Please help me choose

[gjdagis]

I know I am a neophyte so please bear with me. I have a few questions that I would sincerely like to have some direction on.

First. (I know this is an easy one for you guys but I don't know) what is the advantage of an added flash (excepting the swivel, tilt etc) of an additional flash unit over the built in one? I have a Canon Digital Rebel

Secondly, How do flash units like Achiever and Metz compare to the Canon brand? I mean I noticed that it costs $350+ in order to get a canon flash that includes features like tilt, variable zoom, variable power, etc., while the Achiever manages to include many of these features at about $170. The Metz appears to have a worldwide following.

Although I am quite ignorant at present, with your help I may find what is best. My purposes right now might be modest but I would prefer to buy a unit that can "grow" with me into possible professional photography.

Thank you so much for your help.

Sincerely,
George

[Andy_T]

Geoge,

I'm not an expert myself. I use a Metz MZ40 with a Canon adapter on my G2.

The main difference of any external flash unit is that is vastly more powerful than an internal flash. There is a figure measuring the output of a flash (think it's called LZ value in German) that basically tells how much light a flash is able to give. For the Metz it's 40 (most likely 42 for the Canon 420 and 55 for the 550???) and the built-in flashes normally have something between 10 - 15. Should be in your dRebel specs. Roughly put, a flash with LZ40 can light objects that are 2 times as far away as a flash with LZ20 at a given focal length (those in the know, please correct me if IÄm terribly wrong :)).

So when the light from the internal unit is not enough, the external unit normally does the job.

E.g. if you take a photo in the house, with the internal unit you might only light the people you shoot, but not the wall that's 3 meters behind them. That would remain dark. Also, the subjects of your photo will look unnatural because of the 'colour of the flash' (unnatural white colour).

If you use an external flash and aim it at the ceiling, you'll get the whole room lit up and the people will look more natural, because the light does not come directly from the front.

Second, when using the internal flash, you might get 'red eyes', because the flash is too close to the lens and the light reflected from the flash is bounced back immediately. The farther the flash is away from the lens, the less that effect. The DRebel should be pretty good in that respect, as the internal flash unit is positioned very high.

Difference between Canon and non-Canon flashes? I realize that a Canon flash like the 420 or 550 will have more features than my Metz on a Canon camera because it is directly supported by the camera. Especially the metering will be easier (few photos will be under- or overexposed), as some modes are not possible with the adapter.

However, I had it over from my Nikon gear and 50$ on a new adapter were less expensive than a new flash unit...

Regards,
Andy

[Jesper]

With an external flash that you can swivel / tilt, you don't need to always flash head-on, which most of the time gives an ugly "deer-in-the-headlights" look.

I'd be surprised if the Canon Speedlite 420EX, which does swivel and tilt, costs $350. I bought mine for € 215.

Here is a lot of information about Canon EOS flash photography:
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash

Jesper

[reggie0326]

Jesper,

Do you use the Canon 420ex with the Drebel ? I want to purchase the 420ex for my DRebel, and I am curious about weather all functions work as advistised on both the 420ex Flash and the DRebel Camera.

Thanks,
Reggie

[Jesper]

reggie0326 wrote:
Do you use the Canon 420ex with the Drebel ? I want to purchase the 420ex for my DRebel, and I am curious about weather all functions work as advistised on both the 420ex Flash and the DRebel Camera.


No, I'm using it on my Elan 7E. I think the 420EX is the newest in Canon's EX-series flashes. The red AF assist beam of the 420EX covers all the seven AF points of the Elan 7E; the 550EX only covers (I think) the five horizontal AF points.

I don't have a DRebel (I'm waiting for the 10D that I've ordered... :-)...

By the way, the 420EX also has a zooming head.

[DaveG]

gjdagis wrote:
I know I am a neophyte so please bear with me. I have a few questions that I would sincerely like to have some direction on.

First. (I know this is an easy one for you guys but I don't know) what is the advantage of an added flash (excepting the swivel, tilt etc) of an additional flash unit over the built in one? I have a Canon Digital Rebel

Secondly, How do flash units like Achiever and Metz compare to the Canon brand? I mean I noticed that it costs $350+ in order to get a canon flash that includes features like tilt, variable zoom, variable power, etc., while the Achiever manages to include many of these features at about $170. The Metz appears to have a worldwide following.

Although I am quite ignorant at present, with your help I may find what is best. My purposes right now might be modest but I would prefer to buy a unit that can "grow" with me into possible professional photography.

Thank you so much for your help.

Sincerely,
George


When you add a flash like the 550 you get two immediate advantages over the built in flash. First the add on flash is much more powerful. The second is that you can get the flash OFF of the camera.

One of the things that separate the pro's from the amateur's is their use of flash. I use a Stroboframe Pro-T bracket, and what this does is it lets me keep the flash over the lens in both horizontal (the built in flash or a flash in the hot shoe will do the same thing) and vertical positions. The built in flash - or a 550 in the hot shoe will be on the left hand side of the camera when you shoot a vertical and will throw a side shadowbehind your subject. This side shadow is absolutely unacceptable for a pro.

On the specific flash front you get what you pay for. I don't know much about the Achiever flash but I wonder how it will stand up. The Metz is a good choice but only if you can avoid their horrible SCA module system. I use a Mamiya Pro-TL with a Metz 45-CL4 and the SCA module and it's a disaster waiting to happen. All these cords, and a big mess up will happen when just one fails. Now if the Metz doesn't need the SCA with the RebelD and you still get all of the automation then the Metz would be a good choice.

You might also want to look into an old style flash like the Vivitar 283. I used it one on an assignment just after I got my 10D and before I got my 550. It worked flawlessly. The ability to get consistent light output, that can be fine tuned with the aperture of the 10D, is something unavailable with the advanced but inconsistent E-TTL of the 550. You lose all the cool things that the 550/420 offers like dedication and AF assist but you do get better consistency.