Does anyone know the specifications of the new 420EX Speedlite? I'm curious as to what is gained over the 380EX (which I have) and what is lost in comparison to the 550EX; for example: built-in slave, ratio control, E-TTL etc.

I searched our forum (found very little) and went to Canon's US site but to no avail. Thanks

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 09, 2000

Answers

From what I've read it has a bit more power and is 10% lighter, it has a head that swivels in addition to tilt. A couple of things I haven't seen mentioned are; manual control of the power output, manual control of the zoom.

It's got TTL metering with older EOS cameras and E-TTL metering with newer ones. It also is wireless E-TTL metering capable with ratio control on bodies that allow that, but I see no mention that it can be the master for wireless use. I looks like you need the little wireless controller, or a 550EX, or the new ring flash to be the controller for it. So this still gets expensive.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), October 09, 2000.

See my web pages:
Canon speedlites
Canon wireless flash


-- Dave (dherzstein@juno.com), October 10, 2000.

Dave's got some really organized, detailed and useful info on his site. Highly recommended.

And thank you guys, for your responses!

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 12, 2000.

Don't overlook the ability to manually control the focal length zoom on the 580EX. I've got a 420EX and miss the ability to shorten the zoom for more even and greater coverage if I'm shooting fairly closeup at a longer focal length.

More control generally is good. BUt the 550EX is way way more expensive. And I do have a old Vivitar 285 for manual or auto control if I need!

I would still like a 550EX for the remote flash triggering though...

So, yes, I do wish I had a 550EX, but more as a second flash than as a first flash.

I use a EOS 3

-- Dave Tang (tangd@gowlings.com), July 30, 2001.