Time to buy a flash..

I was ready to buy two Sunpak 383's today, even had them in the shopping cart and pulled the walled out to enter the credit card info...then I started to think, and cancelled it..

I've searched and have found plenty of info on these flashes, but I'm wanting some feedback from people who have used the following flashes.

My choices are:

Buy 2 Sunpak 383's and use them with my Studio Strobe, and to take with me on locations, fired with cactus triggers.

OR..

Buy a Canon 430ex now, and save for a 580ex II later and get a STE-2 transmitter to fire them.

My question is...are the Canon's worth the extra $600 to $700?

I'm having a hard time justifying it...but then I went thru this with my lenses too, and now that I've spent a thousand dollars on a lens, I think it was well worth it..

The main reason I'm leaning toward the Canon flashes is because I like the idea of having a 580 to use on-camera rather than the Sunpak. Also, the Canon's have a lot more power than the other flashes that I've looked at (Sigma, Vivitar and Sunpak..).

Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!

The Canon wireless system is much much quicker to set up and use than a manual system. The downsides are they don't work well in bright light, and your master must have a direct line of sight to the slaves. It triggers most of the time inside, and if you have two flashes outside it will sometimes only trigger if the master is pointed at the slave with the flash head zoomed. If you have one light on each side of the camera you don't have much chance of getting them both slaves to fire on a bright day.

A manual system with a reliable slave system (skyports) will take longer to set up and use when you first start, but you'll get pretty quick with it with some practice. It'll work under just about any conditions.

A manual system with GI/Cactus triggers will misfire and frustrate you.

Pocket wizards. I have both PW and the STE-2. Once I got my PWs I never used the STE-2 again. The range on it isn't very good, and it requires a direct line of site from the flashes to the transmitter which become inconvenient at times.

Skyports are a cheaper alternative to the Pocket Wizards. Definitely worth looking into in my opinion.

Sunpak 383s and Skyports. That is what I use, and pick it over my 580EX for off-camera use every time! One benefit of the Sunpaks is that they give me better coverage over the whole 43" Westcott umbrellas where the 580EX, even zoomed out to the 24mm position, won't cover the whole thing (the Sunpaks are supposed to cover 35mm, but it looks like they cover even wider than that!). I even prefer the manual controls on the Sunpaks over the multiple button presses on the 580EX. The only area where the 580EX is better is that it goes down to 1/128 of the power, where the Sunpak will only go down to 1/16. Not an issue most of the time, and the Sunpaks are better in all the other situations, IMO, so that is why I prefer them.

Wow, great information! Thank you for the feedback!

Here is a link to my comments regarding light coverage differences between the Sunpak 383 and the Canon 580EX, using 43" umbrellas:

https://photography-on-the.net …hp?p=5689336&po​stcount=22

Why are you planning on buying a 580exII and STE-2? Why not just another 430 and an STE-2?

The Flying Turtle wrote in post #5696456
Why are you planning on buying a 580exII and STE-2? Why not just another 430 and an STE-2?

Really just for the power. I have young kids and we go to 2 or 3 parties a month for them and in the summer the parties are outside and usually mid-day. So I want a flash that will be powerful enough to fill in the strong shadows caused by the mid-day sun. Good question though, maybe I don't really need to spend the extra $150 for the 580. I've never used either of these flashes, so I don't know how they perfrom. I've always thought the 430ex was about the same as my Sigma EF 500 DG Super, and I would like to have more power than that flash offered.

The 580 is only about one stop more powerful than the 430. The only time I fire the 580 at full power is in summer when the background is in full sun and the subjects are in full shade.