Which flash would be best for my rebel X?

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I am looking for a flash for my Rebel X. Thanks for any help!

-- Robert Kelly Greer (jeep_88@hotmail.com), December 28, 2001

Answers

The Canon Speedlite 220EX

-- Joe Kelly (jkelly@caldwellwebdesign.com), December 28, 2001.

Any Canon Speedlites will on this camera. The 220ex is good. the 430 is better and the 550 is the best. For most beginners, a 220ex will work ok. You might find one of the better flashes on Ebay and pay a little more than a new 220ex.

-- Carlos Marrero (los@door.net), December 28, 2001.

Rebel X,i remember is not capable of ETTL, so all those EX flashes are not suitable. i don't recommend 220ex even for beginners,since the power is far too low,if u execute FP mode,the GN is amazingly small.Also it has no zoom head,tilt or horizontal swivel. 420ex and 550ex are sophisticated ones and perform very well,but u should also consider the costs,usually EX flashes are a bit more expensive.

-- legnum (legnum212@email.com), December 29, 2001.

The Rebel X was designed with the E and EZ series Canon Speedlites in mind, but the only one that Canon presently sells is the 540EZ. A nice flash but most Rebel owners don't want to pay twice the value of their camera for a flash. Used EZ series Speedlites are probably your best bet. If you can't find them locally look at Ebay or other online auctions.

For less money a used 430EZ has most of the valuable functions that the 540EZ has, except the built in wide diffuser. A 420EZ is like the 430EZ and could be acceptable but it doesn't have Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) that the Rebel X could make good use of. The 300EZ lacks that and a tilt & swivel head and any manual controls. The 200E is like the 300EZ but also lacks a zoom head. The 160E is like the 200E but uses 2CR5 batteries instead of AA's.

Any EX series Speedlite is perfectly suitable, but as Legnum pointed out, you will pay extra for features your camera can't use.

If you just want a basic, no frills/features unit, a 200E, 300EZ or 220EX would be a decent flash to buy. If you want a tilt swivel head to use it for bouncing then get a 420EX. If you want more power and control get a 420EZ, 430EZ, or 540EZ.

You can also use any Vivitar, Sunpak, Promaster, Phoenix, Metz and Sigma flash that is dedicated to EOS cameras. You will likely get less power and/or durability for the lower priced flash units though.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), December 29, 2001.


Hi! Please first ask what you need the flash for. If you plan on going more sophisticated in the future, it would be a good investment to go with a top gun like the 420EX or the 550EX. Even if your camera can't take advantage of all the flash features, if you decide to move up later, then it's already there. If, however, you choose to be more of a casual snapshooter who would want some control over exposure, I would highly recommend the Sunpak PZ4000AF. It's fairly easy to use and operates well with the Canon line of cameras. If you want to control it more than just letting it control you, it will allow you to do so. I think, aside from not having ETTL (which your camera doesn't have anyway) and FP-flash, this is a much better deal than the 380EX which is in the same price range. The PZ4000Af allows manual zooming while the 380EX won't. The best of the value-for-money lot, I think is the 420EX from Canon. Have fun and shoot a lot!

Erick

-- Erick Lirios (ericklirios@operamail.com), December 30, 2001.



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