Saturday, January 14, 2012

Bower 636980504056 Product reviews

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Category: Electronics
Brand: Bower
Model: 636980504056
Availability: FREE SHIPPING (USA)
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Bower 636980504056 Customer reviews


Bower 636980504056 Review by Barry B. Huang

This is my first flash; I bought it to compliment the Canon Rebel T1i. So far I have a mixed feeling about this flash. It's a good flash for the money, but I am nevertheless somewhat disappointed. The flash has a minimal feature set, it works just like your pop-up flash in all respects, except that it can swivel and bounce, and is more powerful than the pop-up flash.

Although the manufacturer claims it supports ETTL II, in reality, it supports none of the advance ETTL features. There is no high speed sync, no 2nd curtain sync (you can enable it camera menu, not sure if it works), no modeling light, etc. There is also no optical slave, no PC sync port, and wireless ETTL is obviously not supported. So do not buy this flash if you are looking for any of these features and read on if these are unimportant to you.

The flash's build quality is decent. It falls well short of the sturdiness of Canon flashes and some of the better 3rd party ones. If you are hard on your equipment or a professional who uses flash heavily, I do not think this unit will fare too well under heavy usage. However, for casual users who sometimes need a better flash than the in-camera flash, this unit should do the trick. It's not build to professional standard, but not overly fragile either.

TTL metering seems to work pretty well when you use the flash straight-on, if you bounce it however, you should plan on adding +2 or so exposure compensation or increase your ISO. There is no manual control, so there is no way you can tell the flash to always fire at maximum power. If your camera can do flash exposure lock, then you can trick the camera into firing it at max power. Speaking of power output, this flash's biggest con by far is its weak output. Comparing to the pop-up flash on my T1i, this flash is only about 2 stops brighter. (at the same shutter/aperture, a picture with this flash at ISO 100 will look about as bright as a picture at ISO 800 taken with the onboard flash).

Recharge time is moderate to slow. About 3-4 seconds if fired at half power, but up to 10 seconds if fired at full power. This is not great, but not horrible either. Capacitor makes whizzing noise, can be kind of annoying if you listen closely, but in my environments should be inaudible. Size is bigger than I thought, about as big as the 55-250mm lens. It can make a Rebel body somewhat top heavy.

The real redeeming quality of this flash is its price. It's the cheapest flash you can get that bounce, swivels and supports TTL. It produces 2 stops more light than the pop-up flash. These seem to be all I need for now, so I am happy with my purchase. It's good for people taking casual shots of family or just starting out in photography. You can always buy a 430EX/580EX later and use this one as backup if you feel the need.


Bower 636980504056 Review by J. Sliff "Silverface" (Hermosa Beach CA)

I ordered this flash from Ace Photo Digital in December and received it in January, noticing right off the bat that it fit the hotshoe rather loosely, the flash screen was not straight and also experienced some exposure problems. Still, it was better than the built-in flash so I hung on to it. After several months (and ONE battery change) one of the clips that hold the battery door closed snapped off. Note - I am VERY gentle with my equipment. I contacted Ace and didn't receive a reply for some time - when it came it was "contact Bower". I called, went on endless hold and when I finally reached a "customer service" rep he would not even provide the slightest information with me describing the flash using Ace's description (which pertains to exactly ONE of their products) - he would only talk to me if I had the part number printed on the unit (which was home at the time). On my second call, I didn't even get the part number out before the non-listening second rep tried to sell me a new battery door - WITHOUT a part number. I explained the door was fine, it was the body that was broken - to which he replied they only cover the electronic flash (which is not what the warranty says) and then accused me of breaking it by mishandling. I contacted Ace, and they refused to intervene, saying it's Bower's problem. I can only say I would never suggest buying a product from the seller based on the poor support I received, nor would I ever buy a Bower product, since in my opinion they just dodge warranties assuming buyers have no recourse. I apparently can't get mine fixed, but I hope no one else gets sucked into buying one of these things.


Bower 636980504056 Review by Technology Guy

The first unit I recieved was defective and unable to function in ETTL mode at all. I was emailed a pre-paid return UPS label and immediately shipped another unit. The replacement unit arrived a few days later. This one seems fine and does function in ETTL mode.

The Bower SFD35C ETTL zoom flash for Canon EOS cameras is a basic ETTL flash made in Singapore and is available from a few different outfits under different names. The Bower flash can tilt, swivel and has a manually adjusted focus for matching the angle of view of the zoom lens you're using. The rear of the unit has a flash test trigger button, ON/OFF switch and lights indicating power, charge and ETTL mode and a special OK indicator that lights when the flash calculates that it was able to fully illuminate the subject during the last shot. There are no manual controls. The rear of the flash also has a "slide rule" chart for calculating the flash's approximate range for different combinations of ISO and aperture. The flash is somewhat heavy with 4 batteries installed and makes the Rebel XT quite top-heavy.

First off, I should note that the flash does not support advanced ETTL features, namely, the flash does NOT offer an FP Mode for high-speed sync as listed in the product description. The maximum shutter speed on a Rebel XT is 1/200 second for this flash. Period. Additionally, the SFD35C does not support second curtain sync or a modeling lamp features. It does seem to support FEL though.

So, how does it perform? I tossed in 4 freshly charged NiMh batteries and took some test shots. Directly aiming the flash at the subject, the flash operated pretty much as expected. Some shots were a bit overexposed but the Rebel XT's flash exposure compensation can be used to adjust for this. The flash also performed fairly well in illuminating a backlit subject. But when I tilted the flash for ceiling bounce in order to achieve a more even and natural looking illumination, shots consistantly came out extremely underexposed. In the end, I had to increase the ISO from 100 to 400 in order to use ceiling bounce at all. At ISO 400, ceiling bounce shots looked quite nice although, at faster shutter speeds, there were still a few underexposures.

The Bower SFD35C ETTL zoom flash is an inexpensive way to improve your flash photography, turning out much better shots than the built-in flash. You may find the Bower flash's minimal features and power output lacking in the long run, however, and might want to seriously consider something else a bit more powerful and feature-rich such as the Sigma EF-500 ST-DG or Super flashes.

To summarize
PROS: inexpensive; swivels/tilts; better than the built-in flash
CONS: weak, especially for ceiling bounce; no advanced features or manual controls

More Reviews...

Bower SFD35C E-TTL I/II Digital Autofocus Flashgun:: Technical Details


  • 28mm-85mm zoom coverage
  • Guide Number: 112 feet (50mm @ ISO 100)
  • Bounce and swivel zoom head allows versatile reflection for difficult lighting conditions
  • Compatible with all Canon EOS models including: 1D/1Ds, 5D, 7D, 50D, 60D, T1i, T2i, T3/3i, XSi, XS, XT/Ti, 300D, 400D, 450D, 1000D
  • Auto standby and check indicator
  • Item Dimensions: 6 x 2 x 3 inches; 1 pounds
  • Brand: Bower
  • Model: 636980504056
  • Product Type: Electronics
...Read more...


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