Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: A faultless (almost) product!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an (advanced, perhaps) amature who's been using various Canon cameras for almost 20 years (as well as a friend's Nikon SB series flashes). This flash is simply the best Canon has produced and, arguably, the world's finest flash unit. I don't want to repeat what others have already reviewed here, but it is extremely important that you understand Canon flash technologies to avoid frequent underexposures with flash photography. PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE AT THIS LINK BEFORE TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR $$$ AS CANON FLASH TECHNOLOGIES ARE EXTREMELY CONFUSING (Canon's manual does NOT clearly explain this topic):
http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
In general, to get consistently proper exposures and better-quality flash shots, you may want to set your camera to M (Manual), increase its aperture (F5.6 or higher) and shutter speed (1/100 or higher). Since power is not an issue with this "nuclear detonator", I recommend that you set it to 1/200 (to minimize camera shake) and aperture to F9 (to increase corner sharpness). THE FLASH IS SMART ENOUGH TO automatically CALCULATE THE RIGHT OUTPUT TO OBTAIN STANDARD EXPOSURE (In the old days, photographers had to calulate this manually!!!!).
In short, it's virtually impossible to go wrong with this 580 EX II, especially at $[...]. I am a very demanding user and rarely give a 5-star rating to electronic products. But with the 580EX II, I have no choice. Have fun shooting!
James Nguyen
Digital camera Review: A good flash made better!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had a 550ex. It was a good flash. However I needed another flash for multi-flash application. The 580ex II is a good improvement over the powerful 550ex. With this new incarnation, Canon increased the guide nbr and therefore flash output a bit. What I am most happy with is the ergonomics. With my old 550ex, I had to press two buttons to rotate or angle the flash head. With the 580ex, it is done with one button. In addition, this flash is weather proof. Basic interface is intuitive. Overall good flagship flash from Canon.Digital camera Review: A great flash, but make sure this is what you need.
Summary: 5 Stars
Bigger is not always better. The more you pay for a piece of camera equipment does not necessarily mean you will get more out of it than a less expensive alternative. These are two axioms that I wish I could learn someday, but I guess some lessons have to be learned the hard way.
This is a great flash, don't get me wrong. It's a 5 star flash--if it is what you need. I bought this thinking it was what I needed but as it turns out it is too big and too powerful for me. It is extremely large, powerful, and top-heavy. I sold it back on the used market and picked up a 430ex which comes in at almost half the price. The 430ex is also around half the weight/size but still packs a good 60-80% wallup of the 580ex II. For me, this has been ideal. The 430ex provides enough flash but not too bright, and it isn't top-heavy or attention-grabbing like the gigantic 580ex II.
If you are going to be photographing celebrities, people who are far away from your camera, or other situations which call for a very powerful flash then this is the flash for you. If you are looking for more of a wedding or cocktail party flash, then I believe the 430ex is the flash. It is hard to tell from the pictures just how different the sizes of the two flashes are, so I didn't know the 430ex was such an ideal size compared to the 580ex II.
While I can't say anything bad about this flash, just take another hard look at the 430ex unless you know you need some serious flash-power.
Digital camera Review: A great professional level flash
Summary: 5 Stars
As an amatuer with only a 350D I was in two minds whether or not to go for the 580ExII when i could easily have gone for the cheaper 420Ex/430Ex / 550Ex / 580Ex. In the end I decided to future proof and just go with the 580 ExII, I may upgrade my camera body in a number of years, at least I will still be able to use this and all the lenses I have collected so far.
The Canon Speedlite 580EX Flash contains a superset of the features found in the Canon Speedlite 550EX E-TTL Flash in a smaller, lighter and more modern designed housing, although it is still way bigger than the 430Ex. So big it is the biggest peice of equipment in my camera bag! (apart from the tripod of course). Mount this with a 70-300mm tele photo lens and you've got a real workout ahead of you!
It takes 4 normal AA batteries and the flash is on nearly instantly. Recycle time is extremly fast - it was amongst one of the main swinging points for choosing this over the earlier models. I was a bit disspointed with 1700mAh rechargeable batterries although normal alkaline batteries gave me much more flash usage. I might have to try higher value rechargeable batteries like the 2500/2700mAh.
Immediately above the diffuser panel is a white, semi-rigid piece of white plastic (a catchlight reflector) that pulls straight out to create a catchlight in your subject's eyes when using the flash in a vertical bounce position. I never really thought bounce shots would make that much of a difference but boy was I wrong. You get a much better natural light in the shot.
A single button releases both the tilt and rotate locks while a single grip/button press allows the flash head to be rotated and tilted at the same time. Rotation is up to 180 degrees in both directions. I found the tilt very easy to use, even one handed.
One of the other things I liked about this flash is the AF Assist Beam to enhance autofocus in low light conditions, which aligns its beam to the Canons camera focal point and projects itself as a red ir patch on the subject. The white balance is also comunicated directly to the camera too.
Another good point is this flash can be a wireless E-TTL master or a slave when paired up with other speedlites. At the moment I only have one flash, but it means I can opt for the cheaper wireless 430Ex or similar at a much later date when I want to upgrade my setup to include more than one flash, and use the 580 Ex to fire off the slaves automatically.
The hi speed synch, allows the camera to go all the way to 1/4000 second (took me a while to realise I had to set the hi speed synch on the flash, otherwise the fastest shutter speed you'll get is only 1/200 second), although this is at the cost of range / power.
Flash power is great, and I got some really cool pictures using the second curtain sync, although it was more by fluke than anything else! Build quality is super, and both battery door and hot shoe lock can be easily operated with only one hand.
Bottom Line: An excellent flash, may be a bit confusing at first if your a novice/amatuer as I am, but also a bit on the expensive side compared to the 3rd party flashes available for canon. I also found the amazon prices to be very steep - I found this flash a lot cheaper searching around, maybe I bought a grey import, but I've read the imports work just as well as the official ones (as long as you go through reputable sellers) , and so far everyhting works well. On hindsight this flash is probably overkill for the casual photographer - but then this will make sure you experiment more to get the best out of this professional flash!
Digital camera Review: A must for digital cameras
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for my husband for Christmas. I had purchased a Canon 30D for him on his birthday and he had been using the flash unit from his non-digital camera and flash pictures generally didn't turn out as well as he would have liked. So I purchased this flash unit that is strictly for digital cameras and he is more than pleased with the quality of his flash digital pictures now. He used it last weekend to take pictures of my grandchildren playing basketball and the flash unit was able to keep up with the digital camera. Yea!