Speedlight 101

The 420EX works very well. Nothing fancy about it. Bounce and swivel, E-TTL, No overrides on the flash. I use the FEV on the camera to adjust it, up to +/-2 stops. One thing I noticed is in M mode it auto-adjusts the output to balance the flash with the ambient light. It works as a remote slave for the 550EX, 580EX, or the ST-E2.

430EX is the updated version of the 420EX, the 430EX has been around since Fall 2005 and was upgraded by the 430EX II, but stock of the 430EX is still availble right now.

The 430EX will give you more options to grow into down the road.

Best resource for off camera flash...

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

Jason

I would suggest the 430EX. It has manual controls as well as eTTL. Bounce, swivel, can be used wirelessly with 550EX, 580EX, ST-E2. Notice everyone so far is saying EX and not EZ. Its a different breed.

Sigma also makes a couple of flashes that are EOS compatible that are decent, I think the 500 and 530 Supers behave quite similar to a 550EX but are the price of a 430EX. You can find other third party flashes too, but the Canons are usually a better quality, better build, and higher guide number. I'm sure theres execptions to that last comment, but its a generalization.

In general, a 430EX makes a good first flash, and a 580EX makes a good second flash.

Thank you all.