Traded my 270ex for a 270ex ii

[rpcrowe]

I have long resented the fact that Canon neglected to equip the 270ex flash with slave capability and soon came out with a replacement, the 270ex ii, with that capability. This left us owners of the 270ex in the lurch.

The 270ex is a nice size little package that I can easily carry in my pocket but, I have long wished to use it as a slave in many situations. This is especially true since my 7D DSLR can act as a master. So, I bit the bullet and changed from the 270ex to the 270ex ii.

Actually, I did not trade my 270ex for the Mk ii model. I purchased a used 270ex ii from eBay at a very good price and I am giving my present 270ex to my son-in-law who will use that little flash on his Canon SX50 HS Bridge camera. He loves his camera but has been disappointed with the results from the built-in flash (I wonder why).

The 270ex series certainly has a few faults, among which are lack of power and lack of rotating ability. The low power is no real problem when using the flash as a slave and the power is certainly better than that of the SX-50 built-in flash. Actually, I think that Canon was aiming at the Bridge Camera market when they came out with the 270ex and equipping this little flash with slave capability was a afterthought.

The ability to bounce in normal size rooms is a step up from the built in flash of the SX50 HS and the 270ex inability to rotate can be compensated for, in a large degree, by using the Joe Demb Photojournalist Flip-It which provides fairly decent lighting, even in the portrait position.

He has a better flash and I have a slave that I can carry in my pocket or in my camera bag all the time, everywhere. Win-win situation...

BTW: Actually the little 270ex flash is not bad for use as a fill light when shooting up close to the subject and it can be used to supplement available light, bounced with a Flip-It modifier, in some locations like in this Hong Kong Stanley Market Stall...

I shot this five years ago at ISO 640 with a 30D camera using a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens at 28mm. The exposure was 1/60 second @ f/5.6. I like it when it is not obvious that a flash has been used to capture an image...

[Colin Southern]

Of course "Plan B" might be to just get bigger pockets and carry your 600EX-RT!

[Colin Southern]

Or better yet ...

http://www.spiderholster.com/spider-monkey.html

[rpcrowe]

Even when carrying my 600EX-RT, which I usually do... Having the little 270EX ii to use as a slave is quite handy...

I carry two cameras and two to three lenses with at least one flash all the time. I normally will carry a full-size hotshoe flash and that is quite enough weight for my 74 year old body to lug around.

I keep my old 30D camera (hell I couldn't get money enough for it to make it worth selling) with the 40mm pancake lens (which I bought on a whim and seldom use for anything else) plus the little 270ex; all in a small lunch size cooler bag. I use this for shooting images of our adoptive families with our adopted dogs.

The package is tiny, light weight and since the bag could easily contain a peanut butter sandwich, I don't think anyone will teal it...