I decided to get a flash unit after reading about the benefits of fill-flash, particularly in harsh lighting conditions, in Aurthur Morris's book The Art of Bird Photography . I have the Canon Speedlite 550EX (now superseded by the 580EX II ). An issue with birds is that they are often too far away for the flash to have any effect. This is where the Better Beamer helps. The Better Beamer is a flash extender or flash magnifier, which greatly increases the reach of your flash-gun, making it possible to use fill-flash with a telephoto lens (300mm +). Because Arthur Morris uses one extensively (except with close distance subjects), I decided that I must use one. It is not a very expensive addition to your kit. My initial attempts at fill-flash were not very successful. This was due partly to the inability of my flashgun to keep up with the modest 3fps continuous shooting of my 10D. Moving to the 8.5fps of my 1D would only make things worse. I found that the first in a series of continuous shots was affected by the fill-flash, but the remaining shots were not. In addition, the flash unit went through batteries at an alarming rate! For these reasons I invested in the Canon CP-E3 Compact Battery Pack (now superseded by the CP-E4 ). It takes 8 AA batteries and better keeps up with continuous shooting. It doesn't quite keep up with 8.5fps, but it will keep up with a short burst of 3 to 4 shots. The battery pack can be located in the camera's tripod socket (if it has a battery grip) or attached to the tripod leg with the velcro straps included. I also purchased a second battery magazine (also available for the CP-E4 ) to hold a further 8 batteries, making replacing batteries in the field very quick. Because of the battery use issue (I get through two sets of four batteries a day if used continuously), I also purchased two sets of rechargeable nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and a battery charger. The flashgun is actually a little slower using these batteries, but this method is much, much cheaper! I now take the flash and Better Beamer with me on every trip. I have used it in many situations, including my trips to the Red Kite feeding stations, where it helped me to get some excellent under-lit images of the flying kites. On the downside, the Better Beamer is a little clumsy - being attached to the flash with a large elastic band. I was continually knocking the unit off against a tree, for example. When this happens, the Better Beamer invariably falls into its four separate pieces! However, if this happens to you, don't be tempted to fix the Better Beamer more securely to the flash unit (with strong tape, for example), as knocking the unit against a tree would then damage your flashgun! |