flash setup

[Owen Clarke]

Hi people i have a 550ex speedlite along with my 300d and am considering buying either another flash either a 420ex or 550ex to use off camera as a flash to light up my backgrounds when i do portraits. My question is would the 420 be adequate for this job as it is a bit cheaper than the 550ex and it wont be mt main flash. Opinions greatly appreciated thank.

[drisley]

I would say yes.
Other than the manual controls, the 550ex and 420ex are the same, save for a slightly increased range with the 550ex.

[robertwgross]

Yes. You probably don't need more than one wireless master in the scheme. So, one 420EX is almost as good as another 550EX, and it is much less expensive.

---Bob Gross---

[DaveG]

Hi people i have a 550ex speedlite along with my 300d and am considering buying either another flash either a 420ex or 550ex to use off camera as a flash to light up my backgrounds when i do portraits. My question is would the 420 be adequate for this job as it is a bit cheaper than the 550ex and it wont be mt main flash. Opinions greatly appreciated thank.

I use the 550 as the Master and a 420 as a slave and it works very well. But it's
not that great for convetional portraits though, since you'll lose a lot of power if you use an
umbrella or softbox as a light modifier on the 420. You're still better off with
monolights. They are no more expensive than a 420 and they'll give you much
more power and a modeling light. Alien Bees look like a good value.

Now where the 550/420 combination shines is when you are trying to do an
on-site photojournalism type, feature portrait. I use no light modification at all -
except for black cards that I Velcro to the sides of the 420 to prevent flare and
any extraneous flash from hitting the background. Both the 550 and the 420 are
aimed directly at the subject. The 550 will be the fill and the 420 the main. I have
a light stand to support the 420 and I can aim it where I need to, after reviewing
a few shots. I have a second 420 that I can introduce into the shot as a
background light if needed. I usually put that flash on a Minolta tabletop tripod.
The key is keeping both 420's in line of sight of the 550 so they will fire,

I've also used this set up (one 420 that is) to photograph people who are giving
speeches from a podium. It's remarkable how the indirect light makes this bland
type of photograph something special. I often turn off the flash tube in the 550
(the instruction pulse is still working) and I get only the light from the 420. Very
contrasty but very dramatic lighting.

By the way when you get the 420 you’ll turn to the instruction books in the 10D,
the 550 and the 420 and NONE will say anything about using just two flashes.
The instructions imply that you need two slaved flashes in order to make it
work. In fact you select Group B for the 420 and the 550 will default to Group A.
Then you are in business, but I dare anyone to show me this in any Canon
literature!

The other thing to watch out for is if you plan on using a flash meter. It simply
won’t work if you use E-TTL, and you must to make the Wireless TTL work. The
“instructional” pulse from the 550 will trigger your flash meter and the “real”
pulse that comes a tiny bit of a second later will be ignored. This E-TTL pre-flash
will also mess up any conventional light slaves that you may want to use. The
great thing though is that you could use the 550/420 Wireless TTL at a wedding,
say the cake cutting, since Aunt Gertrude’s point and shoot flash - or anyone
else’s - will NOT trigger the 420.