I just bought a G6 - is getting an external flash worth the $$$

Just wondering how much of a difference an external flash makes on inside shots on the G6. I've been pretty impressed with the shots I've gotten on this little camera - its been a bit soft on landscape shots but I think that's my ignorance of how best to use the camera's setting and not the camera itself.

If you feel the external flash is useful - which is a good one to get and can the same flash be used on the G6 as well as canon's DSLRs as I will probably get a DSLR in the future.

Thanks for your input.

I bought the G6 because I could use an external flash with it. The built-in flash doesn't have a lot of range and is very prone to red-eye. An external flash will have a much greater range, will lessen red-eye if the direct position and completely avoid it when using it bounced.

I bought a Canon Speedlight 420 EX and am very pleased with it. The 420 EX will work with all the Canon dSLRs.

I ended up buying a used external flash (older 380EX) for my G6 after about 2 frustrating weeks of getting very poor results trying to shoot my kids indoors (mostly redeye and pasty looking skin tones).

If I were you, I would experiment with the onboard flash on your G6 before making an external flash purchase. Who knows, you may find that it does the job for your particular type/style of shooting.

PS-I also use my 380EX flash as a fill-flash for taking portraits outdoors in the shade. I tad bit better results than the onboard unit.

One more vote for the 420EX. It swivels, tilts, and works ETTL with the dSLR's. Cheap too, relatively.

For indoor shooting, an external flash is a MUST. The dinky built-in flash is actually OK for outfoor fill-flash at relatively close distances, but not useful in any other fashion. I have both the 220EX and the 550EX, the latter being used on both the G6 and my EOS A2 film camera bodies.

I'm surprised you have soft landscapes unless your shutter speeds are too slow for hand-held work - you could post some examples and we can evaluate this some more.

I found the use of a 420EX on my G3 to be a dramatic improvement over the built in flash. Red eye virtually dissappears and you get solid illumination of your subject. It did not help with the autofocus so those challenges remain but I thought it was well worth the money.

Thanks! I think the soft focus might be due to the fact that I had digital zoom enabled.

Digital zoom is a BS marketing feature. You should never enable it, because you can always get exactly the same effect by shooting at full zoom and then cropping later. Well, I suppose that if you're tight on card space the digital zoom might save a bit by only recording the pixels you're interested in. But otherwise it's just silly.

I'm under the impression (and I could be wrong, please correct me if I am) that it's even worse than that, if you're using digital zoom at maximum resolution, it would take the center section of a full-res image and INTERPOLATE it to full resolution, which is (as far as I'm concerned) worse than just cropping the image with a resulting lower-res image. Maybe at lower resolutions, it shoots at a higher resolution and interpolates less or not at all, but I don't think so, it's not like, say, "super macro" which just crops in to a smaller frame at a lower res and leaves it at that.

So if you shoot at hi-res, and crop the image down to what you want, you're actually doing less damage, and even then if you want to interpolate it up to a bigger image, you could do that with better software, like Photoshop, that would allow you more control and probably interpolate better.

Am I right? I guess I could test it, but it's easier just asking you guys.

Get the 420EX. It's a good size match, and it will allow you to bounce the flash off walls and ceilings (very, very handy).

My vote goes to 420EX. It's not that big and quite powerful, too. Few weeks ago I went on a trip and caried the 420EX with me (in a bag) all the time. Very pleased, definately a good choice.

I am thinking of buying an external flash device and have decided long ago for the 420ex...so my vote goes for ti too.

I use my big honking 550EX on my G6, but that's because I already had one for use with my EOS-3. I wouldn't even consider using the built in flash unless I'm traveling light and have the camera in my jacket pocket. With the 550EX (and to a lesser extent with the 420EX) you can use bounce and swivel under almost any condition because it has enough power. This, imho, is the only reason I picked up a G6 instead of an S1 or any other compact.

anyone know what the going price for a USED 420ex should be right now? Looking around on Ebay and other sites I'm taking a stab at around $120-150.

I'm just entering this whole camera world so I'm sort of curious if there might be a price drop anytime soon if a new version might be in the works.

anyone?

I bought a Jessops 280D Digital flash. That was all i could afford because the kit i was buying st the time was getting higher. I've not used it that often because it does'nt work in TTL, only manual. I have had some very good results with don't get me wrong, i just think it might not be good for macro work, although i could use it off camera and put a piece of grease proof paper over the flash lens?

Any suggestions would be great please? And if anybody else uses the above named flash gun?