Canon 430EX-II - Equipment Review

Canon Speedlite 430EX-II

The 430EX-II is the workhorse for the Canon Speedlite line. Designed to work both mounted to the camera's hot shoe or as a slave fired remotely the 430EX-II brings both power and portability to your lighting needs in a compact and economical package.

The 430EX-II offers full manual control and E-TTL II functionality. In E-TTL II the flash output can be adjusted through the exposure compensation menu and can be adjusted in 1/3rd stop intervals plus or minus 3 stops. In Manuel mode the flash output can be adjusted from full to 1/64th power output in 1/3rd stop intervals. On full power the flash is approximately equal at 6 feet to full sun. This allows the flash to provide adequate fill on bright days or fired in groups to provide enough light to overpower the sun.

The 430EX-II can operate as a slave controlled by EOS compatible cameras like the 60D and 7D with the pop-up flash or through the Canon wireless system controlled by a 600EX-RT, a 580EX-II or an ST-E2 controller. The 430EX-II can operate on one of 4 channels allowing multiple shooters to use the same system without interference and supports three different flash groups allowing the photographer to control a 3 point lighting system from the master unit. The flash can function from 14mm to 105mm of output angle and adjusts automatically to cameras with APS-C sensors. this along with supporting second curtain and hi-speed sync the 430EX-II provides the photographer with a lot of flexibility.

A couple of draw backs, the second curtain flash option is only available when the flash is directly attached to the hot shoe. The menu while similar to both the 580EX-II and the 600EX-RT is not identical to either and of the three is the one I find the most confusing. The easiest work around is to control all of the flashes through the camera menu. This of course requires a compatible camera, most of the current EOS and Rebel lines do support this. The other draw back to this flash, unless you mount the flash in the hot shoe the only way to control flash out put angle is on the flash itself. So while it is possible to control multiple flash groups from the camera some functions still have to be adjusted at each unit.

All in all the flash does exactly what it is designed to do, provide powerful flexible lighting in a compact affordable package. It's ability to work both from the camera or as a slave in multiple flash systems have made it one of the most popular flash units on the market.

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Canon Powershot SX50 HS - Equipment Review

Powershot SX50 HS

I had a chance to use Don's Canon Powershot SX50 HS, it proved to be a very good little camera for the money. He purchased it a few weeks ago for a trip to Europe. He took about 1000 pictures over ten days, so roughly 100 photos a day and was happy with the performance and battery life. Looking through his photos I noticed a number of images taken on auto with the shutter at

1/15 and the ISO at 1600. These images showed very minimal noise and minimal camera shake.

Using the camera on my own I shot several low light high ISO images and was pleasantly surprised with how well it performs up to 1600 ISO, ISO 3200 and 6400 did contain a lot of noise, but at 1600 the noise was very minimal. The camera uses the standard Powershot menus, so if you are familiar with the Powershot line it will be a very easy transition for you. Apart from full auto and manual modes the camera also has Av, Tv, P and two custom modes as well as the full compliment of sports, portrait, fireworks, et all in the scenes allowing for a lot of flexibility for shooters who are not comfortable in full manual mode.

The camera's built in flash performs adequately and switches on and off mechanically based on whether the flash is open or closed. This means that for the novice shooter, even in full automatic mode they can turn the flash on and off simply by popping it open or closed. In manual mode flash power can be adjusted from full to 2/3rds to 1/3rd power. The camera also sports a hot shoe allowing for the use of Canon or third party flashes. This camera does support TTL metering with evaluative, center weighted, and spot metering options. With the attached 430EX II, flash power can be adjusted from the back of the camera from full to 1/64th power in 1/3rd stop intervals. Second curtain sync is supported with both the built in flash and attached flash units. The only disappointing aspect of the flash system for this camera is that it does not support the wireless functions either through the menus or using the on camera flash as a master controller for the system.

The camera's built in lens features a 50x optical zoom giving you a wide angle of 24mm and a telephoto length of 1200mm. The one disappointment is the minimal range of aperture which goes from f4-f8 so the photographers choice of DoF is limited, and more so by the full range of aperture not being available for the full range of zoom. 

Powershot SX50 HS

A few closing thoughts. The movable LCD make shooting at odd angles much more convenient, however the cameras size is too large to easily tuck in a pocket but the frame is compact enough it can be a little tricky keeping your fingers off of the buttons when you don't wish to use them. The main control on the back also packs a lot of controls in a small space, something people with larger hands and fingers may find challenging. All in all it is a very good camera for the price point, it has a ton of flexibility something the hobbyist will enjoy, but particularly since it supports RAW, it has enough power, speed, and flexibility that in a pinch it could easily serve as a back up camera for a pro.

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