Canon 580ex 2 vs Canon 480ex 2

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Hello everyone, was wondering what the key differences are between these two canon speedlights and is the 580ex 2 worth the extra $?

[Brian500au]

This might answer your question

http://photo-tips-online.com/review/canon-430ex-ii-vs-canon-580ex-ii/

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Good article, thanks.

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How does the battery life rate with these flashes? Suppose it's worth getting a rechargeable battery kit, how long would standard non-rechargeable roughly last?

[Brian500au]

The 580's go through batteries quick, but it depends on what you are using them for. I normal use two 580's with an external battery pack and will get up to 400 shots for the afternoon. This is using them on ETTL in HSS so this uses more power then when they are on manual. When the batteries start to flatten the recycle time increases quite a bit.

Last week I used one 580 over a period of 2.5 hours shooting in bright sun through a softbox. I found I was struggling for power after about an hour and had a few miss fires because I was shooting before the flash had fully charged.

I always use rechargeable batteries and have a spare set with me at all times. The external battery pack I use has another 8 batteries but I think this really only helps the recycle time.

[unistudent1962]

The link Brian posted does an excellent jobs comparing the features of the two.
I have a 430EXII and use NiMH rechargable AAs, as they run down recycle times start to increase and when it becomes annoyingly slow I simply change in a fresh set of batteries.

What body are you going to mount it on?
What are you going to use it for?

I've just started playing around with my 60D wirelessly triggering the 430EXII on a light stand and umbrella for portraits. I've got a lot to learn about "strobist" photography but so far this combination is working well.
Mark

[KeeFy]

http://speedlights.net/ has a lot of useful information as well.

Consider the nissin or youngnuo 3rd party ones as well.

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Are the diffusers for flashguns much of a muchness? you can pick up for $10-20 ones, but is it better to get more expensive ones?

[Brian500au]

Are the diffusers for flashguns much of a muchness? you can pick up for $10-20 ones, but is it better to get more expensive ones?

If you talking about the snap on frosted diffusers then they are all basically the same. They are a piece of frosted plastic.

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If you talking about the snap on frosted diffusers then they are all basically the same. They are a piece of frosted plastic.

Yeah, the snap on type - thanks.

[Bennymiata]

Some of the snap-on ones do give the pictures a bit of a colour-cast, but this can be fixed in PP.
The more expensive ones like the Garry Fong diffusers are quite colour neutral.

Personally, I'm not so keen on the snap-on type, but there are some very good little soft boxes that go onto the flash which work very well as they tend to concentrate the flash into one area, yet soften the light at the same time.
You can pick them up for under $20 off some of the Chinese web sites.

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Does anyone use an external AC power source to power the 580EX2? There looks to be a 3 prong socket in the flashgun so I assume it's a specialist cord you need to get for it?

(on doing some more research I take it that the external power source still needs to be powered by batteries? what's the point of this?)

[srowlandson]

Does anyone use an external AC power source to power the 580EX2? There looks to be a 3 prong socket in the flashgun so I assume it's a specialist cord you need to get for it?

(on doing some more research I take it that the external power source still needs to be powered by batteries? what's the point of this?)

You can get a battery pack, which holds 8x AA batteries. More shots per charge and faster refresh of the flash.