580EX Heaven !!!!!!

This is really just a post to share my joy about my new 580EX !! It's such a great flash I could go on and on about it. It's everything I have heard and more. If you are thinking of getting one of these flashes dont think anymore! Save your money and get it, you wont regret it. I have used many flashes in my time and this one is a real jewel !!! I know it's expensive but it will give you such an edge with indoor photography as well as high speed sync flash in which I used this weekend on a very sunny day in Aperture priority. I would have never gotten the shots I did without this feature. It enabled me to set my aperture wide open with a shutter speed of well over 1200 and get perfert fill flash without doing a darn thing manually. And the indoor bounce shots I took where near perfect! ...............Just wanted to give you something to chew on in case you are contemplating getting a 580EX

thanks for the info. i was wondering if it was worth the money over the 550EX. can you post some with and without pics for us all?

Just got one yesterday. My first impressions - gosh, it's bigger and heavier than I expected. Mounted on the camera, it is surely a flash with attitude But yes it is very slick. For someone who grew up on flash bulbs and moved onto manual flash guns, this is quite an advance. The guide is rather terse. I really think they could put a much more useful book together rather than leaving us to rely on the web. Thanks goodness for pages like http://photonotes.org/​articles/eos-flash/.

Have fun! I know I will.

You never owned a 550 have you?

Although only slightly smaller, 580 weight diffference is quite noticeable after a day's use.

The 550EX, without the batteries, weighs 14.2 oz. The 580EX, without the batteries, weighs 13.2 oz. Now, come on. Are you trying to tell me that 1 oz. makes that much of a difference, expecially when they're both loaded with batteries?

I'm not sure how people got the implression that the 580EX is much smaller and much lighter than the 550EX but they're really not that different from each other.

Last one was a Hanimex for my Minolta XD7 (same as an XD11). Let's see - about 20 years old ... Will the 580 last me as long? Will they still make AA batteries then?

Hi

Probably a silly question but can you use this away from the camera , like on a tripod 10 ft away ?

Thanks Rod

Yes but (there's always a but, isn't there ) you will need another device to trigger that flash remotely, such as an ST-E2 (an IR transmitter) or another 580EX or 550EX flash. Or use a very loooooong off-shoe-cord-2-type cable.

It's funny though.. to me the 580.. with it's more rounded edges.. seems smaller than it is compared to the 550ex... I guess it's just perception. But side by side the 550EX looks like a '69 Dodge Charger.. and the 580 looks like a 70 Mustang fastback...

I'm delighted with my 550EX for procisely some of the reasons you like your 580EX. I've always wanted to be able to sync at all speeds with a focal plane shutter and this flash does the job very nicely.

I got my 550EX at a good price - £100 cheaper than a 580EX - but I might well buy a 580EX in the future both to take advantage of its ability to compensate for the 1.6 crop and also to give me a two flash set-up for indoor photography.

These flash guns really are good but, as has been said, are rather big and heavy.

Regards, David

Can somone explain what you mean by Sync?

Sync is short for synchronize. When a flash is used, the firing of the flash has to be synchronized with the opening of the shutter or, in the case of an SLR camera, the shutter curtain. The sync speed of the camera is the maximum shutter speed at which the curtains are open to fully expose the entire frame when the flash goes off. This is usually 1/200 or 1/250. At higher shutter speeds, the shutter curtains open such that the frame is only partially exposed. If one were to fire a normal flash at higher than sync speed, then only a part of the frame would be exposed to the flash and you would have a black bar across the image where the frame was not exposed. This is where high-speed sync comes in. In high-speed sync mode, the flash is pulsed so that the duration of the flash is extended, thus allowing the entire frame to be exposed to the flash.

Nice explaination...thanks a lot!

How are the charge times? I'm considering a flash but I'm looking for something that will recharge very quickly.

Its prolly a stupid question... i cuttenrly own a 420ex.. and i would like to start doing some portrait photography... I really like the idea of staying mobile and ETTL is just a fantastic feature. I was thinking of buying a 550 or 580 and another 420 to seal the deal.

Question is: Is there an advantage to gettin the 580 over the 550, does the 550 do color temp and ETTL II?

Is using this type of flash system gona fall short of studio strobes and a flash meter?