Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for Canon EOS Digital SLR CamerasFrom Canon Cameras US : Canon Eos Digital Slr

dust- and water-resistant construction * heavy-duty metal mounting foot with improved locking mechanism * E-TTL II for compatible Canon EOS cameras and EF series lenses * stroboscopic flash setting * wireless E-TTL flash operation as a "master" or "slave" unit *

Customer Reviews

Canon Speedlite 580EX II - The best period.
Three Canon 580EX II speedlights form the core of my location lighting kit supplemented by 2 Canon 540EX speedlights. The 580EX II is fast powerful easy to use flexible built like a tank and is smarter than you and I combined. The 540EX has the same Master/Slave ETTL and manual circuitry as its newer cousin about as much power and sells on Ebay for about $200 or so. The 580EX II is very flexible very dependable has a fast recycle time has twice as much power as a Nikon 800 flash and the fastest control panel operation I have ever used. The key is a circular control wheel to change modes and settings similar to the circular wheel on the back of most Canon DSLRs. The design is so good that Nikon stole it for their new generation 900 flash unit. Canon EX series flash units are controlled by coded pre-flashes rather than infrared light as are Nikon units. These pre-flashes happen so quickly that one can barely see them. The 580EX II can control three separate groups of flash units abc with a virtually unlimited number of flashes assigned to each group. With ETTL operation one can set the lighting ratio of each group independently through a seven f/stop range from 8:1 to 1:8. In Manual mode the output of each group can be set from 1:1 to 1:128 power. The list of options goes on and on: multi-flash setting for true "stroboscopic" effects auto or manual zooming of the flash coverage from 24mm to 105mm a wide-angle panel that extends this to 14mm and a cool little pull-out white card to bounce some light into your subjects eyes when you are bouncing the flash unit off the ceiling or wall or whatever you can find. It syncs with high speed Canon shutter speeds has automatic or manual matching of the units color temperature output to the cameras white balance setting and full integration with the Canon 40D 50D 1D MkIII and I believe the new 5D MkII. I control my master 580EX II unit directly from the menu of my Canon 40D camera. The master unit can be set to not fire with the other flashes and still send out the pre-flashes to control all of the slaved strobes. I know Ive forgotten a bunch of less frequently used features the instruction book is about 250 pages long. Oh did I mention that the flash head swivels 360 degrees from either left or right and points straight ahead and straight up and at any angle in between? Makes it easy to point the flash head into a bounce umbrella or the corner of a room and still aim the sensor at the master flash unit. I tried to determine the maximum outdoor range over which the 580EX II would trigger a slave flash and gave up at 175 measured feet when I had run out of driveway and was standing in the woods. Ill test it again someday and see when I reach its limit. And the 580EX II and 540 EX strobes when used as masters can still control all three groups of slaves in manual mode not ETTL when triggered by a sync cord 580EX II or a wireless remote both the 580EX II and 540EX. All in all the best portable flash I have ever used during a 35 year career in photography.

Perfect
The flash is perfect and powerful arrived in time and in the excellent condition.

Small Town Newspaper
I thought long and had about spending this much for a flash unit. This was my second year of doing the local football games and with a start time of 7:30 pm it didnt take long before there was no daylight to take pictures by. We cant afford big fancy lens so a good flash was the best answer. I set my camera to 1/200th in the manual mode and boost the ASA to 1600. I get good clear pictures with the unfortunate demon eyes effect in many. I use Photoshop to correct. I love the distance this flash will cover. I also like the fact that my camera battery lasts longer since I am not using the built in flash. I did invest in and recommend good rechargeable AA batteries for the unit. I cant believe I waited this long to get an external flash

Product Details

Brand: Canon
Model: 1946B002
Released on: 2007-05-10
Dimensions: 4.00" h x 5.00" w x 8.00" l 4.00 pounds

Features

dust- and water-resistant construction
heavy-duty metal mounting foot with improved locking mechanism
E-TTL II for compatible Canon EOS cameras and EF series lenses
stroboscopic flash setting
wireless E-TTL flash operation as a "master" or "slave" unit

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