Survey of people's experiences with Speedlite flash/G3

[mactheripper]

Whoo-hoo! New gear arrived today. Thanks to the members of this forum and their advice to others, I bought all this from Lensmate, and it came over to Germany in a week!!!
- Kenko 2x teleconverter lens
- Raynox 6600 wide-angle
- Hoya Linear Polarizers
- Hoya Macro Set (+1, +2, +4)
- Lensmate 52mm G3 adapter + lenscap

Going out today to shoot some samples. I am kicking myself for not getting the second adapter; since I'm going to need a new camera bag to hold all this stuff (using Samsonite Trekker now), I might as well have splurged on a second or third adapter so I could leave one on the lens and one on the camera. I now understand why people hate lens threads.

Final question: I also want a flash, and I'm leaning towards the 420ex so it will be forwards-compatible when I get a D1 someday... hehe. Can any of you share specific rants or raves on different speedlite flashes on G3s?

-mactheripper
www.safarium.com

[s00pcan]

How does that wide-angle lens look on your 52mm adaptor? And is the vignetting, if any, offcentered like mine?

[LSC]

The 200e does not work with the G5. Do not know about the G3.

[snapmando]

I just recieved my 420EX,

Man what a difference a good flash will make.

Regular pictures show wonderful detail now, no more washed out backgrounds anymore.

If you want awesome pictures from your G camera, it is a must......

Bouncing the flash of the ceiling yeilds great results, you can't do that with the flash on the camera :D

Snapmando

[s00pcan]

Can someone post a picture of their g3/5 with a 420ex? I want to see how big it really looks on it.

[pradeep1]

420 EX is good price/performance for a camera such as the Gx series. It is not too big, expensive, or heavy.

[pradeep1]

Can someone post a picture of their g3/5 with a 420ex? I want to see how big it really looks on it.


Here's a picture:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong3/page5.asp

and here

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/g3_pg2.html

A little top heavy.

[s00pcan]

looks huge.

[4walls]

I use the 380EX and it is a great flash. Available on eBay. Also, the 200E does work on the G3, but will only fire at full power.

[jglisson73]

Can someone post a picture of their g3/5 with a 420ex? I want to see how big it really looks on it.


Here's a picture:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong3/page5.asp

and here

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/g3_pg2.html

A little top heavy.

The picture from Steve's Digicams is actually a 550EX. It is larger than the 420EX. The 420 is still large for the camera, but definitely the flash to get! It also is a flash that you can grow into. I love mine...especially with the stofen omnibounce.

John

[darrylr]

The 420ex goes really well with the G3/G5. It is rather large (basically doubles the size of the G3) but takes really nice pics and you can bounce it on the walls or ceiling for even better results. The smaller model cannot do this. The only reason for going with a 550ex would be if you need the extra power (which you probably don't) or plan to get a Digital Rebel. The Digital Rebel does not have any way to adjust FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation) but the 550ex has manual controls on it to do this. There are no manual controls on the 420ex. The 10D and most likely future Canon dSLR's with have FEC on the body so it shouldn't be an issue other than with the Rebel.

-Darryl

[mactheripper]

Thanks for the words, all. I am ordering a 420ex soon, along with another Lensmate adapter. Now, I know where to buy the Lensmate, (!), but where do you recommend I buy the 420ex?

Well, s00pcan, I took a lot of test shots the other day so I could compare results with/without lenses and polarizers, but I don't have a photo account online, so I need to resample them and post them on my yahoo account.
Give me a day or so...

Oh, and I didn't have any vignetting with the wide-angle on the 52mm adapter, as far as I could tell. You'll have to wait for the pix to see for sure.

[darrylr]

Best place to buy is www.bhphotovideo.com for $180 US but they are closed until April 14:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=206436&is=USA

-Darryl

[pradeep1]

Can someone post a picture of their g3/5 with a 420ex? I want to see how big it really looks on it.


Here's a picture:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong3/page5.asp

and here

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/g3_pg2.html

A little top heavy.


Oops. I was not paying attention. :roll:

The picture from Steve's Digicams is actually a 550EX. It is larger than the 420EX. The 420 is still large for the camera, but definitely the flash to get! It also is a flash that you can grow into. I love mine...especially with the stofen omnibounce.

John

[snguyen]

I also recommend B&H. I bought a gray market 420EX from them two months ago. Flash (with the English manual) arrived as promised.

[Mac22]

Here's my G3 w/420EX (plus Canon LA-DC58B lens adapter and a Tiffen Sky 1a filter)



http://home.att.net/~woodsman22/MyG3w420EX4IttyBitty.jpg

Mac22

[mactheripper]

OK, I finally got some free disk space under my name... ThePhotoStation.net.

Here are the demo shots using a Kenko KNT-20 2x teleconverter, the Raynox DCR 6600 .72x wideangle lens, and Hoya linear polarizers. I'm repeating everything so this thread will be searchable, not to make you read it again. :)

http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262ducks_full_camera_zoom.jpg
Full 3x optical zoom using only the camera.

http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262ducks_full_telezoom.jpg
...and using 2x teleconverter. For not using a tripod, I think the shot is pretty clear, what little color was available was reproduced well. I need to redo these on a more sunny day.

OK, now I'm playing with the vignetting on the Kenko. Here's one all the way zoomed in:
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262fischen_w_telephoto-med.jpg

Partially zoomed out, still OK (the camera recorded the focal length as 20.7mm, but that's not taking the lens into account):
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262fischen_tele_wider-med.jpg

And finally, showing some vignetting (focal length 15.8mm):
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262fischen_vignetting-med.jpg

So according to my rough calculations, that's a little over half way that I can pull out with the Kenko attached where it starts to vignette. fyi, the aperture was 4.0 on all three of the previous pictures.

Fun with Polarizers:
This just goes to show you that you have to trust your eyes and that tiny LCD screen, and get back to the office to check your results. Here's a landscape with the polarizer set to the worst rotation, or no effect on the incoming light:
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262church_tree_nopolarizer.jpg

Here is the same shot with the polarizer rotated into "Polarize Excellently" mode:
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262church_tree_withpolarizer.jpg

Finally, just to verify there is no vignetting with the DCR 6600 zoomed all the way in, here's a shot at max zoom:
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262church_door_wideanglezoomin-med.jpg

Same shot, with wideangle lens removed, camera zoom unchanged:
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262church_door_camerazoom-med.jpg

Finally, my favorite shot so far, a macro shot that didn't use anything:
http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/data/500/1262water_droplets_flowers.jpg

PS. the gallery for these is at http://www.thephotostation.net/photopost/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/1262.
Comments welcome.[/b]