[fingerz]

I'm about to buy my first ever flashgun and a wireless transmitter. Why? Because a friend of mine is getting fantastic results with off-camera flash and I want to have a go.

I want to get these two:
Canon 430EX Speedlite
Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2

But before I do, I have a couple of questions:

1) The blurb for the ST-E2 mentions that it works with the 420ex but doesn't say anything about the 430ex. I'm guessing this is because the 430 was released afterwards but wanted to check - will it definitely work with the 430 ok?

2) Canon Extra Promotion have cashback on the 420ex. Do you suppose they've just forgotten to update the site and are actually offering money back on the 430 as well? Or is it because they're trying to clear old stock. I might settle for a 420 but I can't find anywhere selling them.

[IanC_UK]

The cashback is definitely available on the 430 if you go to the website it says.

I suspect the 430 will work absolutely no probs with the st-e2 as its ETTL2

[fingerz]

Lovely. Thanks.

[fingerz]

Or what about the Sigma EF-500 DG Super?

Would that work with the remote unit? How does it compare to the 430ex? Because if I get it from onestop the price is the same as the 430ex even after using the voucher.

Remember I know very little about flashes. Is the Sigma brighter? More angle-y? I dunno.

[fingerz]

Just reading some stuff on Photonotes.org and it seems the predecessor to the EF-500 DG Super (the non-DG version) had some problems with some of Canon's DSLRs, the 10D being mentioned.

Does anyone know if these issues have been properly ironed out with the release of the DG version?

[Matty]

my 500dg seems to work fine, but then i havent given it a good going over yet!

[SammyC]

I must admit to having reservations about Sigma products after finding out about their quality control issues, we've all heard them, with some lenses being softer than others.

Would always make me think twice about them again.

[fingerz]

Just a quick bump as I'm planning to order the Sigma 500 DG Super from Onestop sometime today so if anyone's got any horror stories or advice, now's the time to say.

Thank you kindly.

[Steve]

The 500 super DG was fully compatible with the 300D/10D etc it was only the predecessor that was not. Although the name has not changed, Sigma's current 500 Super DG Flash has been updated with extra features to compete with the Canon 580EX (in reality it doesn't though) and so you should have no issues using it with the current range of Canon DSLR.

For the money it is an excellent piece of equipment but bear in mind that Sigma have a minimum fixed repair price list and for your intended unit they will not even look at it for anything less than £75 should it become faulty and it not be covered by the warrantee.

Feature wise it can be remotely triggered by any other third party flash gun too. The manual is ok with step by step instructions but it is not inspiring, if you know what you want it to do and the correct name for that, the manual will help but otherwise it is a little anal

I had the same unit and was happy with the results it gave.

[fingerz]

Thank you Steve. The manual thing will be an issue for a flash novice like me but at the price I think I can accept that. Everything else sounds too good a bargain to miss.

[sloth]

The Speedlite 430EX is £165-170 from most UK sites, with £35 cashback from Canon just now, which makes it around the same cost.

I just ordered one at the weekend. The extra features offered by the 580EX aren't of interest to me at all, and the 430EX seems to be rated fairly highly. Might be worth a final look before you decide?

Sorry for confusing things more...