Thoughts on this flash?

[MN Shutterbug]

Sunpack super 383. Will this flash work on auto with the Canon 30D? The reviews from Amazon are impressive.

[mountaindew]

Mike,

Not sure about Sunpack super 383, cause I've never used it. What I use is the old Speedlite 540EZ that my father had, and gave it to me. Still works great! But I haven't had much experience with it. I need to spend more time with it.

[Dbl]

X this is a non-dedicated, non-ETTL flash. If you are comfortable with manual flash.... What this means is you are going to have to set ISO and aperture to use it. It has no zoom on the head and recycle time is around 6 secs. If you were going to use this as an off camera flash ala "strobes" style this might be an OK choice. It will not work with longer lenses because of the limited flash power or using it as ETTL fill for outdoor flash.

Hope that helps some.

[MN Shutterbug]

Yep Dan, that helps. I did read that the recycle time is quite long, which would limit it's applications.

Thanks

[Dbl]

Have you thought about picking up a used 420/430 or 550? You would now have ETTL which is most likely how you will use it. If you are looking at fill outdoors now you have something that will give you good results with not much hassle. You also will now have FP high speed sync available, a good feature for outdoors allowing you to use your flash all the way up to 1/8000s. If you get into manual you are going to be limited to your camera's X sync speed which I think is 1/250s on the 30D.

I really think this is the way to go when you don't use a flash all the time, it makes life so much easier. I use manual flash with portrait work and special applications but for fill outdoors its hard to beat the simplicity and reliability of ETTL. Just a thought.

I don't recall what it is on this flash but be carefull of the trigger voltages on these older flashes they can damage newer digital cameras. I think Canon specifies the trigger voltage must be less than 6V or you will damage the camera.