External flash for Canon G6

Hi everybody,

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage). I'm nearly perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of external flashs.

The three most important things for me are:

1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Please help me with this choice.
Thanks,
do.t

Hi do.t

do.t said:

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Click to expand...

Hello, welcome aboard!

do.t said:

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge
progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage).

Click to expand...

Congrats!

do.t said:

I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashes.

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking
pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and
good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Click to expand...

To my knowledge, the Canon EX flashes (220ex, 420ex, 550ex and 580ex)

will work best with the G-x series, the only other manufacturers that build Canon-compatible flashes are Sigma (the EF 500 DG Super) and Metz, the Metz Mecablitz 40 AF4 for Canon would be a better option than the Mecablitz 44 AF-4N, which is designed specially to work with Nikon camera's.

The 420ex is the flash many G1/G2/G3/G5/?G6? owners have chosen/will choose, it offers great value-for the money.

The 220ex is less powerfull, smaller and cheaper, and does not offer a tilting/swivelling head, the 550ex/580ex offer even more flash-power than the 420ex, and more features (wireless remote slaving with a 420ex or controlled by a ST-E2 unit) but are considered by many as 'overkill', not in the least because of their size ;-))

Everything you always wanted to know about Canon EX flash technology (a long read, but readable and giving excellent info) can be found here:

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

(Note that the G-x series behaves like the EOS camera's, flash-wise ;-))

Just my €0.02 worth to help you find your ways...

Kindest regards,

Max@Home
--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

Great information, I was starting to think about G6 flashes as well.

Thanks Max!

Andy

Max@Home said:

do.t said:

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Click to expand...

Hello, welcome aboard!

Max@Home said:

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge
progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage).

Click to expand...

Congrats!

Max@Home said:

I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashes.

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking
pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and
good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Click to expand...

To my knowledge, the Canon EX flashes (220ex, 420ex, 550ex and 580ex)
will work best with the G-x series, the only other manufacturers
that build Canon-compatible flashes are Sigma (the EF 500 DG Super)
and Metz, the Metz Mecablitz 40 AF4 for Canon would be a better
option than the Mecablitz 44 AF-4N, which is designed specially to
work with Nikon camera's.

The 420ex is the flash many G1/G2/G3/G5/?G6? owners have
chosen/will choose, it offers great value-for the money.

The 220ex is less powerfull, smaller and cheaper, and does not
offer a tilting/swivelling head, the 550ex/580ex offer even more
flash-power than the 420ex, and more features (wireless remote
slaving with a 420ex or controlled by a ST-E2 unit) but are
considered by many as 'overkill', not in the least because of their
size ;-))

Everything you always wanted to know about Canon EX flash
technology (a long read, but readable and giving excellent info)
can be found here:

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

(Note that the G-x series behaves like the EOS camera's, flash-wise
;-))

Just my €0.02 worth to help you find your ways...

Kindest regards,

Max@Home
--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

Click to expand...

do.t said:

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m

Click to expand...

Max@Home has offered some good advice... what stuck with me was your first requirement. I used to own a 420EX, but when it was stolen I replaced it with the 550EX -- not because it could do master/slave or strobe or manual adjustment, but because it was 40% brighter than the 420EX. And I think you'll need the extra light for those distances.

Having said that, I try to avoid flash and am certainly not an expert. But I am happy with the 550.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Don

40% lighter than the 420? Just wondering. I have not held or used them. I'm doing ok with my antique 188A (I had hardly ever used it with the AE1) which works fine, looks good, but on occasion I wonder what it would be like to have the 420. Don R.

Don Ellis said:

do.t said:

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m

Click to expand...

Max@Home has offered some good advice... what stuck with me was
your first requirement. I used to own a 420EX, but when it was
stolen I replaced it with the 550EX -- not because it could do
master/slave or strobe or manual adjustment, but because it was 40%
brighter than the 420EX. And I think you'll need the extra light
for those distances.

Having said that, I try to avoid flash and am certainly not an
expert. But I am happy with the 550.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Don

Click to expand...

--
http://www.DForbesRowanPhotos.OrangeCountyandSurrounding.PhotoShare.co.nz
A-Eighty: As Qrtan says, a Gem! It's a terrific camera!

Gee-Five: Has great features & image sharpness -- and it's black!
(There! Now I can't be accused of harming newbie camera searches).
D. F. R.

420ex does great on the g6, want some samples?

The 550 is too bigg and unnecessary, its not that much more powerful and the 420 is more powerful than you probably need anyway.

You have to change your grip a little, like hold the flash instead of the camera. Its really top heavy, but works just like on my mkII.

Tom

do.t said:

Hi everybody,

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge
progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage). I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashs.

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking
pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and
good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Please help me with this choice.
Thanks,
do.t

Click to expand...

--

1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135 f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Could you please tell us about the size of the 420 vs. the 550 - if you can't provide exact measurements then maybe you could just tell us how much bigger (if any) the 550 is compared to the 420, roughly guessed.
Thanks

Don Ellis said:

do.t said:

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m

Click to expand...

Max@Home has offered some good advice... what stuck with me was
your first requirement. I used to own a 420EX, but when it was
stolen I replaced it with the 550EX -- not because it could do
master/slave or strobe or manual adjustment, but because it was 40%
brighter than the 420EX. And I think you'll need the extra light
for those distances.

Having said that, I try to avoid flash and am certainly not an
expert. But I am happy with the 550.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Don

Click to expand...

Hi Don, Hi do.t,

Don Ellis said:

do.t said:

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m

Click to expand...

Max@Home has offered some good advice... what stuck with me was
your first requirement. I used to own a 420EX, but when it was
stolen I replaced it with the 550EX -- not because it could do
master/slave or strobe or manual adjustment, but because it was 40%
brighter than the 420EX. And I think you'll need the extra light
for those distances.

Click to expand...

How did you come by 40% brighter? According to Canon site: specs of 420ex:

Maximum Guide Number 42

Approximately 1/2-stop less powerful than 550EX.

Specs of 550ex:

Maximum Guide Number 55

13(the diff) 42 is 30%, but do I recall correct that the GN scale is not completely 'metric?'

Just wondering how you got to 40%...

Don Ellis said:

Having said that, I try to avoid flash and am certainly not an
expert. But I am happy with the 550.

Click to expand...

Same here, only with 420 ;-))

Kind regards,

Max@Home
--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

Hi ThomasX,

ThomasX said:

Could you please tell us about the size of the 420 vs. the 550 - if
you can't provide exact measurements then maybe you could just tell
us how much bigger (if any) the 550 is compared to the 420, roughly
guessed.

Click to expand...

A 10D shooter, Norm, has made nice comparison-shots of the 420/550 on top of the 10D: should give you a clue as to how the sizes compare...

Norm's pic!!! NOT mine!! ;-)))



Kindest regards,

Max@Home

--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

First of all thank you all very much for the answers. And yes, I'd would love to see some samples with the 420ex.

One more question: Is the 420ex able to avoid red eyes? This'd be very important for me. I'd hate to spend about 250EUR (here in Germany) for the 420ex and then have red eyes on any portrait.

Thanks,
do.t

Tom Buerk said:

The 550 is too bigg and unnecessary, its not that much more
powerful and the 420 is more powerful than you probably need
anyway.

You have to change your grip a little, like hold the flash instead
of the camera. Its really top heavy, but works just like on my
mkII.

Tom

do.t said:

Hi everybody,

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge
progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage). I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashs.

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking
pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and
good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Please help me with this choice.
Thanks,
do.t

Click to expand...

--
1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135
f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

Here's one

do.t said:

One more question: Is the 420ex able to avoid red eyes? This'd be
very important for me. I'd hate to spend about 250EUR (here in
Germany) for the 420ex and then have red eyes on any portrait.

Thanks,
do.t

Tom Buerk said:

The 550 is too bigg and unnecessary, its not that much more
powerful and the 420 is more powerful than you probably need
anyway.

You have to change your grip a little, like hold the flash instead
of the camera. Its really top heavy, but works just like on my
mkII.

Tom

do.t said:

Hi everybody,

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge
progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage). I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashs.

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking
pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and
good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Please help me with this choice.
Thanks,
do.t

Click to expand...

--
1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135
f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--

1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135 f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Oops,

another, a little bigger:

Tom Buerk said:

do.t said:

One more question: Is the 420ex able to avoid red eyes? This'd be
very important for me. I'd hate to spend about 250EUR (here in
Germany) for the 420ex and then have red eyes on any portrait.

Thanks,
do.t

Tom Buerk said:

The 550 is too bigg and unnecessary, its not that much more
powerful and the 420 is more powerful than you probably need
anyway.

You have to change your grip a little, like hold the flash instead
of the camera. Its really top heavy, but works just like on my
mkII.

Tom

do.t said:

Hi everybody,

this is my first post, so let me say "Hello" to everyone.

Since some days now I am a proud owner of a G6, which is a huge
progress regarding my former cam (Minolta Dimage). I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashs.

The three most important things for me are:
1. Enough light to enlighten a distance of about 8-10m (e.g. taking
pictures of my kids at school-party).
2. No red eyes (very important).
3. If possible natural colors, e.g. skin on portraits.

I heard of the Canon EX420; would this be a good choice?
Or perhaps the Metz mecablitz 44 AF-4; is this one compatible and
good?
Or perhaps something totally different?

Please help me with this choice.
Thanks,
do.t

Click to expand...

--
1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135
f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135
f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

--

1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135 f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Hi do.t,

do.t said:

First of all thank you all very much for the answers. And yes, I'd
would love to see some samples with the 420ex.

One more question: Is the 420ex able to avoid red eyes? This'd be
very important for me. I'd hate to spend about 250EUR (here in
Germany) for the 420ex and then have red eyes on any portrait.

Click to expand...

have never seen any red-eye when using 420ex with my G3/EOS33/EOS10D, just some nice 'sparks' ;-))

The actual flash-head is high enough above the lens to avoid the red-eye issue.

Kindest regards,

Max@Home
--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

Hi Tom Buerk,

Thanks for your excellent contributions to this nice thread!

From what I could see about this pic:

G6 - 1/60sec, F3.0, 28.8mm (=140mm equiv).

Interested in hearing whether you used FEC or ( ) (pre-flash/metering) to get this shot, very nice, even and neutral lighted!

(might confuse the total newbies, but also they -and I- could learn a trick ot two ;-))

Thanks in advance for sharing!

Kindest regards,

Max@Home

Tom Buerk said:

1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135
f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

FWIW: mine=sort-of-same setup but with 10D, less 100-400L, 85 1.8, 135 2L, but plus 100 2.8 Makro ;-))

-
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

Hi!

I'm also a "proud owner of a G6" and have considered external flash - and have heard about the new 580ex!

But after reading this thread (tanks do.t ), I think I'll save myself a lot of money and go for the 420ex.

Thank you for all the infomation - especially Max@Home

I'm really impressed, how great this community is. Thanks everyone for the great and very useful answers... I think I'll stay with the 420ex; Tom, thanks for the sample pic and Max, thanks for the helpful (and calming) explanation with the red-eye and external flash.

Best wishes,
do.t

Hi again all interested,

One knownworthy downside: when using the WC or the TC the G3/G5 ?G6? do not 'see' them, and do not change the zoomsetting that is steering the zoomposition of such fine flashes as the 420ex or the 550ex.

Meaning the flash will stay at 35mm while you are at 24.5mm full wide (will be usefull at parties, indoor, etc, perfect 'flash' moments).

Resulting in underexposed/dark corners of the pics/ or overexposed center aerias when compensated 'easily' with FEC.

Solution: OmniBounce flash deflector from Stofen (~$22/ €25)!

(or similar products from LumiQuest, or a simple white business card rubberbanded on the topside of the bounced flashhead, in order not to start that discussion again ;-))

And: the great part of the story: as the G3/G5/G6 use E-TTL at least the 220ex/420ex/550ex/580ex recognize the changed/lesser lightoutput caused by the various deflectors and will compensate their final output accordingly. Which setting*you* then again can 'override' with FEC -see your manual!

OK, this DOES slow down the recycle-rate and speed-up battery consumption, but they run great on 2000mAh (or higher) NiMH's)

Hope this info comes in handy when weighing all te factors in.

This same info posted before as part of answer regarding use of TC and WC and vignetting: see the Pro1 vs G6 thread ;-))

Kindest regards,

Max@Home
--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

I bounced it Max,

Would I be correct in assuming the G6 fires a preflash to meter off of?

I'm still wondering about my G6 purchase. I took some time to shoot with it today, which was the first time I shot with a non slr in at least two years. My last digicam being the Nikon 5700. I think I'm going to post my thoughts in another thread.

Tom

Max@Home said:

Thanks for your excellent contributions to this nice thread!

From what I could see about this pic:

G6 - 1/60sec, F3.0, 28.8mm (=140mm equiv).

Interested in hearing whether you used FEC or ( )
(pre-flash/metering) to get this shot, very nice, even and neutral
lighted!

(might confuse the total newbies, but also they -and I- could learn
a trick ot two ;-))

Thanks in advance for sharing!

Kindest regards,

Max@Home

Max@Home said:

1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135
f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

FWIW: mine=sort-of-same setup but with 10D, less 100-400L, 85 1.8,
135 2L, but plus 100 2.8 Makro ;-))

-
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)

Click to expand...

--

1dmkII 17-40, 24-70, 70-200 2.8 L IS, 100-400, 50 1.4, 85 1.8, 135 f2 and a bunch of other stuff.

do.t said:

I'm nearly
perfectly happy with the G6, but since I take a lot of pictures
indoors/at low light, I thought of getting an external flash for
the cam and to be honest - I am a complete newbie on the sector of
external flashs.

Click to expand...

Thanks for starting this thread do.t. As I posted earlier on the lighting forum I'm currently looking for kit to allow me to take indoor shots of my products & people using them. I was trying to decide between a 550EX & a studio flash setup, but from what you all have been saying it may be possible to use a 420EX and put the spare budget toward some decent accessories.

Does anyone here have experience of using the 420EX like this? Is it up to the job?

Hi again Tom Buerk,

Tom Buerk said:

I bounced it Max,

Click to expand...

Would have been my guess, no 'caught-in-the-headlight-bunny' looks ;-))

Tom Buerk said:

Would I be correct in assuming the G6 fires a preflash to meter off
of?

Click to expand...

Yes, very correct, that's part of the E-TTL deal.

You might be interested in reading (some of) http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

Tom Buerk said:

I'm still wondering about my G6 purchase. I took some time to
shoot with it today, which was the first time I shot with a non slr
in at least two years.

Click to expand...

that must'v felt awfully 'light';-))

Tom Buerk said:

My last digicam being the Nikon 5700.

Click to expand...

Not the worst either, was on my G3/??? shortlist, but stranded on (menu-) user-friendlyness and color-rendition, liked/like G3 better.

Tom Buerk said:

I think I'm going to post my thoughts in another thread.

Click to expand...

Very worthwile reading for the lot-of-us!

Thanks in advance!

Kindest regards,

Max@Home

(PS: might be a while before I can read it, on holidays for a week starting tomorrow ;-))
--
Max@Home - Castricum - The Netherlands (see profile for equipment)



http://www.pbase.com/max_at_home (mind you, use underscores!)