Dumb question about 420EX

I just recently moved up from an XT to a 50D. I had a cheapie Sunpak that I used on my XT. When I wanted to compensate for bouncing the light off a ceiling or reflector (ie, the flash was pointed up), I usually had to manually increase the flash power by one or two settings using the buttons on the flash.

Now that I have the 50D, I found a really good deal on a used 420EX. My dumb question is, with it being an official Canon product, will the camera/flash know when the flash is pointed upward and adjust accordingly? Or will I still need to do it manually?

Thanks for tolerating my dumb question.

plawren53202 wrote in post #14415629
Now that I have the 50D, I found a really good deal on a used 420EX. My dumb question is, with it being an official Canon product, will the camera/flash know when the flash is pointed upward and adjust accordingly? Or will I still need to do it manually?

Thanks for tolerating my dumb question.

The 420EX (which is what I use) works just fine as an ETTL-controlled flash both with the head set to straight-ahead or at any angle it can be set to.

The 420EX does not have manual flash settings which is one advantage of the 430EX and better Canon flash units over the 420EX.

plawren53202 wrote in post #14415629
with it being an official Canon product, will the camera/flash know when the flash is pointed upward and adjust accordingly?

That's not how E-TTL works.

It fires a pre-flash and meters the light reflected from the scene and back through the lens. If it's pointed at the ceiling, or at your mother-in-law's rear end, or anywhere else for that matter, this will affect how the pre-flash illuminates the scene and the flash power is automatically adjusted accordingly.