The power of the 500 Super is amazing. I was shooting a mansion
that was backlit by afternoon sun, the 500 lit the whole front of a
2 story mansion!
Any external flash gives you a lot more options. I was trying to
take a family portrait outside, late in the afternoon with VERY
bright, but low sun. If people faced the sun, they were squinting,
if we took it with them 90 degrees to the sun, the built-in flash
wasn't enough to light the other sides of peoples faces. Nor could
it over-power the sun with the family backlit. Even in open shade,
the flash wasn't enough to really light everyones faces. I can't
tell you how frustrated I was. At the very least, the open shade
and the backlit shots would have worked with the 500 (I've taken
similar shots with it).
Look at some of your current indoor flash shots. Notice the
shadows behind people? Dead give-away that it was a
point-and-shoot. With an external, bouncing it off the ceiling at
a 45 or even a 90 will make a dramtic difference. Someone
mentioned the omni-bounce, it softens the light even more. Get
one, it's another huge improvement.
Several things the 500 can do that the 420 can't:
- External optical slave. You can trigger it with any flash, like
the built-in flash, or even one on a point-and-shoot. My mom's
shots with her S400 got sooooo much better when I used my 500 as a
slave.
- Modeling flash. Not sure how much you'll use it as it totally
blinds your subjects. It has shown me when there was a reflection
off some fireplace doors and when someone had on running shoes with
reflective material on them, but mostly it just annoys people. Has
to help with red-eye, as it puts out soooo much light that your
pupils will be the size of a pin.
The focus assist is a HUGE help when shooting in low light or dark
subjects. Relatives have a black dog that is IMPOSSIBLE to focus
on. WIth the flash, it improved my percentage from less than 1% to
around 50%. You can even set the flash to NOT fire, but still use
the focus assist.
Hope this helps,
Tyler
