Canon 580EX II Speedlight review

That's right kids ! Gone are the days where every photo had bright red eyes ( and no nose ! ) This flash unit builds upon the already great range of Canon speedlights with a few really nice additions. The first and to me, most important is the design improvements to the mounting mechanism. It's predecessor was notorious for it's flimsy swivel mount breaking and rightly so - mine snapped so many times I gave up getting it replaced. The mark II version however has a nice sturdy rubber clamp which not only is a joy to use but keeps your flash unit as solid as a rock . Once it's on, it stays on at all angles and feels as solid as the camera it's attatched to. Another thing not only the recycling time but the lack of that annoying recharge noise which again was notorious with previous flash units. At first this took a lot of getting used to as I used to use that high frequency noise to judge when the unit was recharged but now I just check the light on the back of the unit. It will now flash sync to 1/300th second, and I really like the way I can now control it from my camera body itself ( Canon EOS-1D Mark III ) especially the high speed strobe. At a wedding in a dark tent my friend threw the flowers over her shoulder and it nailed 5 perfectly focused ( and lit ) shots through the air and although instances like this are rare I found it very useful nonetheless ! Battery life on it is good, and the design and weight makes it a real joy to use. It will swivel left to right / up and down happily and will lock the flash solidly in the position you need without any problems.

In this case this flash unit was set to E-TTL II which let's it do all the work ( guesses the distance and power of the flash needed to light the subject ) and I'm impressed. It's well lit, nothing blown out. And likewise in all the other tests I've done with it, it's been accurate bar a few occassions which were user error ! The manual mode is also very easy to use and you can get some really nice effects playing with lower / higher power flashes with various ratio's which again it's nice to have so much freedom with the amount of light + angles you can use it with. As with all my reviews I try to give a balanced non-biased opinion but the truth is this does what it's supposed to and it does it very well. I've never had any real problems with it's design or usability and as a flash novice it's really nice to be getting well lit photo's at the mercy of the E-TTL II system.

So to wrap things up : If you're new to the world of flash photography and you want professional results without having to read the manual back to back then set it to E-TTL II mode and snap away ! If however you're a more advanced flash user who knows more about this than me I have dabbled in the manual + strobe modes and they've performed perfectly giving out as much or as little light as I needed and the maximum power setting really packs a punch - especially given the size of this flash unit. Having used Bowens Espirit Gemini 500's which also pack a hell of a punch this speedlight does a fantastic job at being essentially what it is - a portable high powered strobe.