Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras: Customer Reviews & Product Details

I love this flash! THe manual settings allow me to use it as fill flash during the day and give the model a sparkle to their eye. I don't use it wirelessly but there are some products on the market that allow you to. This flash is very powerful and fits the needs of a hobbyist amateur photographer.

I have only just begun to use this flash, but found it useful right out of the box. While I'm still learning about lighting, the automatic TTL with this is a boon, but it's also great to be able to make adjustments to the automatic settings to compensate for moments I want more or less light.

I love the way the head swivels in many directions, which means I can bounce it off ceilings or walls or whatever. I also got the stofen omni bounce, which is a very nice addition for not a lot of money, and it has gotten some use indoors with family pictures.

I can't compare this to off-brand TTL flashes, but I can say I like this flash and highly recommend it.

I am sort of new to photography. I was not aware how much difference adding a flash would make. Totally satisfied with this purchase. Can't wait to add lenses to my inventory to take better pictures.

This is not exactly a review but a first hand exprience of this amazing flash.

The 430EX II is a perfect match for my 50D. Lens used was a Canon EF-S 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 standard zoom lens only for this occation.

I took 1,053 indoor shots on a set of fresh batteries on this flash (still have plenty of energy left) and it never failed me. Not even once. Some of my shots were in 2 to 5 bursts and were about 25ft away from the subject (due to the nature of the event. The exposures was just right on. I used mutiple camera settings using only the pre-set scenes.

I had high hopes when I decided to buy this flash unit. I read detailed reviews about this on the web (especially at The Digital Picture). I had already tried an old, non-rotating, single-power flash unit. It produced great results in combination with a flash cable so that I could point the light in any direction. It proved to me that bounced flash was an incredibly useful and aesthetically pleasing technique, unlike direct flash.

What advantages does the 430EX II have over my (free) old dumb flash and the camera's built-in flash?

0) E-TTL. No more manually tweaking aperture and ISO to get the right exposure! The camera evaluates scene with a pre-flash and computes the correct exposure. You get the right exposure the first time, every time.

1) Focus assist. Oh my god, this feature is absolutely incredible. Because the focus assist lamp produces a pattern, YOU CAN FOCUS ON FEATURELESS SOLID-COLORED WALLS. Besides that, the focusing is always very fast. If you're doing indoor photography, you can disable the flashing and just use the flash unit as a focus assist device.

2) More power. With a guide number of 43 metres, this unit is much more powerful than the camera's built-in flash (GN ~15 m) and more powerful than my dumb flash. More power is never a bad thing. It allows headroom to play with diffusers, bouncers, walls/ceilings, and such. And the unit can always fire at fractional power, e.g. 1/8, 1/64.

3) Swivel head. Direct "front" flashing is almost always the wrong thing to do, from an aesthetic point of view. The swivel head allows the flash to be pointed upward, sideways, rearwards toward a suitable wall.

Incidentally, these external flashes are designed to also work with Canon G and Pro compact/prosumer cameras that have hotshoes, and they enjoy the benefits of a powerful light and bounce flash just as well as a DSLR can.


A powerful swiveling flash unit like the 430EX II is one of the essential accessories for beginning photographers, giving an incredible amount of bang for the buck. Other top-priority items for cheap photographers include:
* Camera bag (or use/modify any bag that fits)
* Hoya Super HMC UV filter for each lens
* Air blower (keep those glass surfaces clean)
* Circular polarizer filter (especially for outdoor/city/landscape photographers)
* Big memory card (16 GB for ~$40, you have no excuse)
* Tripod. Be careful, DSLRs can be heavy and may require sturdier tripods than the absolute minimum.

Optional:
* Sharp zoom lenses (e.g. L series; e.g. 17-55mm & 70-200mm)
* Telephoto lens (in the 100mm to 300mm range)
* Fast portrait lens with bokeh (e.g. 50mm f/1.4)
* Macro lens (e.g. 100mm)
* Lens hood (good for protecting against rain)

* Lens pen, lens brush
* Extra batteries
* Vertical grip
* Shutter switch (good for bulbing)
* Flash cable
* Flash diffuser (e.g. Sto-fen)
* Neutral density filter
* Compact camera (if carrying a DSLR everywhere gets tiring)