XSi Flash recommendations

[ali_squidz]

Hey y'all. I am looking for a good all around flash for my XSi. I hate the recycle time on the stock one, and of course the obvious fact that its STOCK and is poopy.
Anyone have any recommendations for something below around $175?

[lputman]

If you could add a little more to the budget, you should be able to get a used 430EX II.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by ali_squidz

Hey y'all. I am looking for a good all around flash for my XSi. I hate the recycle time on the stock one, and of course the obvious fact that its STOCK and is poopy.
Anyone have any recommendations for something below around $175?

Get a bigger budget? For that, you might, if you seriously bargain hunt, find a used 430EX (mark I). But if you're really that budget-crunched, be aware that you're going to have to give up some features that only the OEM flashes can provide.

If you want a manual-only flash for off-camera work, you may want to consider the LumoPro LP160 from Midwest Photo. It does not have any fancy eTTL features, so you'll have to learn to shoot with the flash in full Manual (i.e., adjust the power level of the flash explicitly). But it does have four-way synch which is better for off-camera purposes than even a Canon EX speedlight would be. You can sync via the hotshoe, a PC connector, a 1/8" minijack, and a built-in optical slave. But, as I said before, no eTTL to automatically set the power, no high-speed synch (to use shutter speeds faster than 1/200s), and no remote commanding or Canon wireless system.

If you want some form of e-TTL (where the power level on the flash is set automatically based on metering and camera settings), there are a number of third party flashes you can consider. Sigma, Nissin, and Yongnuo are among the most popular, mostly for the pricepoints. Yongnuo in particular is very inexpensive, but an e-bay-only shipped-from-Hong-Kong buy (though they do have a warranty and return policy if you buy directly from them).

These 3rd party flashes have some eTTL capability, but typically don't do the Canon proprietary remote commanding. They may or may not have 'dumb' optical slaves, or external synch port. Their main weakness is going to be in future compatibility. Just as with 3rd party lenses, if Canon changes the communication protocol between the camera and the flash to add some form of functionality with a new feature, they'll make sure all their own equipment is backwards-compatible, but they won't bother worrying about whether they've made 3rd party stuff incompatible. Because 3rd party brands are typically reverse engineering the technology, and they don't actually know how everything's designed, it's possible that their stuff can stop working with a Canon dSLR at some point in the future.

Metz is the only 3rd party manufacturer that has firmware-upgradeable units, which takes care of this in some part, but cost-wise, the Metzs are nearly the same as Canon's own flash units.