[The1]

Seeing as a lot of us in here are interested in the best deal, and the best products, i figured maybe this forum needed a review thread based entirely on our own experiences.

So i'll start off with 2 recent aquisitions.

580EX II Speedlight:

I got my hands on a new toy today. I picked up an 580EX II flash.... man that's a nice unit... Build quality blows the 430EX away along with all of features and abilities.

With the 580ex on my 5D mk II, the master and slave drives work seamlessly and i could hope for better.

On the other hand, however, if trying to use a pocket wizard to trigger the 580ex II, do not expect the master and slave drives to co-ordinate with each other when trying to use both the radio and the infrared transmitters together. This only works when the master is on the camera and no radios are involved.

This doesn't bother me at this point in time because if i were doing a serious shoot, i would likely pick up a full lighting system and another pocket wizard to control it with.

It is very easy to use both types of flash at this point with the infrared slave drives when using the 7D as the master. They both sync perfectly and provide great coverage together. This will be the same situation for anyone using the 60D and i believe (but not certain) the T3i also has this feature to control flashes.

Obviously the infrared network has it's limitation with line of sight as opposed to radio, but through my experience, you have to be at some pretty extreme angles to not have the flash triggered properly.


It is also worth noting that a whole new world was opened up to me when i purchased my 7D back in the fall and was able to remotely trigger flashes placed just about anywhere i wanted. I always wished this was an option on the 5DmkII without having to purchase add ons. Now that i have the 580ex, i can treat the cameras more equally when it comes to off camera flash photography.

And to anyone who might have the 430ex or the 580ex, it might be worth grabbing another so that you can further explore the world of flash photography.

Anyways, long story short... I wish i had put out the extra few dollars back in the summer when i bought the 430ex and just grabbed the 580ex instead, they are worlds apart, and i wish i knew that before now.

One important note to to all this. The 430ex II does not connect with radio controls, so pocket wizards and any similar type items you may come across won't work with it. This is something i wish i knew as well which i was buying my first flash. So that is a huge point in the favor of the 580ex II.