Cheap, 2 AAA batteries. Lasts pretty long. Output not bad if you place it close to what ever you plan to light. Stand and strap for convenient placement of light.

Inconsistent syncing with the preflash. Doesn't work well at a distant.

I bought one of these to supplement 3 Canon 550EX's. I'd fire the 550EX with an ST-E2 and use this one to get an extra flash or to light up the background. For $40, they work pretty good. Only gripe is that the settings on the back can be a little inconsistent. What sets these aside from their $19.99 cousins, the MS-1 is that these are suppose to be able to be programmed to ignore the E-TTL preflash that the Speedlites make to evaluate a scene.

This is what is inconsistent. But that can be easily rectified by using the Speedlites on Manual or hit the preflash on the Speedlites by pressing the Asterisk * prior to releasing the shutter. The Flash would then fire with the preflash, recycle and then you can shoot and get it to work with the regular flash.

But if you are going to do that, then you are wasting the additional $20 on this item and is better off buying the MS-1 for $19.99. Actually, for the price of 2 MS-1's you can get 1 of these.

If you can get the unit to sync correctly with the preflash, then it is worth the money, otherwise get the MS-1.

Works on 2 AAA batteries and the output, is ok if you are fairly close to the subject. It comes with the stand and a buckle and strap in case you want to tie it on to something. Which can come in handy sometimes, when you want to use a directional light.

Customer Service

The sales people at Ritz has no idea how this item works, or even if it does work. They were so clueless they had a MS-1 inside the package of this one, I had to point that out to them and they had to locate one. The computer even had both items listed as the same.

Similar Products Used:

MS-1, Canon Speedlite 550EX, Canon ST-E2