New 430EX or 2nd hand 550EX

<p>Hey there.<br>

After recently moving to Canon with my 500D (T1i), I'm trying to get my kit built up. Next on my list is a decent hotshoe flash that is reasonable. To that end I'm trying to decide whether it would be safer to get a new 430EX, or a 2nd hand 550EX. Both are pretty much the same price.<br>

Mainly this will be used on camera so e-TTL is quite important, but starting to do more off camera as well. My main concern is whether a 2nd flash is worth investing in.<br>

Oh, and please, I live in South Africa so not looking to buy at any U.S. dealers or flea-bay.<br>

Thx for your feedback</p>

<p>If by safer you mean less chance of something going wrong with it, you're certainly safer new over used.</p>

<p>Beautiful SA! - http://www.brettcolephotography.com/galleries/cape.html</p>

<p>If you only need Canon ETTL and manual controls consider a Yongnuo flash like the YN465, Yn467, YN468, etc. </p>

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<p>I have Nissin Di866 and happy with it. It rated even better then 550 and cheaper then Canon (although I noticed priced went up 50$ since I bought it on Amazon 6 months ago)</p>

<p>I would say yes! Second flash is definitely worth investing. You can set the 550ex as the master and use the 430ex as the off shoe wireless slave. And you can do all this using the Canon's built-in wireless E-TTL.</p>

<p>One key reason to use two flash is so you can use the off camera light as your main (key) light and the hot shoe flash as your fill light. When you move the key light off from the camera, pictures become more dramatic since the direction of the shadows change. Plus, with an off camera flash, you have many more options of light modifier to soften the harsh light that you typically get from a speedlites. The on camera flash could be set to fire at much lower output to fill in the dark shadows.</p>

<p>The 430ex would probably suit better as a fill light since the output less light than the 550ex. But since the 430ex can not be set as the master, you have to put the 550ex on the camera to trigger the off-camera slaves.</p>

<p>If you're considering using a second flash off camera you'll be kicking yourself for not buying the 550EX used (assuming it's in good shape). It is capable of controlling the right Canon flash off camera retaining TTL metering, which means you have the 550 on camera with a 430 off camera and the 430 is properly metered when you press the button. And you wouldn't need to buy anything else to make it fire either, the 550 would send a signal to the 430 and the 430 would go off.</p>

<p>IF I Were buying for the pupose of having a second flash off camera on a pole for extra light and both flashes were used i would buy the 530ex ,but if you are chooisng betweeen a new 430ex11 and a used 530ex then I would for sure go with the 430 , i bought a 430ex11 for my first flash and its a great flash , the only bad thing about is you cant use a standard battery pack from Canon you have to go a different souce to pull that off for a small investment , I did this when i started , and many will disagree but I made a lot of happy people and made good money to buy lens. I used the 430ex11 on my camera and then i went to overstock.com and bought two of these Rokinon ETTL-II Canon-compatible Digital Zoom Flash and i paid around a 100 bucks each they are now one sale for 68 dollars , and except for the battery door the build is identical of the 430 ex and it has all the manual flash and they have the lcd screen on the back and its can be used as a slave , so i shoot with the 430 on camera and mostly one of the off brand on a pole and have super lighting in the worst places and i have been using them for over a two years and they work perefect, the bower also makes a very good runner up to the canon model and , it makes it affordable to start your business and they come with a year warranty just like Canon , so far its been great, i save my money for lens not 500 dollar flashes thats where the money is made.To each his own, if i had tons of money i would buy all Canon ,but i dont so i skimp where i can.</p>

<p>550EX, that is the route I went and I couldn't be happier. Having masters is much more useful than less powerful more modern slaves.</p>

<p>Buying a used flash is kind of tricky, sort of like buying a used car without an odometer. You never really know how much the previous owner abused it. I purchased a used 550EX off eBay 5 years ago and it's still going strong, although I have moved up to the Metz 58AF-1 and the Canon 580EX II since then, the 550EX served me well and still does.<br />The thing about the 430EX is that you can't use it as a Master and it does have other limiting features(POWER) that the 550Ex does not have. It's a great flash and if I was first starting out, I probably would rather go with something new that I could return, than taking chances on something that might not work out at all, or have some issues.</p>

<p>Thx for the feedback gents. I was pondering a Yongnuo 468, but no one locally seems to stock it. Of the other alternatives, the Nissin Di622 is well recommended by a fellow photog, but the Canon version doesn't work on radio triggers. The Sigmas are out as they only have 2 power settings in manual which is pretty pointless for me, and The Metz options cost the same as the Canon.<br>

I am nervious about buying a 2nd hand flash as you have no idea how hard it's worked, and I don't know the lifespan of the strobe itself. But it does offer more for the money. Question is, if something goes wrong with the 550, would it be worth sending into Canon to be repaired?</p>

 

<p>If you can only afford to buy one flash just now then the 430 is the way to go, it communicates focal length info accounting for the sensor crop, is E-TTL II (should you have any E-TTL II compatable lenses) if you are in AWB mode the flash tells the camera what colour temp to use etc. It's just a more sorted way of working with a cropped sensor DSLR.<br>

Full frame DSLR no question, the 550. For you, as a camera top flash with your camera, the 430.<br>

For the future:<br>

If you want to use off camera flash then you will need a master unit. Either the 550EX or an ST-E2 will work at a similar cost.<br>

I would use the 430 in slave mode off camera.<br>

I don't think it is worth buying a 550EX first and a 430EX second. The 550 is slightly compromised by its pre-digital genesis on a cropped sensor camera.</p>

<p>Thx Paul. Your insight is most useful.</p>

<p>The 550 can be used as a master or slave, has one stop more light output, and has the jack to attach an accessory battery pack.</p>

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<p>Question is, if something goes wrong with the 550, would it be worth sending into Canon to be repaired?</p>

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<p>You should give Canon a call or shoot them an email and ask them that question. Personally, I'd take a chance with the 550. The functionality that you'd get would be worth the risk but that's my opinion. You should take a look at Photonotes page on comparing these flashes.<br>

http://photonotes.org/cgi-bin/flash-lookup.pl?flash1=canon550ex&flash2=canon430exii&flash3=*</p>

<p>I have the 550EX and 580 EX II. When I added the 580 I could have bought the 430 ans saved a lot but the extra functionality of the master is worth getting the used flash. Assuming the 550 Ex is in good condition and all the functions work your risk is quite low on second hand as flashes tend to work for a very long time. Both my Canon 300 TLs work as well as when I bought them in 1986 and even my Metz 45 hammerhead bought used in 1984 still works perfectly. Indeed the only flash i have owned that failed was a Nissin although this was almost 20 years ago.</p>