430ex head. Swivels the wrong way... why?

This bothers me as well. I own 3x 430ex for OCF setups but when I occasionally use one on camera it is a real issue. I think my next upgrade may be be a 580.

yeah, it's a pain... canon should start making left-hand cameras then

i use a flash bracket, so it rotates properly for me, no problems here

A while ago, I did a diffuser test with the camera rotated to vertical and pointing downwards at the subject. Using the mirrors on the PRESSlite bouncer, I was able to redirect the light to the back corner/wall while the flash was pointing straight up at 90 degrees. I was also able to redirect light to camera right in another test.

Break it so it swivels 360? I think an article was posted on strobist about some one that was doing this with the flashes.

AntonLargiader wrote in post #11421727
Oddly enough, the Canon guy at my local shop turns his camera CW for portrait, so it works well for him. He's left-eyed and spins the body around so his right thumb is on the shutter.

Just proves that a lot of folks who work at camera stores know little about camera handling (it's not so steady when your supporting hand has to also press the shutter button), and that he does not own a Canon battery grip -- or else he'd immediately see the errors of his ways!

Wilt wrote in post #11425588
Just proves that a lot of folks who work at camera stores know little about camera handling (it's not so steady when your supporting hand has to also press the shutter button), and that he does not own a Canon battery grip -- or else he'd immediately see the errors of his ways!

Quite the opposite: he's a serious guy and demonstrated with that 1d how he uses his gripped camera. Looked totally natural to me. I do see your point about the supporting hand but I think as a left-eyed shooter he's making the right decision for him. If he turned the camera to the left, he wouldn't have a free eye.

As a right-eyed shooter who turns the body CCW for portrait, it wouldn't work for me at all.

AntonLargiader wrote in post #11425655
Quite the opposite: he's a serious guy and demonstrated with that 1d how he uses his gripped camera. Looked totally natural to me. I do see your point about the supporting hand but I think as a left-eyed shooter he's making the right decision for him. If he turned the camera to the left, he wouldn't have a free eye.

As a right-eyed shooter who turns the body CCW for portrait, it wouldn't work for me at all.

OTOH, if he was a soldier using an M16, he would learn to aim with the right eye, or else he would suffer the consequences of really hot brass cartridges ejecting at 600 rounds per minute down the front of his shirt!

The SLR was designed for right eye aiming, since the left side of the body is narrower than the right side, it can look around the prism/body no matter if Landscape or Portrait orientation

What Olympus included in the owner manual back in the early 70's...

Wilt wrote in post #11425801
since the left side of the body is narrower than the right side,

I'd like to think that I'm pretty symmetrical.

Village_Idiot wrote in post #11427681
I'd like to think that I'm pretty symmetrical.

I presume you really know I was referring to the CAMERA body, and not yours (it would be too personal of a comment to make)!