Sto fen Omnibounce or Bounce Card?

[Sydney2K]

I recall viewing online a comparison done of the various option ie Stofen Omnibounce, Lumiquest and Bounce card? Cannot seem to find it now.

Anyway since the lumiquest is too huge a set-up (for me anyway). I am looking at the omnibounce or bounce card for the Canon 420EX. Any suggestions/feedback/preferences?

 

[clive]

not much difference seriously

 

[ToMyself]

Omnibounce.
Extremely useful and efficient in small confined rooms. But in open spaces it behaves exactly like a flash's wide-angle diffuser. Only 25% of light falls on subject. 75% of the light is wasted elsewhere. Reduce flash working distance. Sucks battery power like no tomorrow.

Bounce Card.
Quality of light can be controlled by the size of card used. Bounce and fill-in effect at the same time when used in-doors. Choice & flexibility of card size and reflectivity depending on need. In similar situation, less wastage of light(direction) therefore less battery power consuming than Omnibounce.

 

[jasonpgc]

Bounce card is good if you bounce the flash onto the ceiling, the card will pick up some light and act as fill flash for the front subjects.

The omni bounce is good if you're shooting a lens with an angle wider than your flash can zoom. It is also useful for indoor shots with a lot of white walls acting as reflectors.

However, the battery power consumed by the bounce is just as high as the omni bounce. The reason is because the flash often needs to use up all its power for such application. So if both are using the max power already, what is the difference? Both are just as wasteful.

I always use directly flash and high speed film for indoor. I use FEL (Flash Exposure Lock) and the flash mainly as a fill for the ambient light.

 

[Sydney2K]

Thanks guys for the replies. Useful info.

I am still getting use to the 420EX.

A few more questions:

When the flash is angled it automatically sets itself to 50 but does the output vary or it just fires at the maximum everytime.

Using FEL (Flash Exposure Lock), can you use it for the several shots or it is just one shot. ie you have to press the FEL for each shot.

 

[mpenza]

Originally posted by Sydney2K
When the flash is angled it automatically sets itself to 50 but does the output vary or it just fires at the maximum everytime.

Output varies according to the condition.

 

[ToMyself]

When the flash is angled it automatically sets itself to 50 but does the output vary or it just fires at maximum everytime

The output varies according to the distance of subject to your camera. Output also vary depending on the height of the ceiling your light is bounced at. It also depends on the reflectivity of the surface texture and colour of the ceiling the light is bounced at.

There are many variables at play while shooting in a changing environment. So its wise to leave the flash at TTL mode to simplify matters.

Leaving it on a fixed power output will result in roll or series of pictures with varying exposures. This you will definitely notice when shooting on slide film. Negative film print errors are usually corrected by the lab. Therefore you wouldn't notice the inconsistency.

I would personnaly prefer to have correct exposures for every frame rather than having some appearing right and some wrong.

 

[jasonpgc]

Originally posted by Sydney2K
Thanks guys for the replies. Useful info.

I am still getting use to the 420EX.

A few more questions:

When the flash is angled it automatically sets itself to 50 but does the output vary or it just fires at the maximum everytime.

Using FEL (Flash Exposure Lock), can you use it for the several shots or it is just one shot. ie you have to press the FEL for each shot.

1) Depend on the Power of the flash, it always vary if the subject is within its range. The ETTL will turn off the flash when the correct exposure is met. However, if the ceiling of the wedding dinner room is too high, causing the subject to fall out of the flash's effective range, the flash will only fire at max level, and you still risk having underexposure. However, the bounce card will save a few subject standing in front

2) One shot one FEL.