From the Manufacturer
In a first for its digital camera line-up, Canon has introduced an optional zoom flash, the HF-DC1. Linked to the zoom lens, the zoom mechanism narrows the flash’s angle of throw to extend flash range at the telephoto end and further extends the options for night and indoor shooting. With a guide number of 18 (ISO 100 meters), the slave flash automatically fires in-sync with the camera’s in-built flash, ignoring any pre-flash. It can be adjusted to three power output settings based on the aperture value of the camera. The unit attaches to the camera with a supplied bracket that maintains the ability to mount both camera and flash on a tripod.
This attachable supplementary flash c [Read More...]
Buy Canon HF-DC1 High Power Flash for Canon Powershot Digital Cameras at Amazon
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This flash does what it shound but don’t expect wonders. It essentially “brightens” your flash photo. I am using it with a PowerShot S2 IS.
When reading reviews, you might see it said that this is a wireless flash. While true, that’s a bit misleading. The flash works by simply sensing that the primary flash has occurred and then firing as well. This means that you *must* fire the primary flash to have it work.
Another thing that you might read is that this flash “focuses”. I can’t imagine what the reviewers mean. This is a simple slave flash. You can set the “range” in 3 basic increments but that seems to be it for adjustments. The manual is slim and gives no hint that there is anything sophisticated occurring.
A few notes:
- The flash is very compact and lightweight.
- You can easily hold the flash in your hand to position it for better coverage.
- The recharge time is extremely fast with a new battery — essentially immediate.
- It uses a non-rechargable lithium battery. These tend to be pretty expensive. The manual says it will get over 250 flashes on a battery.
- This flash *does not* eliminate the shadow that the PowerShot S2 IS wide angle lens creates. It does reduce the shadow.
Overall this is a good flash but seems a bit pricey.
This is an excellent add-on to the Canon series of Powershot cameras, I am using it with an A620 and it produces beautiful pictures. The flash is a “slave” in that it triggers when the camera’s built-in flash fires, so there is no cord needed to connect it to the camera. It comes with a fixed bracket but you can also hand-hold it for bounce flash effects very easily. It uses a 123A lithium battery which recharges very quickly (generally less than 2-3 seconds, about 7 seconds for a maximum-brightness flash), Canon claims approximately 250 shots from a new battery. There is an adjustment for low-mid-high intensity but the flash does not, to my knowledge, focus or adjust for subject distance (the camera auto-exposure does an excellent job of that). Finally, there is a “manual” mode which only means that you have to press and hold the indicator button to enable the flash to fire, this is to attempt to avoid having the slave trigger on someone else’s flash if you are in a roomful of cameras. The guide number is 18 meters at ISO 100. I have found that, for example, taking pictures of actors in a high-school play from the audience, about 30 feet away, with relatively dim stage lighting, this flash was more than powerful enough to get excellent face shots, even with the camera moderately zoomed. This is a very useful and high-performance accessory, definitely worthwhile if you do a lot of indoor shooting where you can’t get close to your subject.