my old vivitars. Try hooking the 550EX up to a Quantum turbo battery, it'll get louder.

Wierd control interface? Kinda. The flash does a lot of stuff, most of it is hidden in sub menus or by button combos. A little tough to figure out but as I have been using canon flashes since before the old 430EZ I am used to it.

Odd color cast? Not on mine....Perhaps you have a bad apple. I used to think Canon had flawless quality control but as my 10D sits collecting dust in their repair shop I have lost a bit of faith in them. Maybe try some color testing with a macbeth using the same color balance for both flashes. It might be that you are just more used to the SB's "look" and the new flash just doesn't feel right in comparison.

Bottom line? 550EX is a great flash, a little quirky but acceptable. E-TTL is a bit complicated but when used correctly it yields the best autoflash exposures I ever seen, hands down.

Good luck to you.