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350d plus flash

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Geoff_UK

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Hi,

I'm after an inexpensive external flash solution for my 350d (UK).

Jessops sell a "EOS" flash unit for £30 - model number 320. The blurb says it's compatible with EOS cameras, but when I asked the staff they say that these guns are not compatible with the 350??

Anyone any experience with this??

Cheers

Geoff
--
God, this is hard work!!
 
Geoff_UK said:
Hi,

I'm after an inexpensive external flash solution for my 350d (UK).

Jessops sell a "EOS" flash unit for £30 - model number 320. The
blurb says it's compatible with EOS cameras, but when I asked the
staff they say that these guns are not compatible with the 350??

Anyone any experience with this??
Click to expand...
They're probably right.

The older analog EOS camera's are TTL. The 350D is E-TTL (II) Your flash needs to be E-TTL to work on the digital camera.

Don't know what this number 320 is, but I haven't seen any E-TTL flash for that kind of price.
 
I bought my 430EX for £150. In Jessops the price is £199.99.
Geoff_UK said:
Hi,

I'm after an inexpensive external flash solution for my 350d (UK).

Jessops sell a "EOS" flash unit for £30 - model number 320. The
blurb says it's compatible with EOS cameras, but when I asked the
staff they say that these guns are not compatible with the 350??

Anyone any experience with this??

Cheers

Geoff
--
God, this is hard work!!
Click to expand...
 
I would take their word for it. The flash is probably not compatible with the E-TTL metering system used by the newer cameras. For ultra cheap, your best bet would be to find a used Canon 220EX, or for a little more, a 380EX (more power and a tilt head for bounce flash). I'm pretty sure both are out of manufacture now, so you probably won't find them for sale at a retail store.

--
Jordan
 
JSug said:
I would take their word for it. The flash is probably not
compatible with the E-TTL metering system used by the newer
cameras. For ultra cheap, your best bet would be to find a used
Canon 220EX, or for a little more, a 380EX (more power and a tilt
head for bounce flash). I'm pretty sure both are out of
manufacture now, so you probably won't find them for sale at a
retail store.
Click to expand...
I think the 220EX is still in production. The 380EX is out of production for quite a while now.... Will be very hard to find. 420EX is the next step, and is stopped also, in favor of the 430EX.

I would never advise an 220EX. The only advantage over the internal flash is a little higher guide number (20 vs. 13 meter) and the head sits a little higher. And it's has AF assist for the center AF point.

But it can't bounce, can't do high-speed flash, while still being quite expensive. It's not very much bang for buck. If you're going to buy a flash, get something better. Being able to bounce make an enormous difference to your flash shots. And the abilty to do high-speed mode flash is essential for portraits using a wide aperture and fill-in flash.

I would advise at least a 420EX or Sigma 500 Super. (NOT the non-super. Doesn't do high-speed flash!) If you're going to spend a lot of money, it'd better be worth it.
 
Ebay Has the 420EX up for sale quite often. You can buy the new 430EX from a UK seller for about £160 on Ebay too...
 
thanks very much for all the reponses. I guess Santa is going to have to bring me a slightly bigger present than I'd asked for !!

He's gonna need a big sack though, 'cos he's being expected to produce a 70-200 f4 L as well !!!

--
God, this is hard work!!
 
I don't think the 420EX has high-speed flash either does it?

Are you referring to the ability to flash when not completely ready, or something else?
 
Not as powerful as the 550-580ex series and maybe not as many bells and whistles as the 430ex but, it is a great little flash. I get good exposures indoors using a StoFen diffuser and since it is hi-speed compatible, it is great for fill light outdoors. It swivels up and down and also right to left. This last is very important to me since I like to bounce my flash off the ceiling and you cannot do that with the 380ex (no right to left swivel) when you are shooting in the vertical mode.

There are still new ones available in the U.S. and used ones available on Ebay.
--

Retired Navy Master Chief Photographer's Mate - 30 years service. Combat Cameraman, Motion Picture Director and Naval Aircrewman. I have done considerable comercial photography including weddings. I have paraphrased equipment names so forum searches will not hit on my equipment. Bodies: Canon Three-Fifty-D and CanonTen-D DSLR. Zoom-Lenses: Canon 17-40 Millimeter f/4L; 28 to 135 millimeter IS; 70 to 200 millimeter f/4L Prime Lenses: Sigma twenty-eight mm f/1.8; fifty mm f/1.8 MK-I; Tamron 90 Millimeter f/2.8 Macro; and Tokina 400 Millimeter f/5.6 ATX SD. Also Canon 1.4 x teleconverter and 420 ex flash.
 
jcrhea said:
I don't think the 420EX has high-speed flash either does it?
Click to expand...
Yes it does. It's called FP (focal plane) flash mode by Canon.
jcrhea said:
Are you referring to the ability to flash when not completely
ready, or something else?
Click to expand...
No. I'm refererring to the possibility to shoot at shutter speeds higher than the camera's sync speed of 1/200.

Shooting a portrait in daylight, you would use an aperture of f/4 and even lower to get a nice blurring of the background, while having enough DoF for the face.

However, in those conditions, you'll typically get a shutter times of well beyond 1/1000 and faster. That's faster than the flash sync, and thus wouldn't allow using the flash. 'High speed flash' changes the flash output to a 'pseudo' continuous light, so that the camera can use higher shutter times, while still using flash. However, you do this at the cost of flash range. (Normally not a problem when shooting portraits)

The 420EX and Sigma 500 super have this option. AFAIK, the Sigma 500 non-super does not. The 220EX also doesn't.
 
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