Which flash?

MikeHiow · 25 Jun 2011 at 16:02

Hi, I'm looking for a flash to pair up with my 550D - it'll mostly be for indoor stuff, but I tend to do a lot of night time shooting as well.

If I'm honest, I've got absolutely no idea what I'm looking at when it comes to flashes, so I'm not sure what I should be getting.

I've got £90 worth of Jessops vouchers, so would like to get it from there as long as the price is reasonably close to what can be had elsewhere.

It seems the main contenders within budget are Jessops cheap £80 one, the Sigma EF610 and the Canon 430EX.

Can anyone tell me what each will offer me?

Throttle · 26 Jun 2011 at 02:56

ive got a cannon 40d and used my old cobra 440af flash with it which is very similar the the jessops flash. It always worked but only on full power. About 3 months ago i decided to get the 430ex11 and it is a huge improvement. It can be used with full ettl metering or i can manualy adjust the flash power and can set it to flash at the begining or end of the exposure. It really is a big improvement over my old flash and i would recommend it.

heres a couple of shots with it

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MikeHiow · 26 Jun 2011 at 11:43

Considering I was going to spend around £90, and now I have that portion of it essentially free, I think I'll use the vouchers to upgrade my choice to the 430

theheyes · 26 Jun 2011 at 21:22

I don't think you'll be disappointed with the 430, I have one for my 500D and you can pretty much leave it in eTTL mode and forget about it. If you want to learn more about the flash I recommend Speedliter's Handbook by Syl Arena (incidentally he recommends the 430EX if you're new to flashes).