I use the canon 420ex, i almost always use the better beamer on it when shooting birds in the rookery. I take the better beamer off for the parrot shots. Some of my shots say No flash in the exif, that's not because i didn't have the flash on, it's because it can't recycle as fast as the 20d can take pictures. the parrots are a great subject to practice fill flash, I shoot in aperture priority and adjust the flash exposure compensation and exposure compensation to try and get the parrots and the background well exposed. I used -2/3 EC here for the bright background and probably FEC at 0 or possibly +1/3-2/3 because of the 1/500th shutter speed. The sync speed on the 20d only goes to 1/250th, so the onboard flash would not work here, not to mention it can't shoot over the lens hood on the 200 2.8L that I used to take this picture. The 420ex flash has a high speed sync mode, but anything over 1/250th shutter speed will retard the flash power so you have to add + FEC in most situations. This all depends on distance to the subject of course. I hope this helped and didn't confuse you and everyone else. I need to brighten this pic some and add some contrast, i will redo it later.
Guest
14-Mar-2005 03:18
Hi... I read the a/farm news. When you use flash on an egret, do you use the flash on the camera or another larger Canon flash? I have the 20D and the 100-400 IS lens. I'm wondering whether to buy the flash and the better beamer etc. I will be at the farm the second week in MAy.. gthomps6@comcast.net
