kristian_dale Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Hi! As I am writing this post I am ordering some stands and umbrellas and stuff from B&H. I will also buy some pocketwizards to trigger my flashes. The thing is, I had just settled to go with the Speedlite 550EX as my main flash,and use my 430EX until I can afford the 580EX. My problem is that the 550EX seems impossible to get hold of. Ieven tried google it, but could find it for sale anywhere. Then I started thinking about getting the even older540EZ. My only concern here is that in its specs is it says that it has a recycle time of 12 sec! what are yourthoughs in this? Is the 550EX faster (I didnt find the recycle time for this one)? Do any of you have anyexperience with these? I will highy appreciate all your response! Regards,Kristian Dale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryantan Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 If you're going to trigger with PW's, why are you even sticking with Canon flashes (especially those with E-TTL capabilities)? Pretty much any flash would do. The 550EX has a max recycle time of 8 seconds: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=217&modelid=7270#ModelTechSpecsAct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristian_dale Posted October 15, 2008 Author Share Posted October 15, 2008 hm...I really havent looked into too many of the other flashes.. do you have any recommendations? :) As long as it is easy to carry around, and is powerful enough I really dont care what flash it is. Thank you for clearing out my recycle time question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryantan Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 There are plenty of flashes that are just as powerful at a fraction of the cost. The most notable is the Vivitar 285HV. At $89 new with a GN of 37m @ 35mm (equivalent to that of the 550EX), it's pretty much impossible to beat. Also check out a Nikon SB-24/25/26/28 or a Sunpak 383 Super. They are all around $100 and have similar GN's. The SB-26, in particular, as a built-in optical slave, which makes them useful when you don't have enough PW's to spread around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 If you're going to use your flash in manual mode there many others that would be a better choice. 540EZ works i TTL/ A-TTL so it will work only in manual mode with digital camera. I was using it for some time with film cameras and its speed was enough for me. You just need to use good batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerrymorgan Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 The 540EZ has no socket for you to plug in a Pocket Wizard cable, so you will have to either purchase an adaptor that fits in the hotshoe socket of the 540EZ and allows you to plug in the cable, or wire a socket into the 540EZ (I took the rewiring approach with my 540EZs). The Vivitar that Bryan mentioned is a great flash. I have a couple of those and I'm really pleased with them. There is no need to rewire them, but you will need a Pocket Wizard cable that has a Vivitar connector on one end. One advantage of the 540EZ over the Vivitar is that it can be dialled down to 1/128th power. The Vivitar only goes down to 1/16th power, but you can compensate with neutral density gels. If I were you, I would look closely at the Nikon flashes that Bryan recommended. They go down to 1/128th power, require no rewiring, and can be bought used on eBay for around the same price as a used 540EZ (a new Vivitar costs about the same, by the way). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerrymorgan Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 By the way, I should add that I think the 580EX that you aspire to are overkill for this application. I have one that I have rewired for use with Pocket Wizards (mines a Mark 1 -- the Mark 2 needs no rewiring as it has a socket), but I only have it because I sometimes want to use E-TTL when I am not using Pocket Wizards. If I always used manual flash, I would only have 540EZs and Vivitars, or perhaps add some Nikons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristian_dale Posted October 16, 2008 Author Share Posted October 16, 2008 thank you for your response! Well, when I get the 580EX I will not only use it with pocket wizards, but also as my on-camera flash. But I will probably wait till next year before I get it. I did check out your suggestions Bryan, and I´m thinking on going for the Vivitar flash instead of the Canon. Thank you for your advice. My friend just bought some of them, and they look pretty good. And they are really ineexpensive aswell :) I was gonna place my order last night, but as B&H wont ship until next week I will have plenty of time to figure out what flash I will go for.. Thanks again for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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