Customer Rating: 
Summary: 430ex vs 580ex II
Comment: Bigger is not always better. The more you pay for a piece of camera equipment does not necessarily mean you will get more out of it than a less expensive alternative. These are two axioms that I wish I could learn someday, but I guess some lessons have to be learned the hard way.
The 580ex II is a great flash, don't get me wrong. It's a 5 star flash--if it is what you need. I bought it thinking it was what I needed but as it turns out it is too big and too powerful for me. It is extremely large, powerful, and top-heavy. I sold it back on the used market and picked up a 430ex from Amazon which comes in at almost half the price. The 430ex is also around half the weight/size but still packs a good 60-80% wallup of the 580ex II. For me, this has been ideal. The 430ex provides enough flash but not too bright, and it isn't top-heavy or attention-grabbing like the gigantic 580ex II.
If you are going to be photographing celebrities, people who are far away from your camera, or other situations which call for a very powerful flash then the 580ex II is the flash for you. If you are looking for more of a wedding or cocktail party flash, then I believe the 430ex is the flash. It is hard to tell from the pictures just how different the sizes of the two flashes are, so I didn't know the 430ex was such an ideal size compared to the 580ex II.
While I can't say anything bad about the 580ex II flash, just take another hard look at the 430ex unless you know you need some serious flash-power.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: pretty expensive, but good flash
Comment: It's a pretty powerful flash. The wireless feature is something that may be useful for advanced photographers, as well as the built in wide angle flash attachment. I'm not advance yet, but if you are getting a flash, you minus well not cheap out and just get a good one that will last you and get good results.
I have not used this very much yet to play around with the settings so take my comments with a grain of salt.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great beginner's flash
Comment: simple and easy to use, it is a great introduction to using an off-camera flash. i have been playing around with it for a few weeks now and getting some great results. unfortunately it is only a "slave" unit so eventually i will need to eventually invest in the 580EX if i want to control and use multiple flash units. if you don't plan on doing any elaborate flash setups that involve multiple units than this flash will more than do the job.
make sure you use either a good set of rechargable batteries or a powerful set of non-rechargable batteries. when i first got it i put in a brand new set of "generic" batteries and the wait time for the unit to recharge between shots was about 30-45 seconds (and even longer a few times). i charged up my set of Energizer 2450mAh batteries and dropped them in and now the unit is ready to fire again almost immediately after the flash is used.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What more needs to be said...
Comment: Well, what more needs to be said that hasn't been said in the last 100+ reviews...
The flash is well built and seems to work great with the Canon 40D. It does add a fair amount of weight to an already heavy camera. I haven't used it enough to really know what I'm doing, so I can't give it a full review.
I took advantage of 'super saver' shipping I was worried that my order would take a back seat to the paying customers. Amazon shipped my order right away! I have my new flash in three days!! My only complaint is the packaging. The box it was shipped in was only slightly larger than the box the flash comes in. There was very little padding in the box, only two of the six sides. The flash seems to be fine, but only time will tell.
The flash (so far) gets 5 stars, only because of the packaging did I not give a full 5 stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I love it
Comment: Used together with a diffuser like the Sto-fen Omni-bounce, this is will give you wonderful portrait effects - although you can bounce it without a diffuser off the ceiling or walls with good results. I would recommend the Omni-bounce, or similar, when you purchase this.
There are additional features on the more expensive 580 unit but I don't think an amateur like me will need them.
When your Canon camera is in aperture-priority, the 430 will provide a fill light for the foreground letting the background be lit with ambient light. This is perfect for portraits and for more artistic effects with warmer colors. And since you can regulate the Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) from the camera - you can do it on the unit as well - you have a great diffused, complementary light source.
This can be used in P mode for minimum worries - but the flash will be the dominant light source.
You can do high-speed syncs with this flash as well - so if you are taking a wide-aperture portrait outdoors and the shutter is 1/1000 of a second, that's no problem - when high-speed sync is on, the 430 will fire extremely brief flashes to cover the curtain movement evenly. So you're not limited to 1/200 of a second for a speed or another slow speed.
It will do a rear-curtain sync if you set it (on the camera or 430). This is if you are shooting with a slow speed and your subjects are moving and you want the flash to fire near the end of the shutter being open so as to catch them frozen in movement with a trail behind them.
The cycle times are not a problem for me. I can take lots of candid or posed shots back-to-back with little difficulty (but I use primes a lot which don't need a lot of additional light). When the batteries start running low... well that's a problem.
I have also used it with decent effects for those impossible flash shots - photos of people outside in the dark at a party, or photos of people dancing on a darkened dance floor in the distance. In those cases I did point the flash directly at them although I used an Omni-bounce or the "Fong dong" with its plastic cap as the large light source.
When the flash unit is pointed at the subject, it automatically adjusts for the lens - at least it will for Canon lenses.
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