AmazonBasics Electronic Flash for DSLR Cameras (Canon, Nikon)

I have purchased 3 of these flash units and they work well at first. However, 2 of the 3 units stopped functioning after less than 6 months. The issue is that on repeated use (multiple flashes during a photography shoot), the units get quite warm and this causes battery acid to leech from the battery onto the battery cover. This leaves residual acid on the cover over time and disrupts the connection between the battery and the leads on the cover. Once you become aware of the issue, you can check for it to clean them off, but if you dont know about it, you wont ever open the battery cover and you wont know that this is an issue until the unit stops working. So, if you are using these as a flash option for studio photography and will have the units flashing multiple times in a row, these are probably not the best units for that. If you are using these as a simply flash photography support for an event or a family gathering, then they should work better because the units wont get so warm and cause the battery acid leakage issue. One further note, I used multiple battery types in the units so I dont think that it was a battery issue, but that this is an issue with the units themselves.

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We would say that this flash makes for a great backup for a lot of cameras. It doesnt replace your more expensive options, but it does give you something that is definitely better than nothing. It gives you a result that is better than using the cameras built-in flash. However, it doesnt respond to all cameras listed under the named brands. We can also confirm that it will not work with Panasonic (at least the models we have tested it against, which are all modern within the last two years). What it does do well with is acting as a slave to a master flash. If you are already using a flash on your camera and want to use this to light the back of the individual or whatever else you are shooting, it does a good job. There were a couple times where it didnt go off, but it was just a couple within many, and you will notice it immediately and be ready to take another shot to get it right. Build quality is decent and quite comparable to other options out there.

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I bought 2 of these flashes. They are OK for the money. Its nice that you can shoot with them and not care much if it breaks or is abused because its so cheap, yet seems to be ruggedly made. It would be nicer if you could give more control to the flash output power instead of having to move it in full stops, but I am not docking stars for that. What I did not like is that you need to be in a pretty dark room for the slave function to work properly. On an overcast day, inside and facing a window, the ambient light prevents the slave from triggering. I have a better flash that I use for my primary light; the only reason I would use these would be as slaves. I will try to fix this by taping a neutral density gel over the light sensor. Still, that is more work and hassle when youre thinking about a million other things trying to get a nice image, thus, 3 stars.

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Not bad! Bright enough for any of my needs! Really saved me taking photos for a low light event. Love this thing. I was having connectivity issues trying to use it with a t5i. Not as many issues with my 6d. It can be temperamental sometimes. Sometimes it works great, sometimes it doesn’t trigger. It doesn’t process in tandem with my camera so I always have to shoot manual when using this flash, which I do anyway, so definitely worth the money (as long as you know what you’re getting into separately manually controlling flash level and camera brightness). One thing I noticed is that since the camera and flash don’t really speak together, they don’t sync very well for anything faster than 1/200. I’ll get images that two thirds of it have flash and the last third of it is dark. Update: I’ve had it for a while now. Though the light it emits itself is great, that’s the only good thing about it. I keep having more connectivity issues with my camera not triggering the flash. Literally 50% of my attempts don’t trigger the flash. Especially if I’m shooting in portrait. The fact that it does not speak to my camera was fine at first, but now I’m sick of manually adjusting every time. I want to be able to just enter shutter priority mode and have a blast. I found a 430ex on eBay for $40. I recommend you do the same or something similar.

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