New Flash - Sigma EF-530 DG SUPER announced

[farrukh]

Advanced features and high performance with a powerful Guide Number of 53.
ELECTRONIC FLASH EF-530 DG SUPER

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new ELECTRONIC FLASH EF-530 DG SUPER.EF-530 DG SUPER features a powerful Guide Number of 53 and is designed to work with the latest TTL auto exposure systems of all popular manufacturers’ digital SLR cameras. Among the advanced features of this flash are modeling flash function, multi pulse flash, TTL wireless flash, FP (high speed) flash, rear-curtain Synchro flash and manual flash mode which allows the photographer to set the flash power level by up to eight stops. The Auto Power-Off function automatically shuts off the LCD panel to help save battery power. When the flashgun is fully charged, a confirmation ‘ready’ light will be emitted. The autozoom function automatically sets the optimum illumination angle in accordance with the lens’ focal length in a range from 24mm to 105mm. When the built-in Wide Panel is used, the flash can cover the angle of 17mm.For bounce flash, the flashgun head can be tilted up by 90 degrees, to the left by 180 degrees, or to the right by 90 degrees. It can also be tilted down by 7 degrees allowing ease of use for close-up photography.


http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/news/img/pphoto_ef_530_dg_super.jpg

FEATURES
Features a powerful guide number of 53.
Designed to work with the new TTL systems of all the popular manufacturers.
Covers a focal length from 24mm to 105mm.
Autozoom function automatically sets the optimum illumination angle.



Source : http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/news//070720_ef530_dg_super.htm

Also EF-530 DG ST

Source: http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/news//070720_ef530_dg_st.htm

[jcw122]

Cool! Congrats to Sigma for a new product to their flash line. I wonder how much it will go for.

[PacAce]

I wonder if it retains the optical slave feature found on the EF500 Super. And no Auto mode like the Metz 58AF-1 or the 580EX II?

[crash331]

So why is it better than my Ef-500 DG Super? Just the GN?

[AirBrontosaurus]

So why is it better than my Ef-500 DG Super? Just the GN?

That's what I was wondering. It didn't seem like it had any new features over the 500...

[farrukh]

So why is it better than my Ef-500 DG Super? Just the GN?

I think zoom coverage 24mm vs 28mm and new software with enchancments like color temprature data.

[Headcase650]

Hopefully this one knows the sensor size and adjusts for the proper crop. I wonder if they fixed the high speed sync problem of shutting itself off if shutter speeds fall to 250th or lower?

[Curtis N]

Hopefully this one knows the sensor size and adjusts for the proper crop.I would settle for a simple function on the flash to adjust for different sensor sizes. And I agree that the high speed sync auto-cancelling quirk is a royal PITA that needs to be addressed.

The 580EX II is so exorbitantly priced that reasonably priced aftermarket units will gain significant market share if they are well-designed. The Metz 58 is certainly a good alternative, and hopefully Sigma has a worthy competitor in this new unit.

[jmb4370]

Hi all,

I have just been able to add the aux sync jack to the Sigma EF-500 DG Super flash unit, and have confirmed that it works both as an input and an output. As an output it will operate the PW transmitter in any of the flash modes, while for the input, the flash has to be in Slave (non eTTL) mode. I am sure it will work for this newer model also.

When the flash is used off camera, a hot shoe to mini plug adapter will suffice, but when used on camera and you are trying to fire a PW transmitter also, you either have to plug into the camera PC port if you want to (if it exists), plug into one of my modified Off Camera cords that have this capibility, or have the flash modded with this aux sync jack.

Here is a link to the post on my blog that shows this in a picture.
http://michaelbass.blogspot.com/2006/11/canon-flash-auxillary-sync-mod.html

Michael
www.MichaelBassDesigns.com

[JMHPhotography]

It still doesn't rotate 180º/180º... grrrrr.

[Curtis N]

It still doesn't rotate 180º/180º... grrrrr.Is it really so hard to turn it the other direction? :confused:

[JMHPhotography]

Is it really so hard to turn it the other direction? :confused:

yeah... actually it is. lol. Ever try to bounce off the cieling in portrait mode pointing the camera at a downward angle? limited at 90º the flash head points forward which doesn't work if your subject is below you and close... or maybe you want to bounce off of the ceiling and wall connection over your left shoulder... and turning the flash in the other direction won't work because it stops at 180º which is straight backward. There is that little bit of range that you can't aim the flash head. The only way to do it with the Sigma is to rotate the camera the other way... with the shutter button facing downward. With a Grip, it's just awkward. I could even live with 180º/90º if the limits were reversed from what they are now.

[steveathome]

What I want to know is have Sigma got rid of that annoying little quirk where the high speed sync has to be re-set every time the shutter speed drops below a certain point.

[JMHPhotography]

What I want to know is have Sigma got rid of that annoying little quirk where the high speed sync has to be re-set every time the shutter speed drops below a certain point.

That was annoying, but at least you could work around that if you were aware of it. Using M mode on the camera alleviated a lot of the problem for me.

[northernlight]

I would settle for a simple function on the flash to adjust for different sensor sizes. And I agree that the high speed sync auto-cancelling quirk is a royal PITA that needs to be addressed.

The 580EX II is so exorbitantly priced that reasonably priced aftermarket units will gain significant market share if they are well-designed. The Metz 58 is certainly a good alternative, and hopefully Sigma has a worthy competitor in this new unit.

ill second that...

EVERYBODY: At what focallength is the GN53? Is this one of those BS-news that sunpak got known for?

[Curtis N]

At what focallength is the GN53?That would be at full zoom, 105mm (full frame). Just like the 580EX has a GN of 58 meters when zoomed all the way out. Nowadays pretty much all the flash makers use the same strategy when advertising GN.

[northernlight]

That would be at full zoom, 105mm (full frame). Just like the 580EX has a GN of 58 meters when zoomed all the way out. Nowadays pretty much all the flash makers use the same strategy when advertising GN.

who can blame them? :)
so it´s pretty much the same GN as in the 500DG...

[Vermin87]

I wonder if it still has the 10-full power shots limit

[northernlight]

what limit? i havent ever noticed that.

[cdifoto]

The 580EX II is so exorbitantly priced that reasonably priced aftermarket units will gain significant market share if they are well-designed. The Metz 58 is certainly a good alternative, and hopefully Sigma has a worthy competitor in this new unit.

Not so much anymore. $415 shipped via Amazon.com. $430 at B&H. $419 shipped at Buydig. The price difference over the old version is worth it for the weather resistance alone...

I'm still waiting for it to come down a bit more though. :)

[cdifoto]

what limit? i havent ever noticed that.

Not so much a limit as smart shooting - they recommend you fire off no more than a 10 shot burst before letting it rest so you don't burn up your flash. Canon does the same. ;)

[DavidW]

Pretty much any shoe mount flash is going to have a limit on the number of consecutive full power flashes before you need to give it cooling time. It's to do with the limited space into which everything has to be crammed.

If I hold my hand near the bare flash tube of my Qflash and fire it at full power (which, admittedly, is about four times the power of one of these flashes - around 200Ws as opposed to 50Ws), there's a noticeable pulse of heat that accompanies every flash. Too many of these in the confined space of a shoe mount flash's zoom head in too short a time has to be bad news.

Canon quote 20 consecutive full power flashes before 10 minutes cooling is needed (or 10 'modelling light' firings) in the manuals for the 580EX and 430EX. I believe Sigma quote 10 consecutive full power flashes before 10 minutes cooling is needed.


As for the guide number stuff, there's a touch of marketing guff about the figures, with the guide number for full zoom (and hence a narrow beam width) being quoted. That said, at least the manufacturers are relatively consistent.

In manual mode, my Qflash X5d-R shows the guide number in its display. At full power, connected to a 200Ws pack and set to ISO 100, the guide number is 28 for the standard reflector / diffuser combination, 50 for the reflector alone, 101 for the telephoto reflector (which I don't own), and 20 for the bare bulb enhancer.

105mm on 35mm full frame is about a 23 degree angle of view - which is pretty similar to the Qflash telephoto reflector (quoted at approximately 20 degrees). Doubling the guide number means four times the power (doubling the power multiplies the guide number by sqrt(2) - roughly 1.4x), so the Qflash X5d-R in 200Ws configuration is, indeed, roughly four times as powerful as a shoe mount flash with a guide number in the 50-something region.

105mm full frame is about 65mm on a 1.6x body.


If I'm using the Qflash on bracket, I usually use it with the diffuser on. This combination has a beam width of about 70 degrees, which corresponds to a focal length of 30mm on full frame and 19mm on 1.6x.

If we're generous to my 580EX, and allow it to be in the 35mm position for comparison (it would actually be in the 28mm position), the GN of the 580EX is 36 and that of the Qflash X5d-R is 28. However, the Qflash is a nice diffuse light source, whereas I would be using the 580EX with a diffuser which will lose me around a stop (I often use the 580EX with a Promax System with the white insert unless the ceiling is a good bounce source - a Promax System with the white insert and without the diffuser screen is -1 1/3 stops, which is equivalent to multiplying the guide number by sqrt(2) ^ -1.33 = 0.63). 36*0.63 gives an effective guide number for the 580EX of 22.5, only I will typically zoom the 580EX out to 24mm - with a guide number of 28 and an effective guide number of 28 * 0.63 = 17.6. The Qflash has about 1 1/3 stops advantage (28 compared to 28 less 1 1/3 stops!).

To put this into context, at ISO 400, 17.6 is doubled to 35.2. At a typical aperture of f/5.6, that gives me a working distance of up to 6.3 metres for the 580EX / Promax System with white insert option, and up to 28 * 2 / 5.6 = 10 metres for the Qflash.


Coming away from all that maths, the lesson is that unless you use your shoe mount flash 'straight on' (which I rarely do, because of the poor quality of the light), you have to be very careful about using the headline guide number. The effective guide number of my 580EX as I often use it as a bracket mounted flash - zoomed out to 24mm with my Promax System fitted with the white insert - is not 58, but about 17.5.



David

[SunTsu]

Does anyone know how many fires a flash is supposed to last over its lifetime? I don't know if it's been published, but surely it's limited. I've never had a flash die on me from wear, so I expect the number to be quite high.

[Curtis N]

Does anyone know how many fires a flash is supposed to last over its lifetime? I don't know if it's been published, but surely it's limited. I've never had a flash die on me from wear, so I expect the number to be quite high.Flash unit life has to be as hard to predict as battery life. Probably harder. Heat is the enemy of electronic devices, and these things get hot when you use them hard.

The casual amateur who just uses it indoors, rarely pushes the power limit and doesn't do fast burst will likely see his flash last a very long time.

The pro with a battery pack shooting quickly for hours at a time and using most or all of the power capacity will probably not be so fortunate.

[cdifoto]

The pro with a battery pack shooting quickly for hours at a time and using most or all of the power capacity will probably not be so fortunate.

Long live cheap 383s! :)