50mm equivalent flash

[Phoenix_Jackson]

I was told to start learning taking pictures with flash. I find it a little intimidating but I'll bite.

Googling "Which flash to buy?" kinda helped but it's still a little confusing. So I thought of a starter question and base my purchase from there. The nifty-fifty is one of the lightest, affordable, and all-around lens, highly recommended for beginners. Is there a flash equivalent for it?

I have Canon EOS 60D. And I'd want an off-camera unit. Preferably wireless but can live with wired ones. Weight and size might not be much an issue (not sure). Flexibility when it comes to power and range would be nice, but like the 50mm, I could learn to adjust for range... I think. But this is all I know that I think I need to look after when choosing a flash. Are there any specifications I'd have to watch out for?

Please help me, and I thank you for taking your time with this.

[Rentham]

There are two schools of thought on starting with flash. One is you should start with manual flash and the other is you should start with eTTL flash. Much of it depends on your intended use. For portraits and the like, I prefer manual flash. For events and dynamic situations, eTTL is probably the better choice.

I feel like there is better quality instruction available for starting with manual flash. Between Strobist and Zack Arias, you could get up to speed very quickly on manual flash. There are definitely quality resources out there for eTTL as well, but not as many in my opinion. And they occasionally assume you have access to a king's ransom worth of gear.

I started with manual flash and felt very comfortable when I added eTTL to my arsenal. My first flash was an SB-25 I got from eBay and then I followed up with an LP120 from MPEX. If I were starting again today, I'd grab the LP160 from MPEX.

[OsmosisStudios]

If the flash is going on camera, it's gotta be TTL. If it's going off, it's gotta at least have access to manual controls. I tried learning to use TTL on stands with umbrellas and the like: it's a giant pain and not worth the effort. If you throw it in manual, you control it perfectly.

[inkista]

No, there is no equivalent to the nifty fifty in flash land, unless you want to shoot exclusively off-camera, Strobist-style (i.e., using speedlights in studio-type lighting set-ups). If you just want a manual off-camera light, the Lumopro LP160 or YN-560 seem to be filling that spot right now.

TTL
As everybody else has pretty much reckoned it comes down to whether or not you need TTL capability. TTL-capable flashes tend to have a lot more bells and whistles on them. TTL is the flash equivalent to having Av mode: the flash and camera can talk together, and the camera tells the flash to send out a "preflash" pulse of light of a known brightness, meters it, and then adjusts the flash's power to make that brightness "correct". Good enough for ballpark and FAST. You can also override this power setting with flash exposure compensation (FEC), just as you use EC to override whatever Av thinks is the right shutter speed for you.

guide number
The guide number of a flash is supposed to tell you how powerful the flash is. It's given as a distance, usually assuming iso 100. You divide this distance by the f-number of the aperture you're going to use, and that will tell you how far you can throw the light with the flash. Unfortunately, most companies fudge this number a little, usually by using the highest "zoom" setting.

aside on zooming
"Zooming" with a flash means altering the spread of the light by moving the flash bulb in the head farther or nearer to the front face of the flash's head. This way, the spread of the light can match the FoV of the lens you have on the camera. The wider the lens, the wider the spread, but the smaller the distance the light can travel. The longer the lens, the thinner the spread, and the farther the light can go. Most companies will zoom all the way to 105mm to get the tightest, farthest spread of light they can and claim bigger numbers.

back to guide numbers
In Canon's case, it's always easy to know what the specced guide number is for a given flash. It's in the name. A 580EX has a guide number of 58m; the 430EX has one of 43m; 320EX has one of 32m, and the 270EX has one of 27m. In reality, though, the measured guide numbers, at the more reasonable zoom of 35mm, is lower. I highly recommend using a site like speedlights.net if you want to do apples-to-apples comparisons. They measure the output from a flash with a Sekonic light meter, and then calculate the guide number based on that.

Power output of a flash, btw, is much like max. aperture on a lens: the more you have, the more you can do with it. Which is why some folks eschew speedlights (battery-powered hotshoe flashes) and go for studio strobes, a lower end AlienBee costs about the same as a 430EX II. So, you do need to consider if you're going to be shooting near wall sockets and/or need the extra power. Speedlights run on AAs. They're power-limited, and nearly everything you have to learn about using them deals with finding a way to make the best of the small amount of power you have.

other goodies that come with eTTL
The other features that a Canon flash will give you (and why we like them) are that you probably get wireless commanding with eTTL. Your 60D has a commander in the pop-up flash, so you only need one speedlight to do this with. You will also be able to use the camera menu to command the flash remotely, which frees you to put the flash in more inaccessible places (as long as it has line of sight). And you'll have high-speed sync. The ability to use a shutter speed higher than 1/250s.

The only 3rd party flashes that are going to give you all this are the higher end flashes from Metz and Nissin. And the new YN-565 EX sorta/kinda gives you a few of these functions. But you are kind of looking at the ~$200 price range, so no cheapie-cheapie bargains here.

drawbacks to eTTL wireless
But with Strobist style shooting, eTTL wireless can sometimes be a liability. The Canon wireless system is light-based. This means that the red sensor panel on the front of the flash has to be able to "see" your 60D's pop-up flash. In doors, this works better because the light can be bounced off walls and ceilings and still "seen" by the flash. But outside, with nothing to bounce off, you have much narrower placement choices. And in bright sunlight, the signal's harder to see, so your range is cut down. And most folks will go to radio triggers for range and reliability.

And cheap radio triggers don't relay anything but the "fire" signal. So, all that eTTL function you paid extra for isn't accessible. There are eTTL-capable triggers (PocketWizard, Radiopopper), but they're about $200+ per unit, and you need two to get started with a single light.

choices
So, the wisdom is, if this is your first flash, and you want to use it both on and off-camera, you're probably best going for an eTTL capable unit from Canon, Metz, or Nissin, because it can do both. If you're planning on using bounce flash most of the time, consider a flash with a 360° swivel head, not just 270°.

If this is a second flash and you only want to use it off-camera with cheap radio triggers, then get an all-manual flash, like an LP-160, YN-560, or a used SB-24.

If you're planning on using this flash in only a studio setup and you're going into pro portrait photography, consider whether or not a studio strobe is going to be a better investment.

[Phoenix_Jackson]

Edit: Rewritten

Thank you very very much for the substantial information. Really helpful.

I am all for manual. It'll help me learn. But reading some other threads made me consider my camera's wireless capability with flash. But thank goodness for your post. I often stay away from indoor shots and this could cause me some troubles. However, I do like the thought of having the unit off and on as it is supposed to be a walk-around-esque addition. I shoot outdoors, and very often, only night times. But I do get some chances of taking snapshots of humans. So flexibility would make things more enjoyable.

Perhaps I should go with "you get what you pay for" photography motto again and jump on to 580 EX II then. I was hoping there's some magical unit like the 50mm.

Thank you very very much for helping me on this.

[NathanFranke]

I have a canon 430 ex. I'm drawn to the all manual business, which the 430 doesn't do really well. You can change settings in th 60d's menu, but they're different settings than what's found on manual flashes. Specifically, the menus in the 60d control exposure compensation, and ratios from popup flash to wireless strobe. Manual flashes will be controlled with output power--1/1 (full power) down to 1/64 (8 stops less light). The manual controls are just a lot easier to change and predict than going through Canon's menus.

For on-shoe stuff, the 430 works well for me. For off-shoe stuff, it leaves me very frustrated for the reasons that Inkista mentioned. If I had it to do over again, I'd buy a higher grade Canon flash that offered manual controls AND ettl (the latter being a given these days). As is, I'll keep using my 430 for on-camera stuff, and I'm planning on buying some GI/Cactus/Poverty Wizard wireless triggers for off camera stuff and getting some LP160s. You can get those from Midwest Photo Exchange--look for the word "Strobist."

[inkista]

Originally Posted by Phoenix_Jackson

Thank you very very much for the substantial information. Really helpful.

You're welcome.

I am all for manual. It'll help me learn.

Yup. No matter what flash you want, I'd highly recommend restricting yourself to speedlights that have full manual control no matter what. Without this, you may have no way of setting the power output on an off-camera flash.

Flash exposure is a little different from ambient exposure. Ambient (everything that isn't the flash) is controlled by iso, aperture, and shutter speed. Flash is controlled by iso, aperture, flash-to-subject distance, and flash power output. So, not having manual control of the power would be like having only Auto mode on a camera (e.g., a used 420EX has no manual capability).

... I often stay away from indoor shots and this could cause me some troubles.

Well, a set of cheap radio triggers is about $40-$60, and can overcome the range and line-of-sight issues. Most of these will also fit directly to the camera/flash hotshoes, so you won't need to worry about PC sync port adapters, either. But if you use them, as I said before, you'll lose remote commanding, eTTL, and high-speed sync capabilities, like you'd have on camera.

Oh, one more gotcha I forgot about. The 60D's pop-up cannot communicate high-speed sync wirelessly, because it can't do high-speed sync on its own. This is one area where Nikon's still ahead.

Perhaps I should go with "you get what you pay for" photography motto again and jump on to 580 EX II then. I was hoping there's some magical unit like the 50mm.

Don't we all? But if you do get into using the cheap radio triggers, the picture will change pretty drastically. I bought a 580EX ($400) then an ST-E2 ($200) to use it off-camera (my cameras don't have a master in the pop-up; that's a relatively recent addition to Canon dSLRs), then a 430EX ($250) as a second light. Then a used SB-26 ($150). Then a YN-560 ($65).

The Strobist blog has caused a quiet revolution in flash gear over the last three years and more and more lower-cost options are opening up. The YN-565 EX or Nissin DI-866 or Di-622 might be close to what you want, price-wise. And they even have a few advantages over the Canon EX gear (e.g., dumb optical slave modes and sync ports). But they're not quite as future-proof as Canon gear is going to be.

Originally Posted by NathanFranke

I have a canon 430 ex. I'm drawn to the all manual business, which the 430 doesn't do really well. You can change settings in th 60d's menu, but they're different settings than what's found on manual flashes. Specifically, the menus in the 60d control exposure compensation, and ratios from popup flash to wireless strobe. Manual flashes will be controlled with output power--1/1 (full power) down to 1/64 (8 stops less light). The manual controls are just a lot easier to change and predict than going through Canon's menus.

Actually, you can do the exact same thing with the 430EX that you would do with Manual lights: you can put it in Manual mode, and dial in the power directly. That will work, too.

But the 60D's menus are also perfectly capable of setting manual power levels for remote flashes, if a bit unwieldy. p.147 of the manual.

...For off-shoe stuff, it leaves me very frustrated for the reasons that Inkista mentioned.

Wait. Are we talking about the 430EX or the 420EX? The 420EX is a TTL-only flash. But the 430EX has a manual mode.

[NathanFranke]

Originally Posted by inkista

Actually, you can do the exact same thing with the 430EX that you would do with Manual lights: you can put it in Manual mode, and dial in the power directly. That will work, too.

But the 60D's menus are also perfectly capable of setting manual power levels for remote flashes, if a bit unwieldy. p.147 of the manual.


Wait. Are we talking about the 430EX or the 420EX? The 420EX is a TTL-only flash. But the 430EX has a manual mode.

It must be the 420. I know all about the unwieldiness of the the 60d's menus for modifying my flash, 'cuz there ain't no other way to do it. I'm at work and it's not, otherwise I'd check.

[sk66]

Well, I disagree that manual flash is "the way to go"...But I also think that manual metering and manual focusing are also not "the way to go". That said, I can do all of those things in manual mode and maybe that's the difference, I don't know.

I use Nikon's CLS system and I would not trade it. But in this case, you really are not loosing much by going full manual system and you can save quite a bit of money.