Best External Flash For Canon 7D?
I am looking in the market to buy an external flash for my EOS DSLR Camera.
I am going to be shooting a lot of portraits. Particularly outside in the natural light. However, I wanted a flash occasionally to brighten up some of the shots.
I checked out BH photo's website to look at some of their flashes and I got a little overwhelmed. What is the difference between a dedicated flash opposed to a non-dedicated flash. Some have mounts, some don't. What's the difference between all of them!!
I have never used an external flash before, rather than just the flash that comes with the camera itself. I was wondering if someone could educate me a little on flashes in general, and what would be the best pick for me!
Thanks!
Check out my work at: [URL Truncated]
Stay updated on facebook: [URL Truncated]
A dedicated flash is specifically designed for use with one or a few cameras only. It has electrical contacts compatible with those cameras allowing it to be used in the cameras auto flash mode. The camera tells the flash everything it needs to give the proper flash exposure. Some dedicated flashes even set the zoom level according to the camera zoom. They work fine in most situations but like most auto camera controls they can be fooled. Im not 100% sure but I believe most dedicated flashes can also be used in manual flash modes so you can override the settings.
With a non dedicated flash you have to set it all the time. You set the distance to subject and the zoom head and make sure the cameras synch speed and aperture are set properly. They must be used in manual flash mode. They are less expensive than dedicated flashes and can be used on many cameras. If you switch to a different camera theres a good chance you can still use your non dedicated flash.
Flash units have guide numbers telling you how powerful they are. For ex from B&H
Guide No. 112'/34 m at 50mm - This flash will provide lighting to a subject 112 feet away when the lens focal length is 50mm. It wont reach as far if the focal length is 200mm. Distance goes down as zoom goes up.
Guide No. 139'/42 m at 85mm
Guide No. 92'/28 m at 50mm
G.N. 141'/43 m at 105mm
Guide numbers arent always accurate so use them as a guide not a promise. Higher giude numbers are more expensive. If youre not shooting subjects 140 feet away you don't need a 140 guide number.
I don't know what you mean some flashes have no mount unless you are referring to the non-dedicated flashes. Dedicated flashes will say "Canon Mount" or "Nikon Mount". Non-dedicated wont say this because they are universal mount. All of these will have some type of physical mount typically a hot shoe mount. A non dedicated flash hot shoe mount may not mount directly to your camera hot shoe and you may need a flash bracket, sync cord or the flash could be a slave triggered by the built in camera flash.
Especially since youre shooting portraits get a flash with a zoom/swivel/bounce head. It allows you to use the flash indirectly by bouncing the flash to reduce harsh shadows.
We can easily get into discussing studio strobes, light modifiers and all kinds of remote flashes but, chances are, you are thinking of a shoe-mount flash since that's the only time it matters if it is a dedicated or non-dedicated flash. I'll try to make this easy as I'm shooting the same camera.
If you spent $1700 on the Canon 7D plus several hundred to several thousand dollars on lenses to match its capabilities, it makes no sense to consider a non-dedicated flash. This is like using a cheap pair of pliers to tightern a nut when a few dollars more would give you a proper fitting wrench that is much more effective and easier to use. So, if you really want the best shoe-mount flash available for the 7D, look no further than Canon.
The Speedlite 580EX II is their top of the line speedlite. Your 7D can be used configure this flash directly from the in camera menus. One benefit of the 580EX II is that can act as a master flash to fire other speedlites wirelessly but, Canon finally caught up to Nikon and integrated this feature with the 7D's built-in flash. Before the 7D, with Canon you either had to buy a 550EX, 580EX, 580EX II or the ST-E2 flash transmitter to wirelessly fire other Canon speedlites.
If you don't need the power of the 580EX II or can't afford it's $450 asking price, the 430EX II offers most of the same functionality for about $170 less. You also give up the 580EX II's built-in wireless flash transmitter but, again this feature is now built into your 7D. Like the 580EX II, you can configure the custom features of this flash from the in camera menus. Most people don't need a flash any more powerful than the 430EX II but, there's nothing this flash can't do that the 580EX II doesn't do better.
For what it's worth, a close friend of mine found out this week that his 7D will fire his Sigma EF 530 DG Super dedicated flash. I mention this flash because it is compatible with Canon's TTL flash metering system. This flash is also notworthy because while it is not as powerful as the 580EX II, it is both cheaper and more powerful than the Canon 430EX II
Another top notch alternative to Canon speedlites is the Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1 TTL flash. However, this flash is almost as expensive as Canon's own 580EX II. I haven't used this flash beyond a few test shots but the fact it costs as much or more than Comparable Canon flashes made it a hard sell for me.
Canon Speedlite 580EX II is the best performance flash.Powerfull & good battery life.
[URL Truncated]
Just to try and make options known, you may want to consider Sunpak flashes. Sunpak makes flashes that work dedicated on a number of name brand cameras including Canon.
I provided a link to Sunpak's website in case you are interested in seeing if there are any options there of interest.
Hope this helps.
Mark
0 comments:
Post a Comment