Looking for a descent external flash for my Canon XTi

[elizabeth_morrissey]

Looking for a descent external flash for weddings for my Canon Xti, I am on a really tight budget, any

suggestions?

[sattler123]

How tight is your budget? The Canon 430EX is very cheap for what it offers.

[elizabeth_morrissey]

My budget is around $300, looks like that would fit. Do you know if it is the memory card or

the flash itself that prevents the camera from taking continous pictures one after the other?

[jimstrutz]

It takes time for any flash unit to recharge it's capacitor for the next shot. The 430EX takes perhaps as long as 4 seconds after a full power flash, while using NiMH rechargeable AA's. Longer for alkaline batteries. You can generally reduce this recycle time by shooting from a closer distance, using a larger aperture (smaller numerically) on your lens, or increasing the camera's ISO setting. All of these methods simply reduce the need for such an intense flash burst, and that saves power in the capacitor for the next flash to occur sooner. In many situations there is no delay at all between flash bursts.

 

If you find you need still faster recycles from your flash you can buy a Canon 580EX with Canon's external high voltage power pack, the CP-E3. This will reduce even full power recycles to less than 1.2 seconds. But all this will cost you more than $300.

[cham]

The memory card plays a small bit in that as well...

 

the XTi's cache (the place where the data goes before it goes into the CF card) isn't huge so it'll take a few photos quickly then slow down. the faster the write time of CF card the faster it can dump the cache meaning you don't have to wait as long to fire another burst of photos.

 

however if you're shooting weddings, i would take a bit more time to compose and get the shot right the first time.

 

but i have a 580ex and a 550ex... the 430 does take awhile to recharge.

 

personally apart from the ergonomics and few other extras that you don't really need a 580... i had the choice of either a 430ex or a 550ex as a second flash awhile ago and the 550 is a more versatile unit for a about the same price.