Sigma EF-500 Super TTL Flash for Nikon

There are three camps in the photography world: Nikon Shooters, Canon Shooters, and everyone else. Inside the Canon camp there exists 2 subgroups, those who only use Canon brand gear, and those that use other thirdparty equipment.

I once belonged to the former, until I came across Sigma's 500 DG Super. It sports a feature set that is nearly identical to Canon's 550EX Speedlite but with a price point closer to Canon's 420EX.

Why do I need an external flash?
On camera flashes are very limited. They're relatively weak, so your subject must be close. Since they are affixed to the top of the camera body, they cannot be adjusted. They're not designed to be used with add-ons, such as color filters, diffusers, or reflectors. Because of the position, the illumination they produce is often described as the "deer caught in headlight effect." Finally, their light can easily be blocked by longer telephoto lenses.

Dedicated flashes address almost all the problems of the built in flash. They are more powerful, not enough to light up a football field, but plenty powerful to give you more working room with your subject. Generally they can tilt and swivel, allowing you to bounce the light off a wall causing, a softer, more balanced light. With some additional hardware, external flashes can be used off camera, or can be held stationary when the body is held vertical.

So for the most part, serious photographer will invest in one or more dedicated flash units.

Since I like to pretend that I'm a serious photographer, I started looking at the different choices for flashes. Almost all the information I saw mentioned that Canon's 420EX was a great starting flash. The 220EX was good for people on a strict budget, but wasn't powerful enough or versatile enough to grow. There was Canon's 550EX which was at the time, $499 street, but was more powerful, and also would work as a wireless master. The 420EX supports wireless flash mode, as a slave unit, needing either a 550EX or Canon's ST-E2 flash transmitter unit. Based on this information, the 420EX sounded great, though it was still pricey ($299 at the time) and didnt have work as a wireless master (which I could live without). I held off on buying a flash, for whatever reason. That is, until I got a digital SLR, and was able to experiment and get immediate feedback.

When the EOS-20D came out, Canon released the 580EX. More powerful, smaller, and better support for ETTL-II (more info on this later), it was now Canon's new badboy flash. The price of the 420EX, 550EX, dropped with the release of the 580EX, so now was the time to jump on the flash bandwagon.

As I was doing more research, I came across the Sigma 500 DG Super flash. It costs $198 street (close to the 420EX) but offers almost all the capabilities of the Canon 550EX! Sigma also has has the 500 ST, which is $50 cheaper, but is suppose to be problematic with digital bodies. I was hesitant to choose a Sigma product. There has got to be a reason Sigma's products are so much cheaper, right?

Features
As I mentioned, the features of the 500 DG Super are close to that of the 550EX. They're very similar.

The guide number (flash power) is 50 in meters (500/10--Canon does this with their Speedlite model numbers as well 550/10 = 55 guide number) at 105mm, ISO 100.

The flash is powered by 4 AA batteries. The flash unit doesn't support an external battery pack, unless you modify the housing of the flash unit.

The flash has a 28-105mm zoom range, and with the built in diffuser panel, goes down to 17mm for real wide shots.

The 500 DG Super has a red AF assist light.

The flash supports Flash Exposure Compenstation, Flash Exposure Lock, and Flash Auto Bracketing.

The unit can function as a wireless master, or as a wireless slave, in both manual flash mode (not to be confused with Manual Exposure mode on your camera) and E-TTL.

It doesn't have any custom functions, unlike the 550EX.

The 500 DG does have an LCD on the back of the unit.

The unit supports synchronization faster than 1/250, flash pulsing from 1-199Hz, and 2nd curtain sync.

E-TTL and E-TTL II Flash Photography
Flash photography is quite difficult.

In addition to the shooting modes of your camera, the flash unit supports different modes, offering all kinds of ways to screw up.

The good news, is for a while, camera makers have been devising ways to help people obtain proper exposures with ease.

Through-the-lens metering has been around for a while. The camera meters internally, then sends this data to the flash unit (assuming it supports TTL) which adjusts output to obtain proper exposures.

Canon came out with E-TTL some time ago, which offers better metering, taking into account distance data (if the lens supports it) to provide more consistence results.

With the latest crop of Canon bodies, Canon has refined the E-TTL metering. This new system is called E-TTL II. Because there is a lot of confusion E-TTL II is a function of the camera body not the flash unit. If your camera body supports E-TTL II (my EOS-20D does) then your E-TTL capable flash will take advantage of the E-TTL II metering.

So the Sigma 500 DG Super, and all Canon EX series Speedlites support E-TTL II.

My experience with the flash
Since I was inexperienced with flash photography, I had to do a lot of reading before I could make proper use of my flash. Shooting with flash is much different than regular photography.

When I was fooling around with the flash unit, before reading the manual, I was able to get some good exposures by trial and error. I had the flash set to manual mode, so it would just produce a bright light. I also played around with bouncing the light from the ceiling, and from the side walls to create some interesting effects.

Once I read the manual, I was able to setup the flash in E-TTL mode, and take some excellent images in low light.

What's not to like.
The biggest dissappointment to me, was the quality of the manual. It sucks. It doesn't explain any of the whys of the unit's features, just the hows. In one spot, the english instructions were in french!

The manual states that after 15-40 pulses (depending on the mode and power), the unit has to sit idle for 10 minutes to avoid damaging the circuitry. I wonder if the Speedlites have this same problem.

Some reviews have mentioned the build quality of the flash is less than the Canon 550EX. Having not held the 550EX, I can't comment, other than say the build quality of this unit is satisfactory, though it wouldn't survive a few trips to the concrete.