[PATB]

Just came back from a family vacation and was disappointed with some of the indoor shots. The built-in flash of my Canon G6 is not illuminating a wide enough area and can't change direction of illumination, resulting in red eyes and dark pictures.

Can someone recommend a decent flash for my G6? Budget is around $500.

Thanks!

 

[darkninja67]

Canon Speedlite 580EX or lesser. You can get one under $400 IIRC.

 

[mbriant]

Since you're willing to forgo the convenience of a built in flash (which is a good move IMO), you might want to consider going all the way and getting a flash bracket of some sort which would raise your flash several inches above the camera and centred over the lens. My first digital was a Nikon 990 and I had good success with a basic stroboframe flip flash http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation. There are all sorts of brands and styles available. I own several different stroboframe brackets which I use with both Rollei medium format and Nikon film and digital SLR cameras.

Even an external flash, when attached directly to the camera can give you red eye problems, whereas raising it a few more inches will definitely eliminate red eye. By having the flash located high and centred on the lens gives you "Butterfly" lighting, which is the most flattering for on-camera flash portraiture. Bouncing the flash off the ceiling yields a similar result but that method isn't always available and it drastically cuts down on your flash's usable distance. In any sort of shot, butterfly lighting puts the harsh flash shadows low and mostly hidden directly behind the subject ( as opposed to off to the side) which lessens the harsh flash effect. You will often notice professional wedding and event photographers using a flash bracket for these reasons. A bracket which "flips" either the camera or the flash is important as it allows you to position the flash high and centred in both horizontal and vertical shooting positions. Another plus for using a bracket is that it takes the weight and stress of the heavy flash off of your camera's hot shoe.

The only problem you might have however, is finding a remote cord which will slide into your camera's hot shoe on one end with the other end becoming a remote flash shoe mounted on top of the flash bracket. There are generic remote cords available, but in order to maintain all the auto-flash functions of your camera, you'd require a dedicated one from Canon...if they make one. Nikon made one for the 990, so there's a good chance Canon has one too. If Canon doesn't offer a dedicated remote hotshoe cord, there is a work-around using a flash trigger slave and tripping it with the built-in camera flash. This method may not be as accurate as using the camera's auto flash features, but it does work. There's a Sunpak generic flash bracket available which has a trigger slave built in and operates on this method. The problem is, this bracket doesn't flip or centre the flash. http://cgi.ebay.com/FLASH-ADAPTER-FO...QQcmdZViewItem

 

[PATB]

Thanks guys! I will check out the speedlite and a decent flash adapter.

I noticed that Legoland and the San Diego Wild Animal Park official photographers are using a Canon G6 with flash mounted on some sort of flash adapter. I am going to try a similar setup.

 

[mbriant]

I find the Stroboframe Pro-T works well with my SLRs since the camera sits back about 3 inches, away from the vertical post which raises and holds the flash. This allows easy access to both sides of the camera. (The Press-T is similar but shorter and might be a better choice for the G6 ) The basic flip-flash bracket I linked to before, blocks one side of the camera which was fine for my Nikon coolpix 990, but might not work well with the Canon G6.

If you have access to a large camera retailer, I'd recommend you visit and try out various brackets to see which one feels and works (adjusts so you can centre the flash over the lens both vertically and horizontally) best.

 

[PATB]

I just found out that the Canon off-camera shoe cord for the G6 is fickle at best and has reliability issues. Worse, there appears to be no suitable substitute, so some people have to keep spares

At about $50 a pop, I may have to reconsider the bracket. But then again, still cheaper than NOS tubes

I will get the 580EX first and play with it before getting the bracket.

 

[Dimitris]

Canon Speedlite 580EX might be a bit too big! Are you sure you need all this power? I would go for the 420EX which seems to be great and i much cheaper. One of my friends is using it with his G3 and it works great.

 

[lini]

Really bright, but only once:

Grinnings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[darkninja67]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dimitris Canon Speedlite 580EX might be a bit too big! Are you sure you need all this power? I would go for the 420EX which seems to be great and i much cheaper. One of my friends is using it with his G3 and it works great.

Definitely too big for his G6. He should go to a 420EX like you stated.