Pros: Powerful; Superior Build Quality; Weather-Sealed; Advanced Features
Cons: Heavy
The Bottom Line: The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is a superb flash geared towards professionals, yet it would be perfect for any amateur that wants great photos also.
soupcraze's Full Review: Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash
Recently I decided on purchasing my own hot shoe flash. It all came down to the Canon Speedlite 580EX II and the Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1 flash. I ended up with the Metz, and just returned the Canon. Nonetheless, both flashes are top-of-the-line, and the Canon Speedlite 580EX II has many features that I wish the Metz had. If you own a Canon EOS camera and want the best Canon flash that money can buy, this one is it. I would still consider looking at other options such as the Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1, but without any doubt, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II is a sure bet.
-PRICE-
*The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is an expensive flash, and is geared towards professional users. It is roughly $400 when purchased at online retailers. It goes for considerably more in brick & mortar stores, where the sticker for the flash I purchased was $499.99. The flash is a step above Canon's cheaper Canon Speedlite 430EX, which goes for a much lesser $230 or so. I have been told by photographers before that as an amateur, I would not need anything beyond a Speedlite 430EX. I disagree with that statement, however, since the extra power provided is an excellent tool for bounce flash. The Canon Speedlite 580EX II also features many build quality improvements that make it a more durable flash than its less expensive brother.
If you are looking for a flash that will work seamlessly with your Canon EOS camera, this flash will do it. If you are looking for more advanced manual functions as well as wireless capabilities, this flash will do it. If you are looking for a weather-sealed design along with other solid features, this flash will do it.
The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is a big step above the cheaper 430EX and 220EX. Is it worth the price difference? By all means yes! This Canon Speedlite 580EX II will last you years with its rugged design, and will give you top-level performance.
-BUILD QUALITY-
*The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is built extremely well. This is the finest built flash that I have ever used. To begin with, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II is weather-sealed so that it would make the perfect companion for any professional using a Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII camera. This feature seems less necessary for those using a lower-end camera, since their camera may become destroyed in that weather otherwise.
The shoe has excellent build quality. Firstly, the shoe is now attached to the camera's mount by a locking clamp. I prefer this mechanism over the traditional screw wheel since it makes the attachment between the flash and camera far more secure. The shoe is also made of metal, instead of plastic. I have always been weary of sliding the flash on and off the camera. With the metal mount, it will ultimately be far more durable.
The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is a big step up in terms of build quality from any other preceding Speedlite flash. The Canon Speedlite 580EX II also has better build quality than competing flashes, such as the Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1. If you are looking for a flash that will survive bad weather and last you years, Canon has it right here.
-FEATURES-
*The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is an advanced flash, where it has many advanced features. I used the flash with automatic settings, and did not make adjustments to its more advanced settings. I feel that I am not yet a skilled enough photographer to do such things. But for my expectations at the time, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II worked quite well.
The rear of the flash has an LCD screen, and is laid out with four buttons, a turn-wheel, and the on-off switch. As you may have guessed, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II is an ETTL-II capable flash. This means that it is able to read the distance to an object through a Canon lens, and then is able to adjust the flash head accordingly in order to get the best possible exposure. On top of the screen you are able to see the focal length of the range of the lens with ETTL.
The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is also capable of being used wirelessly. As an amateur user, I still have not used any flashes wirelessly, and the Canon Speedlite 580EX II was used only as a hot shoe flash on top of my Canon EOS 400D.
The flash runs on four AA batteries. I use Duracell NiMH batteries, but you can also use Alkaline or non-rechargeable lithium batteries. If you are looking for the most economical performance, you can't go wrong with NiMH.
-EASE OF USE-
*The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is geared towards professionals with many advanced functions that are easily accessible on the back of the flash. I have used the Canon Speedlite 580EX II entirely automatically, and therefore have not experienced many of these features. Nonetheless, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II would work extremely well for amateurs that just want a well-built powerful flash.
-IMAGE QUALITY-
*The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is a very powerful flash, and is considerably more powerful than the lower-end Canon Speedlite 430EX flash. I was told that as an amateur, I would not need such power as of yet. But, those people could not have been wronger. If you are using a more powerful flash, you are able to have better effects when using bounce flash, since you are able to bounce from higher ceilings. Since I primarily engage in bounce flash photography in order to gain more natural looking photos, I found the Canon Speedlite 580EX II to work quite well, and ultimately better than a weaker flash.
The increased power alone makes it more worthy than a lower-powered flash. Therefore, if you engage in bounce flash photography constantly, you will benefit from having a more powerful flash. The Canon Speedlite 580EX II also has reach up to 105mm, which goes quite far and should be more than enough reach for most walk around lenses. If you shoot in dark environments, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II should provide a superb level of coverage.
Compared to the Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II faltered in just this one area. However, the image quality resulting from the flash is most important. Even though both of the flashes are extremely powerful, the Metz gains an advantage from having the smaller fill flash on the front. This is activated when using bounce flash. The benefit of the fill flash is to fill in areas, such as around eyes, that would end up being dark due to the lack of direct flash. Therefore, if you primarily use bounce flash, you might want to consider the Metz instead of the Canon, build quality aside.
In terms of my own photos, I was very impressed with my results. The flash works very well with direct flash in dark environments, and also with the bounce flash. The bounce flash results are an improvement over the weaker 430EX when high ceilings are present. I did notice dark shadows, which were otherwise filled with the Metz. Nonetheless, the flash provided the quality results that I desired from such an expensive piece of equipment.
The Canon Speedlite 580EX II provides superb quality images with excellent lighting effects. Since the flash can be fine-tuned through its manual settings, you can receive the professional results that you expect.
-THE VERDICT-
*The Canon Speedlite 580EX II is an excellent flash that will work for just about any type of Canon photographer, whether they are amateurs or true professionals. I loved every little bit of the Canon Speedlite 580EX II. This flash is very close to perfection, but would have been perfect had it included a fill flash. Therefore, for those that primarily do bounce flash, there are better options, namely the Metz Mecablitz 58 AF-1.
Otherwise, the Canon Speedlite 580EX II is extremely solid and I believe is a better buy than the Canon Speedlite 430EX. Even though you may not be a professional, you can always benefit from the greater level of power output, as well as the superior build quality which will make this flash last for years on end.
If the Canon Speedlite 580EX II only had a fill flash, the Metz would have been on its way back to New York City. Otherwise, damn this thing is good! It was a real shame having to return it to the store.
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