Off CameraFlash

[DigiDiva]

I'mdesperately wanting to buy an off camera flash. Have looked at Canon and some Japanese ones on Ebay. Jessops are doing a Canon fit off camera one for around £79 and I have some Jessops gift vouchers. Can anyone recommend it?ANyone tried it? Anyone have one? Would appreciate comments... This is the link http://www.jessops.com/online.store/...7557/show.html

[mondmagu]

Never tried that one Chris.Bought the Canon 430 ex II about a year ago and cannot fault it, it is superb.Granted it is more expensive but is quality.Works a treat with the wireless function on the 60D.

Des

[alfbranch]

This works off camera as a slave flash so needs another flash burst to fire it.
I am sure a canon user will be along soon to confirm this but your cameras off camera flash control will either be infra red or radio controlled and i dont think this will work with it. You may need a canon flash but I may be wrong.

THIS appears to be compatable

[DigiDiva]

Hmmm, food for thought. The manual suggests I can use another make other than canon that will work remotely when I fire the camera flash. Will make more enquiries.

[alfbranch]

Originally Posted by DigiDiva

Hmmm, food for thought. The manual suggests I can use another make other than canon that will work remotely when I fire the camera flash. Will make more enquiries.

Chris
It will do that

I thought you maybe had a 60D which operates the flash differently like Olympus that use infra red to fire comapatble flashes

[chris-p]

Chris, I forget what camera you have (was it an 1100D?)...

The Jessops flash has a slave mode so you can use it off the camera but you'll have to use another flash to fire it. You can use the pop up flash on your camera to do that but you will end up effectively using 2 flashes that way (the gun and the pop up flash).

You'll also have to control the flash manually if you use it off camera. You're camera won't be able to meter for it won't know it's there and won't compensate it. This may not be a problem but you should be aware of it.

Some of the newer Canon cameras have a built in flash commander which you can use to control everything straight from the camera but I don't know which camera you have so I don't know if you have access to that system.
I've never used the Canon off camera flash system but if it's anything like the Nikon CLS it's very powerful and lets you control multiple flashes in several groups, which you can adjust individually, all from the camera. Of course, you'd have to have compatible Canon flashguns.

For me, the best basic off camera flash system you can get is the Nissin Di466 (which is completely Canon compatible) and costs the same as the Jessops flash. The main reason I suggest this flash is that I've heard nothing but complaints about Jessops flash units and I've used Nissin strobes on both Canon and Nikon systems and they've worked flawlessly.

You'd need a trigger to fire it off the camera which has the significant advantage of not having the pop up flash showing in the photo. These don't have to be expensive. You can do it with a cable for a few quid (depending on specific equipment) but if you want to go wireless, I'd suggest the Interfit Strobies i Sync. It's £45 and will work using both IR and radio which means you can fire almost any flash off camera.

It's still manual, which means you have to adjust the camera and the flash individually rather than relying on the camera to know the flash is there and ajust everything to the correct exposure but it's the most flexible and powerful system you'll get without spending hundreds on a proprietary system.

[alfbranch]

The Nissin Di466 is a great flashgun for the money I have and its great and it will do what you want.
Its much better than the Metz flash I had that failed as it works perfectly with camera

[wavemachine]

Chris has the 60D, I looked into getting a Nissin Di866 and had it confirmed this would work fine with the speedlite flash control on my 7D which I believe is the same system the 60D uses.

ChriP with regards to using the pop up flash to control the off camera flash it is possible to switch the pop up flash off so it emits a tiny flash which has no flash effect on the image in fact I left it on and wondered why my pictures were way underexposed DOH!

TBH I have not ever heard or read a good review about the Jessops flash guns so I would personally avoid them and look else where such as NIssin or save a bit longer for a Canon unit.

I would suggest you get a unit that supports swiveling as well as tilting otherwise you may find you wanting to buy a new flash gun too soon, I have had my 580EX Mk 2 for 3 years now and I love it, I did get it for £200 brand new which was a total bargain. I think what I am trying to say is buying a flash gun is a bit like a tripod once you have got a good unit you shouldn't need to change it until it breaks and should serve you well for a very long time.

[chris-p]

Dave, yes it is possible to turn the pop up flash into a "commander only" mode but that usually only works with proprietary flashes. As far as I know you can't normally use that feature with third party flashes.

A swivelling head is a good idea. The Nissin Di622 has everything you'd need ans the Mark II version is compatible with the 60D (congrats on the upgrade BTW, that didn't tale you long!).

[wavemachine]

Originally Posted by chris-p

Dave, yes it is possible to turn the pop up flash into a "commander only" mode but that usually only works with proprietary flashes. As far as I know you can't normally use that feature with third party flashes.

A swivelling head is a good idea. The Nissin Di622 has everything you'd need ans the Mark II version is compatible with the 60D (congrats on the upgrade BTW, that didn't tale you long!).

I know the DI866 supports the speedlite control as a slave from my 7D as I have used one, a friend has one the only thing I will say about the Nissin units is they are a lot noisier Zooming the heads than the Canons.