recently purchased an eos5. i have a 380ex left over from my eos100 days. should i purchase a new flash? or keep the 380ex? which unit would be good for the eos5?

-- howard shen (hshen@lsm.org), March 22, 2000

Answers

Your 380EX will do everything on the EOS 5 that it did on the 100. Unfortunately, neither body will take advantage of the superior E-TTL metering, FP flash (high speed sync) or Flash Exposure Lock (FEL). You would have to get a 500n, 300, 50, 3 or 1V (Rebel G, Rebel 2000, Elan II, 3, 1V in USA speak) for those additional features that the 380EX has. It would still offer A-TTL metering with those bodies however.

A better flash for the 5 (as well as the 100) would be an EZ series Speedlite (420, 430, 540) because they have more power, and offer a swivel head along with the tilt of the 380EX, and full manual control as well. I would avoid the 200E or 300EZ as they have less power and no tilt or swivel, & so cannot be bounced without an off shoe cord.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), March 22, 2000.

And don't forget that 540EZ has A-TTL mode!

-- Pietro (Pietro99@mail.ru), March 29, 2000.