Hot Shoe Flashes for Events

I'm looking to add a couple more hot shoe flashes to my bag for portrait and event work. I currently have one 430EX II and PW Plus II triggers and am comfortable working with the flashes in manual. Occasionally, I will use my 7D ETTL trigger for quick portrait setups. I would like to add 2 or 3 more flashes so I can cross light events, add rim and hair lighting to my portraits, and also use multiple strobes in an Apollo Orb.

Ideally I'd like to keep everything Canon for redundancy and ETTL on-camera work. Secondly, I don't want the flashes to break the bank because I would have to add several more Plus II's as well.

Things I'm trying to accomplish:
- More sources of light
- Redundancy in case one flash fails on assignment
- More power

I have 3 flashes in mind:
- 430EX II (~$250 new)
- 580EX (~$250 used)
- 580EX II (~$399 new)


Couple of questions for you Strobies:

- For events, how useful are CP-E4 power packs with the 580's and are they necessary?
- Would I be better off having 4 430EX II's (or 580EX's) or 1 580EX II + 2 430's?
- Should I go with the older 580EX (more power and external power) or stick with the newer 430EX II?

I have had 2 580EX IIs used mostly off camera with PW Plus IIs for triggers. They have also been used on camera for events. I have recently added 2 more LumoPro LP160 manual flashes. Two more 580EX IIs are suppose to arrive tomorrow.

The advantages of the 580EX II vs the 430EX II are:

1) Higher power, about 0.5 f/stops.
2) Build in pc-sync connector
3) Can be a master or slave in Canon wireless system
4) Head rotates 180 deg in both directions.
5) Can use external batter pack (faster recycle times, 3x more flashes before batteries die).

How important these advantages are depends on how you use flash. If you shoot wedding receptions, the battery pack will come in very useful. You can use the battery pack on light stands to speed up your recycle time, although this probably only makes a difference near maximum power.

By the way, the built in pc-sync connector on a 580EX II is a screw type. You can use the default cable that comes with the PW plus II, but it does not make a reliable connection. I had to tape them in to get reliable connections until I bought pc-screw PW cables from FlashZeba. You can use one PW plus II to fire two 580EX II in an Apollo Orb for example, using a splitter. You have to be very careful with splitters though. Don't ever connect them to two different kinds of flashes. The flash generates the sync pulse. All the pocket wizard does is close the circuit. Not all flashes have the same sync voltage. A flash with a high voltage sync could damage a lower voltage sync flash. The LP160s would not work at all when connected to a splitter, but they have an optical slave, so it really isn't needed.

With a 580EX II, you can run a E-TTL cable into a 580EX II in the Orb, then use that to control any other flash inside the Orb. This should allow you to control your flashes in the Orb from the menus on your camera. I'm not sure how you trigger other flashes outside the Apollo in this kind of set up. I could trigger the LP160s as optical slaves, but none of the Cannon flashes have that option built in, although it is possible to get optical triggers fairly inexpensively, you just need the ones that can ignore Cannon wireless pulses.

I would recommend getting at least one 580EX II. I think the older 580EX I lacks the pc-sync port and has a plastic foot instead of metal. The 580EX I also is suppose to recycle a little slower.

What you get all depends on what you want to do. If you want to fight with bright sunlight outdoors, even the more powerful 580EX II is marginal. Two 580EX IIs in a soft light modifier, like a softbox or shoot thru umbrella, have to be kept close to the subject to fight bright sunlight. Of course if you use flashes bare for hard light or if you position your subject in the shade with a shaded background, then it is not a problem. If you want to fight bright sunlight, you should think about buying some kind of battery powered studio strobe. Something in the 400w/s or 600w/s will be a big improvement (A 580EX II is probably about 60w/s equivalent).

Thanks for the information Mike. I'm not trying to overpower the sun at this moment, so studio strobes are not quite what I'm looking for. As for the 580EX II, I know that I want at least one for my on-camera flash. Its the off-camera flashes I'm concerned about. The more I think about it, I think my best move is to pick up a few 580EX II's.

I was going to recommend the 420ez and 540ez flashes but you need E-TTL. Also, neither of these do master/slave unless you have external triggers. If you're comfortable with full manual, nothing can touch them for the price and some of Canon's older models will fire them in native TTL. My 5D can use them in TTL but I usually just use manual.

I just recently acquired 2x 420ez's here and I absolutely love them. They will be in my bag probably forever. I also have a 540ez that I'm in the middle of repairing. I used that as my one and only hot-shoe flash for a while and was quite impressed.

Both models can be had for cheap, 40-60 for the 420's and 50-150 for the 540. Sometimes you see them attached to old 35mm EOS 650's, 888's, 750's, 10s, ELAN, etc......and periodically they pop up in the Classifieds Section on POTN.

One more is the 550ex, it's basically a 540ez with E-TTL and master/slave function. 100% of the balls of the 540 without the pricetag of the 580. They can be had for the price of a new 430 and the recycle time on them is supposedly faster than the 580 II

I'd get a 580 and add a 3.5mm jack to the foot (easier then adding one to a 550).

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=827070

Staszek wrote in post #13565355
- For events, how useful are CP-E4 power packs with the 580's and are they necessary?

I'll keep my mouth shut and leave the experts here to talk to you about the flashes. As far as the pack goes, I'd say it's indispensable especially if you're an event photographer. For one, the pack full of batteries would last you longer than a typical event, i.e., you can just concentrate on taking the pictures without interruptions due to battery drainage or slowing down recycle time. The flash recycle time is lot quicker for long duration with the pack, so you'd need to be careful not to shoot the flash in Rambo style and damage your expensive flash. One of the most valued among my photography gear is the CP-E4. You also have an option to go with cheaper ones out there, but I have no experience with any of them.

The 580 has a bit extra power, but that's only a benefit if the 430 doesn't put out enough power for what you need to begin with - and if it doesn't, you may want to look at alternatives to the 580, because it doesn't give out that much more power...

I use 3 430EX II flashes, and I don't think I've ever fired any of them at full power for anything but testing - and for portraits and related stuff, the 430 is more than capable of handling it
99% of what I use the 430 for is remote, and when you're remote, you don't care about how it tilts or that it can master other flashes
I do have a 1st gen 580 flash - I sometimes use it as a master when I need to do something really quick, but it's not that often. I do have a battery pack for it as well, and I might use it for 1/3 of the events the 580 takes place in - most of the time, I'm OCF only and that 580 is in my pocket in case I do need something from the camera position