Which Flash for Canon 5d

[dnpayne]

New to the whole photography thing and I need a good flash for my Canon 5d. Anyone have suggestions for the best flash for the buck? I need to be as economical as possible, but I don't want to cheapen out here. Are there any compact versions that you'd recommend as well?

Thanks.

[inkista]

What's your target price range, and what do you want to use the flash for? (i.e., what features do you want?)

Personally, I'd say hang the expense and get a 580EXII as your first flash and go budget for the second (and third and fourth and...), but I'm spendthrifty that way. The reason I'd advocate getting the top of the line OEM flash (if you can afford it) is that you're going to get the most features and the most usability. Cheaper 3rd party flashes tend not to have all the eTTL bells and whistles, build quality/consistency, return policy, warranty, and future compatibility of an OEM flash. Many of them may be good on camera or off camera, but not both. The 580EXII has extra power, 360° swivel, a PC port, and all the eTTL goodies.

But, yes, it's damn expensive. So, lower-cost alternatives would be looking for a used 580EX or 550EX. I'd go for either of those before heading down to a 430EXII or used 430EX. I wouldn't go for any other older models, because they typically lack manual flash power control, which makes them useless for off-camera work. If that's still too expensive, then you have to make a choice of whether you want a flash to use on-camera or off-camera, because those needs are pretty specific and pretty different.

I would not head into the "compact" smaller flashes unless you're happy with typical pop-up flash output, because they're usually limited on tilt & swivel capability, there's no manual way to control the power output, and it's usually only a stop more powerful than a pop-up flash. For the same amount of money, you can get a pretty decent workhorse manual flash for off-camera work, or on-camera work where you have time to adjust and reshoot.

For low-cost alternatives, I'd look into Nissin and Yongnuo, but typically, if they claim eTTL capability, that won't include the remote master/slave system, or high-speed sync function. Any "optical slave" function is typically a dumb optical slave--which you could not use with a 5D without another speedlight, since the 5D has no pop-up flash.