# can anyone advice what does speedlite used for how do i know which to buy?



## junqi (Feb 21, 2015)

can anyone advice what does speedlite used for how do i know which to buy?

i am aiming for 1 but do not know how it works and which should i buy.

can any professional advice me on this.

thank you.


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## bigal1000 (Feb 23, 2015)

?


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## Designer (Feb 23, 2015)

junqi said:


> can anyone advice what does speedlite used for how do i know which to buy?
> 
> i am aiming for 1 but do not know how it works and which should i buy.
> 
> ...


Sorry, I'm not a professional, but I can answer your question.

A speedlight is very useful in certain situations, for instance; outdoors in daylight it is used for "fill" light to lighten shadows.  

Indoors, you can use it to provide enough light for hand-held shots.  By adding enough light, you can minimize blur caused by camera movement.

A speedlight uses batteries, so you can take it practically anywhere that flash photography is allowed.  

I use a Nikon SB-910 which I can recommend with enthusiasm.  The Nikon Speedlight is capable of i-TTL which works with a (Nikon) camera to adjust the light automatically, which is handy for quick snapshots in an informal setting.

The flash (any speedlight) should be modified by one or more actions, such as; bouncing the light from a nearby white surface, or by getting the flash some distance from the lens, or placing a diffuser between the flash and your subject.

If you can afford it, get a modern speedlight that works with your system.


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## junqi (Feb 25, 2015)

Designer said:


> junqi said:
> 
> 
> > can anyone advice what does speedlite used for how do i know which to buy?
> ...



How about if i using a canon which should i get ?


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## Designer (Feb 25, 2015)

junqi said:


> Designer said:
> 
> 
> > If you can afford it, get a modern speedlight that works with your system.
> ...


I don't know the Canon system, sorry.


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## FotosbyMike (Feb 25, 2015)

For Canon I would suggest the Canon 430EXII, 580EXII or the 600EX-RT these are not cheap starting around $300 - $500. If you want a cheaper option look at third party flashes like Yongnuo YN-560 I, II, III, YN568 EXII, YN600EX-RT...etc. there start around $70 - $180.

It is hard to give advice unless you give use things like, Camera you have, budget, type of photography...etc. the more we know that better we can help.


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## TCampbell (Mar 2, 2015)

The 580EX II is discontinued (it was replaced by the 600EX-RT). 

The 430EX II is probably the most popular among consumer use.  It can work on-camera (attached to the hot-shoe) or off-camera (as a "slave").  If used off-camera, you need a way to trigger the flash and this is typically done via some "master" on the camera.   Most Canon Rebel series bodies from the T3i and later have built-in "commander" mode (master) and can trigger the off-camera flash.  Not all models support this, so you'd need to check if YOUR model supports this.  The master and remote communicate optically (via pulses of light).

The 600EX-RT is the flagship flash and it's VERY nice.  It can communicate either optically OR via radio.  There are no cameras with a built-in radio transmitter, however, so that means you either would need a 2nd 600EX-RT or you'd need Canon's dedicated ST-E3-RT commander (it's not a flash... it fits into the hot-shoe and is the radio commander which triggers the off-camera flashes.)

The advantage of the Canon brand flashes is that they have perfect compatibility with the Canon E-TTL flash protocol.

But there are third party flashes too... the Yongnuo flashes are popular as low-cost alternatives.  Most of these are "manual" flash only (no E-TTL) but they do make a few models which have E-TTL support... but be careful.  The Yongnuo YN-565 EX supports Canon E-TTL but has some odd compatibility problems with some cameras.  This is because Canon doesn't really share the specs... they have to reverse engineer this.  Some issues turned up with users trying the flash on newer bodies and noticed that when the AF-assist beam fires, it remains ON when the flash triggers and they end up with a photo of their subject where you can clearly see the AF assist-beam pattern on them (not good).  But it doesn't happen with all models.

There are more basic versions that do not have E-TTL -- these are "manual only" flashes.  You can use the buttons to decide how much of the flash's power you want it to use (full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8th, and so on) and you control the amount of light on your subject with a combination of (1) distance from subject, (2) f-stop (which controls how much light can enter the lens), and (3) flash power output on the flash.  Lighting modifiers also play a part (bouncing the flash off the ceiling, or shooting through a diffuser, etc.)  Manual flash isn't hard... but will require that you spend some time to learn how it works and the factors that influence the lighting results.  But that's probably true of everything in photography...  you'll always get better results when you learn what factors control the results and how to control those factors.

If you go third party (like Yongnuo) -- be aware that they ALSO make flashes compatible with Nikon.  The Nikon compatible flashes are not compatible with Canon (Nikon uses iTTL) and the Canon E-TTL systems are not compatible with Nikon.  So make sure you get the right version of the flash if you go this route.

The Canon flashes will cost more than the Yongnuo, but the Canon flashes are also more reliable and they're going to be compatible with every Canon EOS camera.


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## junqi (Mar 10, 2015)

TCampbell said:


> The 580EX II is discontinued (it was replaced by the 600EX-RT).
> 
> The 430EX II is probably the most popular among consumer use.  It can work on-camera (attached to the hot-shoe) or off-camera (as a "slave").  If used off-camera, you need a way to trigger the flash and this is typically done via some "master" on the camera.   Most Canon Rebel series bodies from the T3i and later have built-in "commander" mode (master) and can trigger the off-camera flash.  Not all models support this, so you'd need to check if YOUR model supports this.  The master and remote communicate optically (via pulses of light).
> 
> ...



if i buy 430 ex II. How can i get the off camera flash to work ? Do i need to buy any equipment in order to trigger the off camera flash ?


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## TCampbell (Mar 10, 2015)

junqi said:


> if i buy 430 ex II. How can i get the off camera flash to work ? Do i need to buy any equipment in order to trigger the off camera flash ?



Which camera model do you have?  Some models have built-in commander mode which can trigger the remote flash... some don't.  If your camera doesn't have a built-in commander mode then you'd either need a speedite commander or a 2nd flash to put on-camera that has commander mode.


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## junqi (Mar 10, 2015)

TCampbell said:


> junqi said:
> 
> 
> > if i buy 430 ex II. How can i get the off camera flash to work ? Do i need to buy any equipment in order to trigger the off camera flash ?
> ...


i am using canon 70D. i always do see people having a very small equipment on top of their camera to trigger the flash. do i have to buy that and what the equipment call?


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## EIngerson (Mar 11, 2015)

Look at the yongnuo speed lights. Great gear at a great price. I have the YN568EXII. It works great. I chose this one for the high speed synch.

Amazon.com YONGNUO YN568 EX II TTL Flash Speedlite with High Speed Sync for Canon 1Dx 1Ds series 1D series 5DIII 5DII 5D 7D 60D 50D 40D 30D 20D 650D T4i 600D T3i 550D T2i 500D T1i 450D Xsi 400D Xti 350D 1100D 1000D On Camera Shoe Mount Flashes Camera Photo


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## FotosbyMike (Mar 11, 2015)

The Canon 70D have a built in wireless flash transmitter using the popup flash. This only works line of sight and mostly indoors. If want to use true wireless triggers you can look into the following option below. But we need to know a little more on how you want to use the flashes, ETTL or Manual?
Pocket Wizard (Plus III, Plus X, Flex, and Mini TT)
Yongnuo (YN-622c, RF602..etc.)
Cowboy Studio
Phottix
Cactus
and much more.


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## TCampbell (Mar 11, 2015)

You can use the speedite off-camera and outdoors... but the trick is that the sensor on the 430EX II is in in the lower part of the unit (behind the red-tinted lens).  That sensor needs to be facing the flash on the camera -- not just facing forward.  If it faces the camera, it can notice the flash fire in significantly more light and at a significantly larger distance than if it simply faces forward.

The "optical" trigger uses visible light (not IR).  You will see the on-camera flash fire, but you can "disable" it for the shot.  This is actually very confusing to people just starting out... because if you "disable" it, you still see it flash.   What's really happens is that the flash fires rapidly to perform flash metering and also to send instructions to the remote flash.  When you "disable" the on-camera flash, it will fire before the camera even opens the shutter -- and this is how it sends instructions to the remote flash.  When the camera shutter opens to take the shot, only the off-camera flash fires.  So you won't actually see any light from the on-camera flash in your shot if you told the camera to "disable" the light.

If you use a Canon E-TTL compatible slave flash, then the on-camera pop-up flash can trigger the off-camera flash for you.  If you use anything that isn't compatible with Canon E-TTL then you'll need your own triggers.


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## junqi (Mar 17, 2015)

TCampbell said:


> You can use the speedite off-camera and outdoors... but the trick is that the sensor on the 430EX II is in in the lower part of the unit (behind the red-tinted lens).  That sensor needs to be facing the flash on the camera -- not just facing forward.  If it faces the camera, it can notice the flash fire in significantly more light and at a significantly larger distance than if it simply faces forward.
> 
> The "optical" trigger uses visible light (not IR).  You will see the on-camera flash fire, but you can "disable" it for the shot.  This is actually very confusing to people just starting out... because if you "disable" it, you still see it flash.   What's really happens is that the flash fires rapidly to perform flash metering and also to send instructions to the remote flash.  When you "disable" the on-camera flash, it will fire before the camera even opens the shutter -- and this is how it sends instructions to the remote flash.  When the camera shutter opens to take the shot, only the off-camera flash fires.  So you won't actually see any light from the on-camera flash in your shot if you told the camera to "disable" the light.
> 
> If you use a Canon E-TTL compatible slave flash, then the on-camera pop-up flash can trigger the off-camera flash for you.  If you use anything that isn't compatible with Canon E-TTL then you'll need your own triggers.



Hi, Tcampbell, thanks for the info provided. i deciding of getting *Speedlite 430EX II or *
*Speedlite 580EX II. *Do you have any recommendation ?  with both of this flash, do you think i should use the built in on-camera pop-up flash to trigger the off camera flash? Because i have never seen people using on-camera-pop-up flash before. Most of them are using a wireless trigger should i get 1? if so, which 1 should i get ? kindly advise.

Thank you.


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## enerlevel (Mar 17, 2015)

i was thinking about buying the new nissin i40 for canon fit.  it looks very small and light and is 40GN. also it has a small video light...  plus for me the manual controls are very very easy to use...  do have a look at these flash.


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## Surfwooder (May 6, 2015)

Your 70D is very similar to all the Canon cropped sensor cameras, and does have a pop up flash.  The pop up can be used to trigger any flash which uses the flash from the camera to fire.  I do know this to be true with the Yn 565 EX.  Also, if you mount the Yn 565 to the hotshoe of your 70D you can set it up for E-TTL shooting, by using the flash control in the cameras menu.  If you desire to use a radio trigger system, look at the YN 622C transmitter/receiver system.  You'll have to buy two 622's since they can be used either as transmitter or receiver, but will transmit and receive E-TTL signals from the camera.  E-TTL is Canon speak for "through the lens" metering for flash.  The camera will adjust the amount of light from the flash automatically using your in camera metering system.  If you want to use this option be sure to buy trigger that supports E-TTL, and not just manual.  Good luck.


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