Product Description

The supreme electronic-flash of Canon's Speedlite series, the Speedlite 580EX has a maximum guide number of 58/191 at ISO 100 in meters/feet (at 105mm focal length), faster recycling, more consistent colorand enhanced controls are among the improvements that all photographers, especially those who shoot digital, will find useful. Ratio flash lighting of up to 8 - 1 when used with ST-E2 Transmitter&multiple 550 or 580EX's Zoom, Bounce, and Swivel Head for best positioning Angle of Coverage 84-degrees (24mm in 35mm format) to 23.3-degrees (105mm); 114 (14mm) with included wideangle adapter Uses Four 1.5-Volt AA batteries - May use alkaline or rechargeable NIMH or Li-Ion Unit Size WHD - 3 x 5.3 x 4.5 / Weighs 13 ounces Includes Pouch, Hot Shoe stand Canon USA 1-Year Warranty

Product Details

• Brand: Canon
• Model: SL-580EX
• Dimensions: 3.00" h x 4.00" w x 4.00" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• Autoflash Speedlite compatible with Canon EOS SLR cameras
• Accurate exposure with E-TTL II evaluative flash metering
• High output with maximum guide number 58 at 105mm setting
• Autozoom and color temperature information for improved flash
• Fully featured wireless flash capability with built-in slave and transmitter

Customer Reviews

Beware of slave trigger and RF wireless connection issues
You want to use the 580EX in a simple task by working as a hair or back light with your more powerful studio strobes? Then you will be in for a rude surprise when you connect an inexpensive photo-optical slave-triggering mechanism to the 580's hot shoe foot. With the 580 set on manual, it will flash once and then lockup. Yes, the dreaded internal SCR lockup will require you to power off and on to reset the flash to fire another shot before it freezes again. Repeat off/on and shake your head at this expensive and poorly designed dare-I-say toy.

Is Canon trying to screw us by not telling about this issue in their instruction manual? Who knows. To our rescue is Michael Bass Designs' blog which walks us step-by-step on obtaining a compatible Sonia photo-optical slave trigger with the proper cord and modified hot shoe to be able to perform a very simple task of using a slave triggered strobe.

Because Canon "forgot" to include a PC socket, Mr. Bass will even explain what to do in order to connect an RF transceiver like the Pocket Wizard to the 580 to enable wireless flash photography. Depending on where you live, it can be a costly retrofit of an auxilary jack by Mr. Bass. Or, even better, buy a Wein hot shoe to household synch adapter and adjust the hot shoe tabs for a custom fit.

The 580 is great as an on-camera walk about flash/camera combo. It even works well in the master/slave setup or with the expensive and 10 year old Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2. I also hate the plastic hot shoe foot which is almost impossible to slide into the tightest hot shoe umbrella adaptors. But, if you don't want the hassles of spending more money on third party parts to use the 580 as a slave with studio strobes, then buy (for example) a cheap Vivitar 285 and put a cheap photo-optical slave trigger on it for carefree studio work with the big boy lights.

Excellent flash unit, good upgrade from 430EX
Bought the 580 EX (Mark 1) over a year ago when I started shooting weddings. This one held really well and never missed an exposure in an Indian wedding. If you didnt know, a typical Indian wedding lasts for days, but this was an abbreviated one, and was put to work for a full 24 hours. Not one bad exposure.

Specifically, the best part about this flash is that you can hardly see that a flash was used. A little difficult when working on Aperture priority as the camera tries to expose the overall image and not just the subject, but set it to high speed sync and fire away. In case you need to adjust the image, Canon raw format is very dynamic to take care of that. A little work around, but perfectly acceptable to me.

Bouncing this lens on the ceiling takes the pictures one notch higher in IQ. Most ceilings are a shade of yellow, so the very mild yellowish pitch (almost invisible) actually becomes richer and acceptably warmer colors showing healthy and happy people, not a rabbit-looking-at-the-headlights look. Bouncing also avoids harsh shadows and is just a clear winner.

The catch light panel is quite helpful, and does a fantastic job of producing a light gradient when the subject is up close. Have used this in on multiple occasions with 85/1.8 and a little with the 135/2, and it gives such a dramatic lighting effect that it looks like the picture was taken in a studio. Highly recommend using that feature.

Considering buying one more to along with the transmitter to work in tandem wireless mode, but just started saving pennies for that.

Good buy, take a look at the Mark II version before you swipe your visa card for this.

Great Flash
Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for Canon EOS Digital SLR CamerasCanon Speedlite 580EX II Flash for Canon EOS Digital SLR Cameras

So far I have no complaints about this flash unit. I have used it with my lenses up to the Quantaray 70-300 and have no problems at all. I will soon be buying one or two more so that I can use them for backlighting purposes.