Canon Speedlite 430 EX II Flash

Why Use An External Flash Like The Canon 430 EX II?

For users of camera bodies without a built-in flash at all, the benefits are obvious. But if your camera does have a built-in flash you might be wondering why you would need an external flash unit and what the benefits are.

While the camera built-in flash is sufficient for filling in shadows in a harsh sunlit portrait and has adequate output strength for simple close-up portraits at night, it is simply not functional for anything beyond that. With the built-in flash being very close to the imaging axis, it produces very harsh light on you subject and often causes the dreaded and unwanted red-eye-effect. A second problem is that the output of a built-in flash is typically very low and will not produce sufficiently exposed images beyond about 5 meters.

You can now clearly see the limitations that a basic internal flash presents. If you are serious about flash photography you would greatly benefit from the many advantages an external flash like the Canon Speedlite 430 EX ii offers.

These benefits include an abundance of power, the ability to bounce the light off a ceiling, remote triggering capability, flash head zoom functionality and advanced customizable functions. Read more below.

​Benefit of having a tilt and swivel head feature

Having the ability to tilt and swivel the flash head allows you to redirect the produced light and create more beautiful lighting. Flash light can easily be bounced off a ceiling or a wall to produce soft diffused lighting that will render an evenly exposed portrait with soft highlights and beautifully diffused shadows. This feature is often critical for wedding and event photography where soft light is desirable. The head on the Speedlite 430 EX ii can swivel 270° and can tilt 90° upward.

The convenience of E-TTL flash

Through-The-Lens flash metering (E-TTL) offered in the Canon Speedlite 430 EX ii is a feature that allows the flash’s output power to be directly measured and adjusted through the camera in real-time. This automatically corrects for subject distance and reflectance variances and insures consistent flash exposure regardless of changes in the scene. To put it in layman’s terms, it is automatic flash exposure. If you need to move around quickly and capture the moments you don’t have time to set flash output manually and the Canon 430EX E-TTL feature would be hugely beneficial.

Have all the flash power you need right at hand!

The Canon 430EX ii Speedlite features a Guide Number of 43m measured at ISO 100. The Guide Number is a measurement of flash output power and indicates at what distance the flash would provide good illumination if an aperture of F/1 was used. This means the Speedlite 430 EX ii has sufficient power to be effectively used on subjects 10-15m away, if a sensitivity of ISO 100 is used. This distance can be doubled or quadrupled by using a higher sensitivity. Plenty of power also means that the flash light can easily be bounced off the ceiling or used with a softbox, producing a soft light yet still provide adequate illumination.

This makes the Canon 430EX ii the perfect tool for indoor flash photography such as weddings, events and studio or location portraiture. If you need a flash for outdoor flash photography like wild life or sports, you should consider looking at a flash with more output power, like the Canon Speedlite 600 EX-RT.

Let the flash follow your lens

The Canon 430 EX ii has an automatic flash head zooming function which, when used on a compatible EOS body, follows the focal length of your lens as you zoom in and out and works between 24-105mm. This means that the light produced will always be used to full potential when using a longer focal length and when shooting wide, the light will cover the entire frame. The Speedlite 430EX ii has an integrated pull-out diffuser panel which spreads the light more to cover wideangle shots down to 14mm focal length.

Infra Red autofocus assist

When the autofocus assist function is enabled, the flash produces an infrared grid which significantly improves the camera’s ability to focus in dark scenes when contrast is not adequate. The infrared grid covers between 1-9 focus points and is effective to a subject distance of 9 meters.

Be creative with your lighting angles using this Speedlite off camera

You might want to be creative with your lighting techniques or start experimenting with different ideas and methods lighting your subjects. Perhaps you wish to make use of side-lighting for a dramatic effect or maybe you want to use the flash with a softbox or an umbrella to have control over the shape and texture of the light.

The Canon 430 EX ii has the ability to operate as an off-camera slave flash that can be triggered either from the camera or with a Canon 600EX-RT set as master. This makes multiple-flash-setups possible and opens up a world of lighting possibilities. Wireless flash can be set up in 3 groups and 4 different channels. This provides total control over the set-up.

The wireless triggering relies on Infrared communication and thus line-of-sight is required for it to work properly. Depending on the relative brightness of the location, effective distance will vary. The maximum range is 12m.

Power source, conveniently AA

The 430 EX ii makes use of four AA alkaline, lithium or rechargeable batteries as power source. This is convenient since AA batteries are readily available in stores. Depending on the power output used, a set of batteries will produce between 200-1400 flashes.

The 430 EX ii has a relatively fast flash recycle time of approximately 0.1 - 3.7 seconds between flashes (dependent on the power setting). It does not have a connection for using external power packs and can only be powered by AA batteries. If you require extremely fast flash recycle times (when shooting in rapid succession) an external power pack is needed. Only the Canon 600EX-RT is compatible with external power sources.