First Flash to buy

[gabrielle_halle]

<p>A little while ago I bought a Canon Rebel T1i and since then have gradually added on my accessories to include a 50mm f1.8 and 18-200mm f3.5-5.6. I'm now on the hunt for a good external flash! I've looked into reviews but cannot tell if the price increase of the Canon speedlite 580EX from the 430EX is worth it. I do mostly portrait (people) photography in natural light but want to increase my ability to shoot indoor or in poor lighting. At this time I would prefer to not spend more than I have to.</p>

 

[jesse_barba]

<p>I would start with the 430 EX II. It isn't quite as powerful, but it does pretty much everything I could ask. If you get into more complicated lighting, you can always use it as a slave flash to a 580EX II down the road.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>If you're going to do portraits, you're going to want to get the flash off the camera and into an umbrella or softbox. At that point you will most likely want to turn off the auto-everything and use manual exposure. So why spend hundreds on either the 580 or 430 when something like a $90 Vivitar 285HV will give you about the same power for a fraction of the cost. Go read up in the Lighting 101 section at <a href="http://www.strobist.com">www.strobist.com</a> You can save yourself a bundle and get much better light if you follow the directions there.</p>

[ejchem101]

<p>I use a 430 EX II and find that it does everything I need it to. Powerful enough to bounce, and to balance out bright sunlit scenes so I dont have a blown out background.</p>

<p>Make sure you dont make the mistake of only thinking of flashes as being used in the dark, they are very helpful even in well lit scenes.</p>

[barnaby_harding1]

<p>Hey, just out of interest - is it stupid to buy a second hand flash? I really want a Speedlite 430 EX II but wondered if a 2nd hand purchase on ebay would be a bad bet. How many flashes are they good for?</p>

[n-j]

<p>get a metz sca 54mz; so you always have the newest features on board switching cam and flash-adapter ( which is about $50) you can even switch the adapter to fit another manufacturer; you'll get the best "A" mode out there, a rock slid body and a second reflector, so you can bounce the main reflector but create peaks with the second reflector;<br>

i'm using metz ever since, first on a canon now on nikon, never had any problems;<br>

<img src="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images345x345/611860.jpg" alt="" width="345" height="345" /></p>