 430EX II |
| Review Date: December 30, 2008 |
| Reviewer: C. Calder, Florence, SC |
The Speedlite 430EX II flash is a solid unit. It contains most of the upgrades that its big brother received. A metal foot finally, with a twist-lock that holds it totally securely to the top of the camera, yet removes in less than a second when you want to take it off, are true values and make a excellent flash unit even better. Canon quality is demonstrated in every aspect.
I actually purchased this unit as a slave to my 580EX II, but don't under estimate this unit. It is somewhat smaller than its bigger brother but is still a powerful flash to have in your bag. It can be used as a standalone flash or a slave to its bigger brother. The guide number for the 430ex is 43 and 58 for the 580EX units. That being said, in most shots, you will not know the difference. The unit can be rotated both vertically and horizontal, and can be operated fully ETTL automatically or manually. It supports High-Speed sync which allows you to shoot using all shutter camera speeds and has built in wide panel.
I also purchased the DVD "Understanding the Canon Speedlite 580EX/430EX" by Blue Crane Digital. This is a great companion that I highly recommend.
This is a great unit that is built for reliability and will be a work horse in anyone's bag. You will not go wrong with it purchase. It's a great investment. Later, if you decide to move up, you can add the 580EX as a master and use your 430EX as a slave.
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Low light focus
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| Review Date: January 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Neil, NY |
| I use this external flash unit with my Canon Rebel xTi. The flash does a great job calculating the amount of light it needs to release to expose the photo, making grossly over exposed or underexposed photos a thing of the past. The ability to bounce the flash off of medium height white ceilings gives you great looking photos to the point where I now prefer using my flash instead of relying on high ISOs, fast lenses and low aperature numbers. Although flash photography is a tricky subject, the casual shooter can leave this flash in automatic mode and get wonderfully exposed photos. However, in my opinion, the BEST PART of this external flash is that it enables you to focus MUCH faster than the built in flash and this is reason alone to pick up the Speedlite 430EX II. Previously, when shooting in low light settings, the camera/lens would struggle to focus and the flash would emit several highly annoying test flashes. The Speedlite has no problem finding and focusing on your subject in low lit catering halls and dark rooms and it does so without the annoying test flashes. Great product! |
How could it be better?
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| Review Date: January 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: T. Martino, upstate ny |
Wow. The 430 EX II exceeded my expectations! What a great flash. I use it with an XSI and it is absolutely awesome. I keep it aimed up at the ceiling and it produces great results. It is so bright! When you use it in conjunction with the zoom, it performs awesome too. It really lights up a long way. I use it with rechargeable battteries and it cycles almost instantly. I can pretty much snap 5 shots in a row and it keeps up, then needs about 2 seconds to give me another 5 shots. Use good rechargeable batteries, like 2650 milliamps. They work best.
Hats off to the folks at Canon, they did it again!
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Indoor miracles
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| Review Date: August 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Canon man, |
I had been holding off on purchasing an external flash for my XTI for months, making up all sorts of excuses as to why I shouldn't own one. It's too big, I'll never use it, $200+ for a flash of light is obscene and on and on the excuses went. My wife surprised me by getting me one for my birthday and after using it for 6 months I couldn't be happier. How did I ever live without this thing?
I take a lot of pictures indoors of my son. He's a 9 month old boy that's not quite ready to be outside all the time. I've got the 50mm 1.8 but it just isn't fast enough in the dim lighting of our home and the on camera flash is worthless. Ever since I got this flash I'd say that 80% of the pictures I take indoors and outdoors are taken with this flash. Below is a list of all of the pro's and cons I could come up with.
Pros:
- Fast recycle time. I can take several burst shots in 1 second and the flash fires each time. You won't miss many pictures because the flash isn't ready (like with the built in flash).
- TTL is awesome. This flash is much smarter than I'll ever be. Shots are almost always perfectly exposed.
- Lots of manual controls, easy to override TTL.
- Very powerful.
- On rechargeable double A's I get 400-500 shots easy without recharging.
- High speed sync lets you take pics at any shutter speed with a flash (although the distance the flash travels is greatly reduced).
- Tilt 90 degrees /Turn 180 degrees lets you bounce of ceilings or off a wall behind you.
- AF assist is much less invasive than the horrible on camera flash assist and it really helps you focus in low light. Just a red light is send out instead of the crazy electricity storm the XTI sends out for AF assist.
- Well built. Sturdy metal foot, nice locking mechanism.
- Rear sync lets me get sharp pictures indoors with any lens I own at 1/30 of a second or even less at times.
Cons:
- The white balance is never quite right for me, it's always far too warm for my taste.
- The buttons are hard to push if you have big fingers.
- It's big and adds weight to the camera.
- It can't control any other flashes you may own. This flash can only act as a slave.
- Flashes are addictive, I wish I had a second or a third...
If you're thinking about the 580exII:
- The 580ex II can act as a master flash over other canon flashes without losing TTL.
- It's more powerful(58m vs 43m at ISO 100).
- The batteries last from 100-700 pics.
- It can swivel 180 degrees both ways instead of just one way and it can tilt downwards slightly.
- It's dust and water resistant
- Included bounce tab (you can just use an index card).
- I'm sure there's other things I'm missing...
- It's a lot more expensive.
- It's a little bigger and heavier.
Since getting this flash and taking around 10,000 pictures with it I can honestly say it's been the single best investment I've made towards improving my photography to date. The uses for a flash are endless. Even outdoors you'll start seeing shadows you never noticed before that you'd like to lighten up with a flash. Oh and I'm not kidding about wanting to own more than 1. After getting an umbrella and a radio trigger you quickly realize how nice it would be to have a second or even third flash to make things just perfect. Stop procrastinating and just get it. You'll be happy you did. |
Excellent flash for XSi, perfect match
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| Review Date: February 16, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Dixit S. Suthar, Marietta GA |
I was fairly hesitant on getting the 430EXII mainly because I wanted to get the 580EXII but after seeing the actual size of the 580EXII I realized that its going to dwarf my XSi and also not fit in my Slingshot 200AW bag, so I opted for the 430EXII. Since Ive got it Ive taken about 150shots (still on same set of energizer 2500mah rechargeables) and really getting the hang of this flash.
Initially I wasnt getting the best shots, sort of like the built in camera flash where I was getting alot of harsh flash shots. Later after learning more about the preflash and how the flash/camera reads that info to determine the exact amount, the pictures were coming out much better, almost more natural.
If you bounce flash alot (like I do as I dont like the straight on flash) when taking pics of my son (2yr old) I definetely recommend using the FEL (preflash) button, because without the the flash output is not properly calculated, yes you can manually adjust it but how many shots that going to take before your 2yr son is gone from the shot (since he cant sit still for more than 2secs).
Only gripe I got on this is that the lock button that keeps the camera say at straight on flash, lets say you want to raise it, you have to press and hold this release button to raise the head to say bounce flash. That button is only on the right side and alot of times in quick changes I cant remember to press it firmly and cant get the damn head to move positions. It also locks in the 90 position on swivel as well. |
Works as expected -- excellent!
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| Review Date: November 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Henry Mo, USA |
I had high hopes when I decided to buy this flash unit. I read detailed reviews about this on the web (especially at The Digital Picture). I had already tried an old, non-rotating, single-power flash unit. It produced great results in combination with a flash cable so that I could point the light in any direction. It proved to me that bounced flash was an incredibly useful and aesthetically pleasing technique, unlike direct flash.
What advantages does the 430EX II have over my (free) old dumb flash and the camera's built-in flash?
0) E-TTL. No more manually tweaking aperture and ISO to get the right exposure! The camera evaluates scene with a pre-flash and computes the correct exposure. You get the right exposure the first time, every time.
1) Focus assist. Oh my god, this feature is absolutely incredible. Because the focus assist lamp produces a pattern, YOU CAN FOCUS ON FEATURELESS SOLID-COLORED WALLS. Besides that, the focusing is always very fast. If you're doing indoor photography, you can disable the flashing and just use the flash unit as a focus assist device (go into your camera menu).
2) More power. With a guide number of 43 metres, this unit is much more powerful than the camera's built-in flash (GN ~15 m) and more powerful than my dumb flash. More power is never a bad thing. It allows headroom to play with diffusers, bouncers, walls/ceilings, and such. And the unit can always choose to fire at less than maximum power, e.g. 1/8, 1/64.
3) Swivel head. Direct "front" flashing is almost always the wrong thing to do, from an aesthetic point of view. The swivel head allows the flash to be pointed upward, sideways, rearwards toward a suitable wall.
Incidentally, these external flashes are designed to also work with Canon G and Pro compact/prosumer cameras that have hotshoes, and they enjoy the benefits of a powerful light and bounce flash just as well as a DSLR can.
A powerful swiveling flash unit like the 430EX II is one of the essential accessories for beginning photographers, giving an incredible amount of bang for the buck. Other top-priority items for cheap photographers include:
* Camera bag (or use/modify any bag that fits)
* Hoya Super HMC UV filter for each lens
* Air blower (keep those glass surfaces clean)
* Circular polarizer filter (especially for outdoor/city/landscape photographers)
* Big memory card (16 GB for ~$40, you have no excuse)
* Tripod. Be careful, DSLRs can be heavy and may require sturdier tripods than the absolute minimum.
Optional:
* Sharp zoom lenses (e.g. L series; e.g. 17-55mm & 70-200mm)
* Telephoto lens (in the 100mm to 300mm range)
* Fast portrait lens with bokeh (e.g. 50mm f/1.4)
* Macro lens (e.g. 100mm)
* Lens hood (good for protecting against rain)
* Lens pen, lens brush
* Extra batteries
* Vertical grip
* Shutter switch (good for bulbing)
* Flash cable
* Flash diffuser (e.g. Sto-fen)
* Neutral density filter
* Compact camera (if carrying a DSLR everywhere gets tiring) |
Great Flash
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| Review Date: November 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: J & C, California USA |
| I wish I could tell you all of the neat features this flash has but the truth is, I don't understand them yet. What I can tell you is that I bought this flash to go along with my first SLR (the Rebel XSI) and it works really great. From a beginners perspective, it saves my camera battery and I definately get better coverage than the built-in flash. The reason I choose this particular model over the existing 430EX model is because there are some minor improvements such as recycle time and a metal foot but also because I read that some of the settings for this flash are [additionally] accessible via the camera's menu system. This probably isn't important to some of the pros out there but for me it's nice to know that I have the bases covered for when I grow in to the camera. |
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