Canon 430EX II OR Vivitar AGPRO-648 Series 1 Digital TTL

Like the title says which is better

Canon 430EX II OR Vivitar AGPRO-648 Series 1 Digital TTL

http://estorevilla.com …detail.asp?prod​uctid=4561

Anyone?

I have no experience with the vivitar, but you cant go wrong with a 430exII.

This Vivitar flash has the name Vivitar DF-383 officially. If you ask which of the 2 is better then the clear answer is: 430EX II.

I've got two 430s and they are great flashes.

I've got the Vivitar and from my experience with it I can say that on the positive side of things, it does what it says it'll do, and the controls are fairly easy to manage. The downside, which is something I'm currently with, is that the foot of the flash is plastic, and it is affecting the flash's ability to mount to my camera securely. The wheel tightener seems to jump the threads and makes securing it difficult. Hope this helps.

Reading the specs and comparing the price, there's no way I'd buy the Vivitar for $300. The Vivitar sounds like a plain optical slave and not Canon ETTL slave.

These two flashes shouldn't even be close in terms of price. I bought my DF-383 from B&H for $129. The 430exii comes in at around $300.

I was just going by the link the OP gave.

That confused me as well, I did a google search and saw the vivitar listed for nearly $300, it didnt make sense at that price.

That store looks more than shady to me. The ridiculous pricing, the fact that they don't even know what the name of that product is, and the fact that you see the Nikon version "NIK" when you enlarge the photo that's supposed to show the Canon flash. I would never buy from them.

The price for the flash is indeed $130 in most other places.

Thanks everyone. The reason I asked is because they had the 430ex ii on sale and when I ordered from them they said it's back ordered for 4-6 weeks and offered me this flash for the same price. I refused and they cancelled the order now.

If they're pulling stuff like that, stay away from that store entirely. Any online vendor should sell you whatever you want regardless of anything. Just go to B&H or Amazon and order from there.

I would definitely go with the 430EX II...better shoe mount (locking, metal, etc), more zoom, more power control, likely better build quality, and the Canon flash as a whole is a known quantity. Lots of people have them and use them all the time.

Sounds like this is their normal bait and switch technique. Here is a Resellerratings.com review with the same story.
http://www.resellerrat​ings.com/store/eStoreV​illa
They still list the Canon 550ex flash for sale. This has not been a current model for years now.
I would delete this site from your browser and stick to trusted sites. B&H has the 430 in stock.