An add-on flash can give an extra dimension to your
photography, without the harsh, red-eye look that plagues pop-up flash. We
shine the spotlight on eight flashguns costing $350 or less
First, the bad news. Flashguns have huge potential for
producing ghastly images. Flash photography is fraught with issues, such as the
dreaded red-eye and harsh lighting that gives portraits a washed-out, haggard
look. And how do you fancy hopeless mismatches between different areas of a
scene that are lit by ambient lighting and flash? In short, flash can make images
shot on even a top D-SLR look like snapshots from a cheap compact camera. And
yet, flashguns can still be a wonderfully versatile tool for any photographer,
and are often an essential requirement for decent shots.
Most Canon D-SLRs have a small pop-up flash, but a proper
flashgun enables far greater flexibility and creativity. For starters, all the
flashguns in this group test feature bounce heads, so you can bounce the flash
off ceilings and walls to produce softer, kinder and more flattering lighting
for portraits. All but one offer swivel as well as bounce, so you can bounce
the light off a ceiling even when you’re shooting in portrait (upright)
orientation; this also gives you greater freedom for bouncing the flash off
walls, or just about anything else.
A proper flashgun
can enable far greater flexibility and creativity
Better still, all the flashguns in this group are fully
‘dedicated’ to Canon cameras, so you can expect them to work in harmony to
produce the best possible results. As we’ll see, however, some are more
dedicated than others…
Canon Speedlite 270EX II
Flashguns tend to be quite bulky, but the pocket-sized 270EX
II is remarkably compact and lightweight. Factors contributing to this
downsizing include the absence of an LCD display for flash information and a
lack of any control buttons except for the off/slave/on switch, while it runs
on two AA batteries instead of the usual four.
With a Gn (Guide number) of 27, maximum flash power is the
lowest of any flashgun on test, but it does include a bounce head, and there’s
sufficient power for bouncing the flash off ceilings that aren’t massively high.
There’s no swivel function, however, so you can’t direct flash at the ceiling
when shooting in portrait orientation with the flashgun mounted in the hotshoe;
the wireless slave mode comes in handy for this.
Canon Speedlite
270EX II
The lack of control buttons or an LCD screen means that all
adjustments have to be made from the camera’s Flash Control menu. That’s not as
painful or long-winded as it might sound, however, as camera-driven operation
is seamless and flawless, and a neat extra is that you can fire the camera
remotely from a button on the flashgun. E-TTL metering is very accurate, but
recycle speed is a bit sluggish, taking about twice as long as for the other
two Canon flashguns in the group.
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Verdict
·
Price: $150 ·
For: Amazingly compact and lightweight, but still features a
bounce and manual zoom head ·
Against: Maximum power is relatively low compared with most
flashguns; no LCD info panel
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Canon Speedlite 320EX
A step up from the 270EX II, the 320EX is slightly more
powerful, runs from four rather than two batteries, and has a head that swivels
as well as bounces. The zoom function is still manual rather than motorised
and, also like the 270EX II, it has no info LCD for displaying flash settings.
Wireless slave functions are more refined, with onboard switches for setting the
channel number and any of three flashgun groups, but there’s still heavy
reliance on using the camera’s Flash Control menu for making most adjustments.
Canon Speedlite
320EX
Uniquely in this group, the 320EX features a secondary LED
lamp, which gives continuous lighting for shooting video; however, illumination
is limited and it’s only of any use for very short-range work. Also like the
270EX II, but unlike all the other flashguns in the group, there’s no red lamp
for AF assist, so it emits an annoying rapid-fire burst of bright pulses from
the flash tube in low lighting to help the camera autofocus. The flashgun is
prone to slight overexposure in E-TTL mode, but recycling is fast at three
seconds after a full-power discharge. Considering that it’s almost as expensive
as the Canon 430EX II, the 320EX doesn’t really do enough to justify its price
tag.
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Verdict
·
Price: $200 ·
For: Secondary LED lamp for video shooting; remote camera
firing button ·
Against: Fairly low in power; lacking in onboard control
buttons; no LCD info display
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