New flashgun?!?

[Curt Worton]

Hello everyone!

Firstly I'd like to apologise for not being on here much in a long while as iv been seriously busy with all sorts going on at the moment from sponsoring a professional drift racer and photographing at the BDC to working silly silly hours and moving house! However every so often iv been scanning through and loving all of the work by the veterans of RPF and also the many new members i have seen join since i became a member. I will hopefully get a new pc in the next few weeks and I shall get myself on here and uploading much more often.

But as of the moment I'm in need of your help, I am in dire need of a new flashgun as my cheap jessops 360 packed in so I'm hoping some of you may be able to reccommend me a half decent all purpose flashgun to fit my canon 500d, preferably under the £160 mark.

All advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
~Curt

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Canon fit Metz Mecablitz 50-af 1..... Next one up from mine.
Okay you may have to spend an extra 12 pennies of your hard earned cash, but I believe they're great flash units.
BOOOOOM how you like that
Metz 50 AF-1 Digital Flashgun for Canon:Amazon:Electronics

 

[Paul Lange]

I too have a Metz flash and find it very good. Only problem is that I don't think it is compatible with the Cannon wireless system, unlike it is with the Nikon CLS system

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Really?! Now I didn't know that.... How's that then?
Surely my low end Oly does not out perform canon on wireless technology when connecting to the Metz does it?

 

[Paul Lange]

No I think you are right, it indicates that the Canon wireless system does work with it. i must have been thinking of another flash I was looking at at the time I bought the Metz.

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Phew, had me worried I was recommending a unit that was not good then. Lol.
I'm pretty confident to say that it would of been the Metz 36 which is the one I had before my current flash.
That one had no slave mode at all, and no realiability as it didn't even last me a month... Shame

 

[Curt Worton]

I shall be having a peek at the Metz range then by the sound of things, cheers guys!

 

[Mark Hoy]

This is a handy website for comparing flashes:

Speedlight Feature Comparison Side By Side - Strobist Data i-TTL E-TTL | Speedlights.net

Yongnuo and Nissin are both well thought of cheaper HK/ Chinese brands.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Used 550EX flash from Canon

CANON 550EX DIGITAL SPEED LIGHT FLASH FOR 60D-550D-5D-400D-450D-1100D-350D-300D | eBay

I use this flash and it's great - lots of power and obviously fully Canon compatible.

You can also get external battery packs for them for extended use for b***er all from EBAY

550ex flash pack | eBay

 

[Andy Boardman]

Nissin DI 622 is another to look at to, very very good value for money, I have used them & they are great guns, have all the features without the bells & whistles & buttons, easy to use to.