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Canon 550 EX Flash for G6, G5, G3, G2, G1, Pro1, Pro90 & all EOS SLR Cameras | List Price: $549.99
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Brand: Canon
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - High-output shoe-mount flash for EOS system
- Auto zoom coverage from 24-105mm
- Compatible with all EOS cameras
- Supports wireless flash with EOS-3
- Runs on 4 AA batteries
Excellent flash (though soon obsolete) [Posted on 2004-08-27]
This is an absolute do-everything flash, with master/slave operation, wireless control of multiple channels for slave flashes, A:B:C lighting ratio control (better than the ST-E2's mere A:B ratio), full manual or automatic operation, strobe effects at selectable Herz rates and power, and even a small panel that serves either to widen its flash coverage to 17mm or simply provide a catchlight in a model's eyes when using bounce flash. Range is excellent, battery life is very good and can be compounded with one of the battery packs. The light itself provides excellent color, and a red lamp near the base adds a much more accurate and less harsh focus assist lamp than most of Canon's cameras provide.
If you have an SLR, you'll almost certainly want an external flash. You can provide fill flash to reduce shadows in subjects eyes etc. during harsh daylight shots, take the flash off the camera to eliminate nasty shadows, and avoid the shadows caused by larger lenses and onboard flashes.
Minor quibbles: most DSLRs have crop ratios of 1.3x or 1.6x, but don't pass this information on to the 550EX, which wouldn't care anyway. This means the flash thinks you want greater coverage than you really need (i.e. it will give you a 50mm's angle of flash coverage, when you only need an 80mm's), so you waste a lot of flash power and don't get optimum recycling times. Also, the interface is a little non-intuitive.
If you want a slave- or onboard-only flash and don't need all the extra features, the considerably cheaper 420EX is for you. That said, if you do want all the extra features, the 550EX is still not for you. You want the 580EX, slated for October 2004 release, which fixes the minor issues with the 550.
Expensive but worth it, especially for eos digital rebel [Posted on 2004-11-18]
I just bought a digital rebel about a month ago. Love the camera, my old 380EX speedlight integrates with the camera but just doesn't offer enough cycle speed to keep up with continuous mode on the Rebel. This flash does the job for the Rebel and the plug for the external battery pack promises even better performance once I grab that item. Another big selling point that really makes this unit worth the cash, is that it has its own infrared focus assist lamp which the digital Rebel lacks. When this flash is mounted on your digital rebel, you don't get that annoying set of quick flashes that the camera has to set off to focus in low light when using the built-in flash. The Rebel body uses the infrared focus assist on the 550EX to focus the lens; this feature alone is worth the big bucks this baby costs. The flash has tons of features that most of us might never use, but as a advanced amateur I'm glad they're there so I can play with that if I should choose to try out some fancy stuff. The wireless slave capability is handy but you've got to have at least one more 420EX, 550EX or 580EX to use that. I like the digital readout on the back of the flash and also the two way bounce head, it's important to note that you have to press a button to make the head turn either side to side or up/down---this should make the head sturdier than I've seen on some units that get loose after awhile and drive you nuts. This unit is a HONKER--really big, and, no lightweight either. Get yourself a big deep camera bag if you want to lug this thing around with you. What's the difference between this and the 580EX? The 580 has very slightly faster cycle times and offers some fancy new automatic flash exposure bracketing modes, for me anyway it wasn't worth almost two hundred dollars more for the 580. All of the newer EOS camera bodies are fully supported by this unit, it also works on older EOS bodies but there are functions available on the newer ones that aren't there on older stuff. I like this flash it covers well, cycles fast and the controls are fairly intuitive and easy to use. When you get yours don't lose that book, Canon doesn't seem to have them online anywhere I can find and I've seen places that want to charge you 18 bucks for a new one.
Great development. [Posted on 2005-03-11]
I am very happy of having gotten this flash.. it works pretty well, and I like its performance.
Wireless E-TTL [Posted on 2005-03-25]
The best feature of this flash is the wireless E-TTL feature. With two 550ex's one will work as a master and one as a slave and with the ST-E2 both flashes can be off camera and fired E-TTL. The draw backs are: price, no manual control in slave mode for greater light control, and size (this thing is big). The plus side weighs out the negatives. It is a great flash.
Canon 550 EX Flash [Posted on 2007-08-07]
The Canon 550 EX Flash is an excellent flash. The flash works perfectly on my Canon Rebel XT. It has allowed me to take great pictures in dark locations. The illumination it provides is excellent.
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