Replies inserted below... M Stewart Milton Keynes, UK
----- Original Message ----- From: Alan Bell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 5:26 PM Subject: RE: Flash Options for EOS3 > Question 1 > I don't know if I've seen this or imagined it: a device that looks like a > handle flash but the "handle" is really an auxiliary battery and the shoe > flash sits on top of it. I have a 550ex and EOS3. Hi Alan, I think I've got what you're describing. It's the Cobra 700AF and it's a third party flash dedicated to different AF camera ranges. It can take a total of 8 AA cells, 4 in the flash and 4 in the handle. The head zooms manually from 28 to 85 mm coverage, and it tilts from horizontal to vertical, and can rotate from -180 deg. to + about 165deg. through 0 deg. which is straight ahead. There's a removable and lockable foot which connects with the camera's hot shoe, and this can either be mounted under the flash gun or under a separate unit containing a 2nd. AF illuminator, and linked by curly cable to the flash which then sits atop the handle. (Couldn't find any pictures on the web.) (The dedication I was told is in the flash gun so simply changing the foot by itself will not get you from Nikon to Canon fit.) Does it work - yes, using the TTL flash system built into most recent Canon SLRs. Before getting my 380EX I used it quite a bit and exposures seemed quite accurate. Guide number is about 40m at 100 ISO and with the zoom set to 85mm, about 30m with the zoom set to 50mm coverage. So, not very powerful for its size. It comes with a flash bracket linking camera with handle unit- thus looking a bit like a PRO's gun of yester-year!. The finish is serviceable rather than luxury - fewer worries about scratching it, but then I now use my 550EXs in preference. (see www.megalith.freeserve.co.uk for wireless ratio flash examples.) > Question 2 > If I need something more powerful than the 550ex and really do need a handle > flash what are the preferred choices? Which to avoid? Can't help * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
