Canon Speedlite 430EX II or the 580EX II?

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Mike410

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Mike
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Hello,

I'm wanting to buy my first flash. Is it worth spending the extra for the 580 or will the 430 be sufficient?

I don't have any other flash guns (at the moment) so the master slave, shouldn't be a problem.

I would mostly be using it for portraits and experimenting with other possible light uses for it.

So is it worth spending the extra now?

Thanks
 
i tried both back to back when i was getting a flash gun.. back to back at full power there wasnt a massive difference, i didnt need the strobe feature of the 580 exii, and if you were eventually going to buy more flash's and you wanted to trigger them off, just buy some cheap wireless triggers, which would still cost less than paying more for the 580..

Id go for the 430 ;)
 
Depends if you want to do over the shoulder bounces with the camera in portrait mode the right way up. The 580 will do this, the 430 won't.
 
http://photo-tips-online.com/review/canon-430ex-ii-vs-canon-580ex-ii/

I had a look at this and went for a 580. I was ultimately wanting to trigger ETTL using my 500D so at some point I would need a 580 (or other older Canon, ST-E2 or clone or a third party).

So the question was, do I buy the 430 or 580 first - I went for the 580 at the time it was only £75 more than the 430 and decided it was an overall better buy. Actually never got round to getting a 430, opting for a second 580.

With the newer 'crop' cameras having the built in triggers (7D, 60D, 600D?) it might not be so critical having flashguns with master functions anyway.

Andy
 
Nissin Di866II. It's got 99% of the capabilities of the 580II at the cost of the 480II.
 
430 is more than enough for 99% or anything you are likely to do.

I'm personally not a fan of 3rd party flashes they just don't have the. same reliable exposure as a canon flash on a canon camera.
 
I have the 580. Was quite costly but a great flash. Excellent for bouncing light around.
 
Thanks for the replies.

If I went with the 430 EX II and wanted to use it off camera - on a stand with softbox for example - would that be possible if I used a wireless transmitter like a pocket wizard?
 
yea totally possible..you need a pocket wizard that has a hotshoe on tho so the tt5 i think its called..not the plus ii as the 430 doesnt have a flash port on it..where as the 580 does
 
Mike410 said:
Thanks for the replies.

If I went with the 430 EX II and wanted to use it off camera - on a stand with softbox for example - would that be possible if I used a wireless transmitter like a pocket wizard?
Click to expand...

the 430ex2 works like the champ with pocket wizards far better than with the 580ex2 which suffers from radio interference which drastically reduces the range
 
Mike410 said:
Thanks for the replies.

If I went with the 430 EX II and wanted to use it off camera - on a stand with softbox for example - would that be possible if I used a wireless transmitter like a pocket wizard?
Click to expand...
Im currently in the same boat and think i'm going to go with the 430 EX II. I already have a cheap set of transmitters and recievers called "Cactus". My advice would be to shop arround for a wireless transmitters and recievers. There's plenty of others out there. However, if you've got the funds then go with pocket wizards for sure.
 
Thanks for replies, I think I'll go for the 430EXII. I may just buy a long E-TTL cord which is a lot cheaper than a wireless transmitter.
 
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