Flashguns... err, help please?

oO Stevie Oo

oO Stevie Oo

oO Stevie Oo

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Behind the camera...
Howdy

Flashguns...
There new to me as I've never used them before, most of my photography is outside n well lit etc,
But the time has come for me to get one, however, I have no knowledge of what's what?

I found a flash earlier which is a Meike Speedlite MK 431 (dunno what that means, lol)
I'm not after anything flash (:p) just something to get started with as I'm still unsure of how much it'll get used, I want to get a cheap one and see what's what before getting an expensive canon one.

The Meike one has optical slave mode etc with S2 to ignore prefire flashes, it also says it supports TTL and ETTL as well as having full manual etc,

It will be used for example a car shoot, where it will be off the camera and on a tripod for lighting the cars side and other parts as well as some portrait shooting too.

All I ask please is will that do the job?
I know there are better flashes out there but I don't really want to spend 300 quid on a flash that I don't know if it'll get used much as like I said, I'm new to it lol

Also how it the brightness etc rated on a flashgun? its that the mk431 part? hows that work please? lol

Cheers
Ste
 
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The YN -565 is has a similar spec to the canon 580EXII but cost the third. It even look like it. You can pick them up of the bay for around £100 or a bit more for uk stockists.

I did exactly what you want to do, buy cheap and i bought into a flash system that wasnt very adjustable which caused my learning of flash work to be harder. research your flash gear very carefully. also cars are big objects you might need more than one. Take into account that accessories, triggers, receivers, light modifiers etc... before you know it your costs have spiralled.
 
The YN-560 is a Canon 580EXII with Yongnuo's electronics (i.e. same body, same flash unit, no E-TTL) I use two and will fully recommend them.

If you need E-TTL (basically means you can use it in auto, not really worth it imo as it only takes a couple of shots to dial in the exposure in most situations), the Y-565 is the same but adds e-TTL capability and a screen.

I'd also recommend RF-603s for off camera work as well, definitely worth it.
 
Ksanti said:
The YN-560 is a Canon 580EXII with Yongnuo's electronics (i.e. same body, same flash unit, no E-TTL) I use two and will fully recommend them.
Click to expand...

not quite, its not 100% the same case. (different foot, no LCD, different buttons, different connectors/locations, no press release for the swivel head).

but it does look pretty similar.

comparison shots if that helps -
https://flic.kr/p/9ve8eg
 
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I have the YN565 and it's a great flash once you figure out and understand how to use it correctly.

Will probably buy another in the future if there isn't anything better out by then.
 
Ksanti said:
If you need E-TTL (basically means you can use it in auto, not really worth it imo as it only takes a couple of shots to dial in the exposure in most situations), the Y-565 is the same but adds e-TTL capability and a screen.
Click to expand...

does the ettl of the 565 utilise the speedlight menus on the canon 5d2? Never really used ettl outwith the pop up flash on my 450D.
 
I can't speak for the 5D2 but for the 7D you can access the external flash settings in the camera menu. I'm sure it will be the same for the 5D2 though.

Personally, I find the ETTL capability to be priceless (love flash exposure lock).
 
neil_g said:
not quite, its not 100% the same case. (different foot, no LCD, different buttons, different connectors/locations, no press release for the swivel head).

but it does look pretty similar.

comparison shots if that helps -
https://flic.kr/p/9ve8eg
Click to expand...

Very similar though, same base mould for the plastics and same flash power etc. Yes there's no screen and there's a different interface, I didn't mean to mislead in that sense.
 
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