poul

if money is a big issue, get sigma's equivalent - i used is successfully without any compatibility problems whatsoever. if money less of an issue, get metz equivalent of canon - no problem either, plus you can switch to automatic mode when ettl is not giving you good results - which is quite often in my experience.

don't use strobes, use longer exposure and camera on a tripod.

no, it's not the case with metz 58, it works correctly in this situation as well.

chris, probably not the same song, hehehe

no idea why exif data says no flash, i used a thyristor flash, probably sunpak then...

ok, from my experience of shooting of 100s of events in clubs:

- rent at least canon 5d or better camera;

- shoot at iso 800 or 1600, 3200 only if it's pitch dark there;

- rent two L zooms - 16-35 and 24-70; with primes you will keep running back and forth and stumbling into crowd, not good, and anything less than 2.8F has too narrow DOF for this type of shooting;

- you will still need a flash for highlights - get 580ex or, even better, metz 58Af1, dial it one stop down, shoot bounced with big diffuser; if the ceiling is black, as it's often case in many clubs, bounce off the walls or curtains;

- white balance set to flash;

- shoot in manual mode, check balance of flash and available light often.

i got Metz 58 and i love it, especially for these moments when ETTL jsut won't expose correctly; i used to carry second flash - old autotyristor sunpak - for that, now i just switch the mode on metz. i didn't try wireless mode with canon flashes yet though...

as long as you can "Reduce Your Chances of Taking Bad Photos" and "Shoot At The Speed of Life", it's all good.

 

if my copyrighter would submit to me stuff like this, i'd fire him on spot.

sorry, couldn't reply earlier. Metz 58 AF-1 doesn't have PC terminal or optical slave trigger; quite honestly, there are enough dirt-cheap flashes that do that, so i can see why metz omitted these features.

 

it does support canon wireless e-ttl, and, i think, everything else that canon 580ex can do, only with better user interface. the small second flash is used as a fill flash when the main flash head is bounced, or catch light in the eyes of the subjects; you can set it to off, 1/4, 1/2 and full output. i usually have it on 1/4th because i usually shoot bounced flash with big forward diffuser/reflector rigged from a white chinese fan.

 

you may need to update it using usb if - or rather when - canon introduces e-ttlIII or e-ttlIIm2 in its future camera bodies, so instead of buying a new flash, you just connect your flash to your computer and download a new firmware file from metz side.

 

the auto mode on this flash is the real winner - in most situations it works better for me than darn e-ttlII. i also like built-in wide refractor, and built-in bounce card. manual mode is good when you want to trigger the strobes, and/or measure the light manually. it supports high speed synchronization, second curtain synchronization, etc. etc. it also works with my old canon elanII film body. it also works with my medium format cameras in auto mode. battery life is excellent. the construction is sturdy and high quality. it's hard to find what it doesn't do :) quite worthy investment in my opinion.

my opinion - neither. get canon ettl II compatible metz flash, and you will have the best of both worlds, so you can switch between ettl and auto flash in different shooting conditions. i have metz 58af1 and love it.

i highly recommend <a href="http://www.dphotonews.com/shownews.php?idVesti=94">Metz 58 AF-1</a>. it's updateable via USB, has auto mode, small second flash, and is overall excellent flash.

it just makes better quality photos. how much better, and how to put a price tag on this? that's hard to tell, but it was worth it for me, because i was finally willing to stop shooting 35mm film.

nothing is free. this software, as it was mentioned, compensates for imperfections of the lens, and you pay for that with megapixels of resolution.

 

so on the bottom end of glass quality spectrum, upgrade from $100 to $400 lens will be cheaper than upgrade from 8 to 16 megapixels of your camera. and the lens stays with you, while the camera will be thrown away in a couple of years.

 

now, on the top end of glass, slight improvements of glass quality are so enormously expensive that megapixels become much cheaper. cost/benefit ratio and all that.

 

so yeah, if you're shooting canon 5D with L glass, you can sacrifice some resolution to achieve perceived quality of zeiss glass. if you're shooting digital rebel with xt lens, you may degrade your quality to the point where prints of the same size from, say, lumix P&S with leika glass will look better.

 

all this hypothetical, of course :)

i am a bug fun of home depot/walmart school of photography, so i use car windshield reflectors.

there's nothing i don't like about my mamiya 645afd, and the lenses are exceptional. but more often than not i shoot with my rolleiflex for some reason.

used - eos 3, new - elan 7.

 

however, you may think about switching to medium format for your film needs, the prices currenly are ridiculously low.

 

by the way, i disagree with one of the previous posts - i find TTL flash metering quite superior to ETTL II.

do you shoot with flash? get nikon. if not, canon is better in every other aspect. imho...

for the price of advanced light meter, you can get a small superzoom digital camera, which will give you much more info, including histogramm. i use canon s2is as my light meter, much better, but there are even smaller and cheaper superzooms.

"Use an Epson 4990 or Canon 9950 and your MF negs won't even be as good as a 10D." - my experience is just the opposite. my scans of MF film on epson 4990 are significantly better than my photos shot in raw format from 5d, which is in turn significantly better than 10d.

i think autotyristor flashes are superior to both :) seriously though, nikon without a doubt. i learned to work around canon flashes' quirks by now, but i wish i didn't have to.

the best thing is, indeed, to shoot outside on overcast day. the next best thing, from my experience, is to use shoemunt flash bounced 100% from white ceiling. still use tripod to position camera exactly in front of the middle of the painting (i use measuring tape for more precision):

whenever i shoot action, i use canon 5d.

 

but for studio shots and/or portraits, i feel that medium format is vastly superior, even when scanned on flatbed. i usually take twice as many studio shoots with canon as with mamiya 645 or rolleiflex, and almost all the keepers are from film. fwiw/ymmv.

mamiya 645 afd works really well for me.

i had the same problem shooting the shows in small clubs, so i got myself a tiny weak <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=367181&is=USA&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation">cullmann flash</a> for under $100. when shooting with it at iso 1600 at f2.8, the flash is almost invisible, and it does the trick. it can even bounce from a ceiling.

i found a collapsable rubber lens hood for my rolley in used camera store. best $5 i ever spent on photogear.

i've recently bartered my 2 years old digital canon SLR to mamyia 645AFD. after first few rolls, i swore off digital for now, got rolleiflex and epson 4490 scanner; i shoot much less, but photos are much, much better. and not because of resolution.

 

maybe this answers your last question.