pager Loc: Santa Barbara, CA

I'm wanting to buy a used flash. Want to explore macro photography (especially insects). I've never bought a flash before. I've been following hedgehogs for about 4 months and I always seem to find a topic or two that is informative. Thank you.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Pages 838-839 of your EOS R6 users guide shows the Canon brand flashes. Ideas on flash should be paired with lens and type of macro. Do you mean wild insects outdoors? You'll be more successful just finding insects in good light and skipping the flash need.

Indoors or static subjects (dead / mounted or say a live spider unmoving in a web), you might find the MT-26EX "Twin Light" is a good choice, mounting the flash to the end of the lens. These are expensive and may need some mounting rings that screw into the filter thread of the lens. Look for a used model to save some money.

The 580 EX, especially the older version rather than the new v II, is a good choice too. You'll need a bracket to raise the flash higher off the camera so the light isn't blocked by the lens hood. Again, go used (have to for this discontinued model) and use the funds for the connection cord and bracket and diffuser.

DavidM Loc: New Orleans, LA

For macro specific things you could try a macro ring like the one below:

https://www.adorama.com/goml150.html

For a general flash the one below is one of the ones I use:

https://www.adorama.com/fplfsmzl2ca.html

Capn_Dave

I think he might want to use the flash to overpower the ambient light to make the background dark. I do it all the time. It makes the subject really stand out

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

Beware of Flashpoint/Godex transmitters if you plan on using multiple flashes. I returned two R6 cameras to Adorama before I discovered the two R2 transmitters I own cause the camera(s) to malfunction and switch to auto white balance when shooting in dark conditions like dance floors. The same issue occurs with the R5 I own. This has forced me switch back to my older R1 system units. Extremely disappointing. I'm hoping a firmware upgrade will fix the issue but so far I don't see the problem mentioned in reviews. Anyone else have this issue?

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

David, have you had decent luck with this type of flash? My personal experience with the non-TTL flashes like this is that they are too bright even at their lowest setting.

Capn_Dave

Oh many times you just have to set your camera in manual and take ISO off of auto and the lowest setting it has 50 or 100. Then stop your lens down and ignore the TTL flash setting and and start adjusting until the flash overcomes the ambient light. Oh aim the flash at the subject helps too. You might even have to adjust the distance of the flash to the subject.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Canon makes two excellent macro flashes.... the MR-14EX "Ring Lite" and the MT-26EX "Twin Lite". I have and use older versions of both.

If you're using one of the Canon macro lenses, their flashes are designed to clip directly onto some of those lenses. Other lenses, both Canon and 3rd party, might be adapted so that the flash can be fitted. (Canon sells "Macrolite" adapters in four different sizes for this purpose.) I think this lens-mounting is more important with the ring lite flash than with the twin lite. In fact, I don't use it with my twin lite.

Personally I use the twin lite most... prefer the lighting effects possible with it up to around 1X magnification. I only tend to use the ring lite on my MP-E 65mm "super" macro lens (magnification 1X to 5X). It works very well on that. At lower magnifications, I think ring lights make for too flat lighting effects. Even when I dial the MR-14EX to it's maximum 1:8 light ratio, it's not enough differentiation for me at more moderate magnifications. To me the result looks rather "flat" and "clinical"... which can be great if your photos are documentation for the scientific record. But it's not what I'm looking for in my images.

The Canon macro flashes are well made, reliable, work great for close-up work. However, they're also pretty expensive and fairly bulky.

There are third party "clones" that are a lot less expensive.

Or, you can use a "standard" flash for macro work. I do that sometimes, when I don't happen to have a macro flash with me. Standard flash alone are way too powerful to use for close-ups... they need to be diffused in some way. There are accessories you can buy, but I simply use a rubber band to fasten 2 or 3 or 4 layers of white gauze bandage over the flash head. That's cheap, easy to find and works great. I also attach the flash to the camera with an off-camera shoe cord and usually just hand hold it off to one side and/or above my subject. To me it was a little surprising how well a single flash can work. The light tends to "wrap around" the subject, since the flash is like a giant soft box in the sky to a tiny subject. It's also pretty easy to "bounce" light from a single source, if you want more fill in the shadow side of the subject. A 3x5" note card would work fine. (I sometimes use them when doing small product photography.)

I've used Canon 550EX and 580EX flashes in this manner for close-up work. Really any standard flash... small, medium or large... can be used this way. Plus you have a flash on hand for other, non-macro work. A flash bracket and off-camera shoe cord is handy for that, too. "Standard" flash brackets won't work for macro because they point the flash too high, not at the subject. However there are some that allow the flash to be adjusted and aimed for close-ups.

Canon MR-14EX Ring Lite flash on MP-E 65mm lens:



Canon MR-24EX Twin Lite flash, standard clip-on mounting on Canon 100mm macro lens:



How I use my MR-24EX on Lepp/Stroboframe dual flash bracket, for greater adjustability:



Canon 580EX II "standard" flash set up to use for close-ups:



There also are now LED light sources that can work well for macro... Small panels of continuous lighting that in some ways may be easier to use than flash. I haven't used these, but would certainly consider them an option.

These images were shot with a standard (550EX or 580EX) modified as shown above:



Note the above shot of the garden spider was done with "fill flash", to brighten up the strongly backlit subject and enhance the webbing. With Canon cameras and flashes it's easy... just set the flash to ETTL and the camera to any of the auto exposure modes (Av, Tv or P... I tend to use Av). The flash is then set automatically to -1.66 stops output.

On the other hand, the image of the praying mantis on the right was done as "full flash", to make a busy background go dark. Once again, this simple with Canon cameras and flashes... set the flash to ETTL and the camera to fully manual mode (M, without Auto ISO). You then need to adjust the ISO, shutter speed and aperture so that ambient light won't contribute much to the image, making the flash the dominant light source. You still get auto exposure, although it's done entirely or primarily with the ETTL flash alone.

ETTL flash actually fires twice. There's a "pre-flash" done at low power (1/64 or so) that the camera and flash use to "measure" how much light is needed to illuminate the subject, which is then used to set a proper exposure with a second "pop" of the flash. This occurs so rapidly you usually don't notice the flash is firing twice. But if you ever mix in additional, optically triggered flash or strobes, the pre-flash can cause the remote lights to fire too early for correct exposure.

In both fill and full flash modes you still have option to increase or decrease flash output using "Flash Exposure Compensation" (FEC). Of course, this only adjusts the flash, but works essentially the same as Exposure Compensation used with non-flash photography (E.C. also can be used while doing fill flash with the camera set to one of the AE modes).

Flash have all sorts of cool features now. But basic use of them probably couldn't get much simpler.... just decide whether you want fill or full, set the camera accordingly, shoot, adjust if needed and shoot again.

Below is a low magnification example done with MT-24EX (fill, 100mm macro lens):



A tiny, freshly hatched snail was shot at about 3.5X magnification with MR-14EX Ring Lite:



So a wide variety of flashes can work. If you want to use it for non-macro shooting too, get a standard flash (600EX or 430EX or small, older model like 270EX, etc.) You'll need some sort of diffuser and I'd recommend an off-camera shoe cord (Canon or third party flash and accessories). Or, if you prefer, choose a specialized macro flash (which can have some limited non-macro uses, too).

I don't have an R6, but am sure that it works in conjunction with Canon-dedicated flash very much the same way as my Canon DSLRs. Modern flash and Canon's ETTL system make highly automated flash work quite easy. Or you can switch to fully manual if you wish. Canon's own flashes are excellent. But there are also a lot of alternative brands that can do many or most or all of the same things. Have fun shopping!