The 550EX will at best work as a fully manual flash on the Oly. It will NOT as you put it "respond to just simple flash-for-this-long commands". It will respond to a "flash now" command, and you could set the flash power manually oin the flash before shooting. For real TTL automated flash on the Oly, you'll need the FL-40, and bracket and cables, etc. which will add several hundred dollars to the cost of the camera kit. Not that it's a bad camera, but I would say in this case the economics of the flash should outweigh your concerns over a different kind of storage media. After all, 128Mb cards of either type are only $40 nowadays.
Having owned the 380EX, 420EX and now a pair of 550EX's, I'd say that you could probably achieve the results you want with your present setup by adding a diffuser to get wider coverage. IIRC, you're shooting an Elan II, some of which have exhibited tendencies to underexpose, which you can correct using the equipment you own now. The extra power of the 420EX is not huge, the swivel feature useful if you're using it as a slave, and it's a little smaller in size, but it's not a huge improvement over the 380EX. The 550EX is much more powerful, has a very nice feature set, but it's also quite a bit larger and although that might not be an issue on the Elan, it will be very noticable on the smaller C4040/G2 or other small digicam. It seems big even on my Pro90, which is among the larger digitals. OTOH, it will work great in a wireless setup with the ST-E2 or another 550EX, and with the built-in diffuser, wide coverage will not be an issue. But it just seems like overkill for the situations you described. Best of Luck! Tom P. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dion Mikkelsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2002 7:05 PM Subject: Re: EOS 550EX - worth the upgrade from the 380EX, and using these flashes with a 5 pin socket on a digicam > >Yes, you could use the wireless transmitter instead on the of camera shoe > >cord. However, The ST-E2 costs more than the 380EX! > > Oooh ... expensive. Maybe I'll skip that then :) > > >You *might* be able to use the 550EX in manual mode (only) with an > >Olympus digicam. The Olympus 5-pin connector is not compatible with > >Canon speedlites - they each use different proprietary protocols. > >However, if you instead purshased a Canon G2 (4MP), you could use your > >380EX or 550EX in E-TTL mode. > > Yeah, I wasn't worried about protocols, but surely the 550EX must be able > to respond to just simple "flash for this long" commands - I would think > the 5 pin connector would provide that, no? I'm assuming the 380EX can't > do this because of its fully automatic functions. > > While the G2 is interesting, I have settled on smartmedia as my digital > storage choice (governed by my MP3 player) and am loathe to purchase yet > more memory of a different format (ie the CF of the G2). I have also > always liked Olys digicams, and the C4040 I am looking at has a nice fast > lens and good night shot modes. > > > --- > Dion Mikkelsen > * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
