Need some help with flash setup

I am looking into buying a flash to use for macro photography and would need some help with what gear to purchase.
I'm shooting with a EF 100/2.8L IS

From what i understand its preferable to get the flash off camera.

I have some questions that I hope to get some help answering.
Have browsed this forum a lot, especially the thread showing of different rigs, there are however a lot of different options shown and I'm having a difficult time finding most equipment needed where i live (Europe/Sweden).

1) Is it enough to have 1 flash?

2) I am not sure what flash to buy, mainly looking at either 270EX II or 430EX II.
After reading it seems that the 270EX II is sufficient for macro and has the advantage of being smaller and lighter.
The 430EX II would be better for non-macro applications, but would it be a better option for macro as well?

3) My biggest questionmark is how to get the flash off camera.
I like the options that have the flash mounted on some sort of flexible arm, would the Manfrotto 196B-2 be a good option for this? I'm worried about weight stacking up though, the arm "only" weighs 400g by itself but i guess i would need some bracket to mount it on, and maybe a small ballhead to mount the flash to the arm?

Then there are the Novoflex arms but im worried that they wont steadily hold the weight.

Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated!

You're probably going to get a lot of different solutions for this. Here's mine:

I use a Newton flash rotator bracket with a mini ballhead. It gets the flash off the camera and lets me rotate it to the same position when the camera is vertical. It's kind of like a Stroboframe, but closer to the end of the lens and more compact.

Here's a quick pic with a 100L and tubes:

Heya,

1. Maybe? It really depends on what you're shooting. I use one flash and it's enough, with a 12" diffuser. I mostly shoot bugs & flowers. I use it both on and off camera depending on my goals and mood.

2. Any flash will work. A cheap manual flash will work. I wouldn't get too complicated with it if it's a normal speedlite. TTL isn't going to be useful at this range (well, it could be, but I've yet to see it work properly at close range like this, could be my error though). So you're typically going to shoot manual anyways on the flash. The only special flash I would explore, if you really get serious, are specific macro lights where they often have pairs of smaller flashes. But it's totally not needed, it's just a preference thing. I prefer a big diffuser and a full flash set speedlite in manual.

3. I use two things. One, tripod collar reversed with magic arm holding the flash and flash cord. Otherwise, I use wireless trasceivers and mount the flash on a tripod and move it around where I need.

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MalVeauX wrote in post #17554265
3. I use two things. One, tripod collar reversed with magic arm holding the flash and flash cord. Otherwise, I use wireless trasceivers and mount the flash on a tripod and move it around where I need.

That magic arm solution pretty much looks like what I,m interested in trying out.
What arm are you using?

Interesting idea to mount the arm on a reversed tripod collar, i thought about mounting the arm on some bracket, like the CM Mini-RC but will consider using a tripod collar instead. I don't own either a bracket or a tripod collar so both options means a small investment.

wanner wrote in post #17554346
That magic arm solution pretty much looks like what I,m interested in trying out.
What arm are you using?

Interesting idea to mount the arm on a reversed tripod collar, i thought about mounting the arm on some bracket, like the CM Mini-RC but will consider using a tripod collar instead. I don't own either a bracket or a tripod collar so both options means a small investment.

Heya,

This cheap $15 magic arm.

Very best,

You don't really have to take the speedlight off the hotshoe. I prefer lightweight setup without heavy flash bracket.

Here's my setup: 40D/70D, 270EX/Nissin i40, 60mm F2:

Canon 270EX is good enough but good to check out the Nissin i40 as well as it uses 4xAA and more powerful.

http://orionmystery.bl​ogspot.com …12/melvyns-macro-rig.html

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