I have recently purchased an Elan 7E and need to buy a flash for it. I am interested in using the slave funcion and the E-TTL function the 550EX offers. In doing some research, I found the Sigma EF 500 Super supports both and is much cheaper! Has anyone tried both flashes? How do the results the Sigma compare to the 550EX? Has anyone used 2 or 3 of the Sigma flashes in slave mode?

-- Danny Scheidemantle (Scheids@netzero.net), February 03, 2002

Answers

I'll quote what I wrote a few days ago in this same forum:

"I have a Sigma EF-500 Super and a Canon 550EX. The Canon is nicer. It's a bit easier to operate and feels like it's built better. It also has a high voltage power port for near instant recycles. If you are a pro and in need of the most reliable & powerfull hotshoe flash it's probably worth the money.

"The Sigma is nearly as powerful as the 550EX, recycles faster on AA batteries, does everything the 550EX does except for the custom function options and it works well with other Canon Speedlites in E- TTL wireless mode. It will also operate as a generic manual slave flash, somthing the Canon will not do. The only real problem with the Sigma is that it doesn't work well with some of Canon's Point & Shoot digitals like the G1.\

"For the price, it's a great flash."

In addition I should say that it doesn't have a flash exposure okay light.

I've used them together each as a slave as the other played master. They work great together either way. Exposures look the same either way.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), February 04, 2002.

To me, this question is a no-brainer: Buy TWO of the Sigmas for the same price as one 550EX. Think of all the nice pictures you can take with a pair of wireless strobes......

-- J.Horton (masssalt@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002.

One thing you should consider is compability. The sigma (and metz) aren't compatible with canons digital cameras (D30 and D1) so you eventually need to buy a EX flash anyway when (if) you wan't to do digital.

-- Magnus (magnus.olausson@home.se), February 07, 2002.

Sigma Super 500 works with D30.

-- Evrim (evrim@evrimgallery.com), March 01, 2002.

Since there's a lot of interest on this topic Jim Strutz and I have written a brief set of notes comparing the Sigma EF-500 Super with the Canon Speedlite 550EX. The page is hosted on my Web site.

http:// teladesign.com/photo/ef-500-super.html

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), March 02, 2002.