Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

It is worth what it costs. I sold my canon 580 EXII and got two of these units and an Alien Bee mono-light. I am definitely spoiled from handling the 580 EXII. I was used to a bentley and got two hondas. The vivitar's work consistently. They have a good power range and recycle fairly quickly. If you are ruff with equipment you will probably destroy the vivitar. It is not super sturdy. I take excellent care of my equipment and think the vivitars will last me. For [$] and good power control these are a great buy. If you have the money get the 580 or an equivalent. If you need lots of equipment or have a tight budget the vivitar is the way to go. I shoot almost strictly manual functions with umbrellas and they work well. I took a few shots on camera in automatic mode and they look pretty good if you are an amateur just looking for some more pop its got that too. Compared to other cheep flashes these are probably the best. And you can get four of them for what the 580 costs. I'm pleased with mine.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

The main reason I am giving this flash 5 stars is because of the performance for price. I bought this flash for an intern with my wedding photography business. I tested the flash out and really liked what I got out of it. Mainly in manual mode though. I have never used E-TTL with any satisfactory results on any flash. The recycle time is fairly decent and excellent for it's price. It's a great alternative to the higher dollar flashes. Love that it has a tilt and swivel head for optimal bouncing. Bottom line. I would buy this flash again and recommend it to anyone.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I have only owned for about 4 hours. So far it seems to be a nice unit. It is about 1/2 the price of the SB600 with what seems to have similar features. It seems to operate well, but it did make a funny noise that went away when I shut off and turned unit back on. [...] From what I see, it makes a dramatic difference with lighting.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

For personal & Business use

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I'm not a full-time pro. I'm just learning flash photography and it's a big subject! Anyway I wasn't ready to spend ~$400 on a flash gun. I needed something to help me learn and to help me take pix in darker indoor areas. This unit is perfect for that. I can see myself "outgrowing" it fairly quickly - 6 months maybe? - but when I do it'll be a nice 2nd unit.

I use it with the 40D. They work well together; E-TTL, Manual - both work fine. The unit itself is a little cheap feeling; it's plastic throughout and that's good because it's light weight but also a bit fragile. I wouldn't want to drop this thing.

The zoom has a mind of its own once in awhile, but it's easy to fix. It catches itself in a loop and just continues to zoom in / out. A quick reboot - shut off, turn back on - fixes it. No big deal.

I'm using the Enloops and I get a very adequate recycle time. Not much to compare it to but it's fine for indoor family shots. Not sure I'd trust it for a paying gig though.

Anyway, for the price you really can't go wrong IMO. The 430 from Canon is more than twice the price of this and while it's more solid-feeling, and has Hi-Speed, for me it wasn't worth the money. Yet. I think once I get better at flash photography I'm sure I'll want a 2-light setup and it'll be time for the 580. But for now this Vivitar is doing exactly what I expected it to do.

Thanks to B&H sales desk for helping me choose it!

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

No complaints for the price. A little finicky in Slave Mode but otherwise works very well. E-TTL is nice at this price but I use it in Manual Mode most often. It's not heavy and recycles quickly enough with good batteries.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

Had this thing over a year now.

Great value for money.

Have only had the 'stuck in a loop' thing happen once.

As others have said, the most annoying thing with this is the auto shut-off when in Manual/Slave mode, so you have to reset everything if you don't take a picture every 2 minutes. Not the end of the world if you can pop the remote every minute or so, but at some events where the flash would be intrusive, it's an issue.

Recently upgraded to a 5D Mk2, which supposedly only support Canon flashes (gits!), but in Tv mode the TTL seems to work just fine, as long as you stay out of the silly ISO speeds (i.e. less than 100 or greater than 800). Otherwise, just have to get used to using it in manual...

I actually get fantastic results sticking the flash in manual, the camera in manual, and bouncing it off the ceiling with a yellow gel over it and the light balance set to tungsten.

Output on full is pretty darn good, but then recycling time takes a hammering, as does battery life - but still better than expected - probably 100 shots on full power before recycle time becomes a real issue. On 1/16th power, recycle time is momentary and battery life is longer than the camera battery.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I was simply expecting better results than the camera's own flash. Not even close. They are either way too over exposed (flash directly pointing) or way under exposed (flash bounced). An this is with the TTL setting, not with manual metering. Save your money and get the Canon. I should have :(...

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

Bought this flash as my first to test it's uses and because I was asked to do a photo shoot in a Ugandan fishing village. Colours of the local people come out much nicer when using a proper flash. Occasionally I'd also like to shoot owls and bats at night and the reach of this flash is great for that.

To my big surprise this flash also works well on my old sony dsc-f828 when you turn on the hot shoe!

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

Hard to beat the price for an on-camera ETTL flash for a Canon DSLRs. Power is sufficient. Recycle time is good. Bounce card not terribly useful -- better to make your own big huge card and Velcro it on, but same goes for all flash units. The zoom motor occasionally gets stuck in a loop when manually adjusting -- off and on fixes it. I used this at a wedding and got pretty decent performance and reliability was not an issue -- 400 shots and 3 sets of AA's. You have to learn to judge when your batteries are dying (recycle time increases).

Off camera slave or remote triggered flash: Not so great. It has an auto-off feature that can't be disabled and the manual power and zoom settings don't persist after the unit is turned off and back on. That means that if you put this thing up on a light stand and don't take a picture ever 2 minutes or so, you'll have to pull it down, turn it back on, and reset the power and zoom.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

This is my second flash,so i have 2 now and i am very pleased with them.i use also cactus flash triggers and they work perfect.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I use this on my Canon EOS Elan 7e and it works perfectly in the ETLL mode. the only complaint I have is when I put it on my Pentax ME Super in the manual mode the focal length adjustment jams and doesn't switch out of the 24mm length and makes a terrible noise.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I follow the Strobist blog on a regular basis, great way to learn about off camera lighting. Finally ready to make the plunge and add another speedlight on a tight budget, I called B&H for help. Currently I use a Canon 30D and a 550EX, and wanted to get a 3rd party speedlight that would work with the gear I already have. The B&H rep did a great job working with me. I explained I was looking for a second light for portrait work and some product photography. With that in mind, along with the budget concern, he recommended the Vivitar DF400MZ.
From the get go, I was impressed as soon as it arrived. The controls are intuitive, the construction is sturdy, a nice speedlight. Using it in my garage/studio for a test run it made a great first impression. Set up as a slave, it fires perfectly with the Canon flash. For around $100, this is a great value.
I am so pleased with the Vivitar, I have recommend it to others, and I will be ordering another one soon for my third light.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

Bought this as a flash for event photography and within a month it stopped working. The online retailer i purchased it from would not replace it, and the brand Vivitar is now defunct. The company that purchased the brand name is likewise not supporting the product, leaving me with an expensive paperweight.

Stay away from Vivitar, at least until they get their product restructured. I've had nothing but bad luck on the last products ive purchased of thiers, i'm not going back to them again.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I bought this with a Canon Digital Rebel XS. The zoom head motor kept locking and making horrible popping sounds...the exposures were totally under exposed in all ISOs, and Exposure Compensation on me XS and Canon 20D. LCD would fade out occasionally to un-readable even with fresh batteries. After 2 days the flash didn't work anymore couldn't even get a test fire out of it. I returned it and got a 580 EX II...glad I did. This was going to be a flash for a stringer backup.. but never mind!

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I got this flash a few weeks back for my EOS 400D and this is my first experience with an external flash.

The flash feels and looks decent for the price. I like that it has an inbuilt diffuser and reflector and use them a lot.

The swivel and tilt head is also a very useful feature to have and one can really experiment with different angles and in manual mode with different power settings for a lot of creative shots.

It seems to work fine in ETTL mode and manual mode while connected to the hot shoe. It has different power settings in manual mode.

But I seem to be having problems with it in slave mode - off the camera. The flash seems to fire a fraction of a second before the shutter opens in the 400D and though I tried capturing a photo of the flash at different shutter speeds and different settings and exposure modes in the 400D, I was unable to get the flash to fire on time in any of the photos in slave mode. I wasn't able to find any information online about this issue though.

I think the Canon 400D onboard flash sends out some signal just before the shutter opens, which causes the Vivitar flash to fire just a little early. My friend using a Nikon D80 was able to get the same flash to fire on time (you can see the flash lit up in the photo) in slave mode, so I don't think anything is wrong with the flash itself.

It works fine if camera is set to second (rear) curtain - but even in this mode I see that it flashes twice. One just while pressing the shutter release button (but before shutter opens) and the second at the rear curtain.

It also works fine if it is set as a slave to some other flash (for ex: the SB800)

So now I need to buy some trigger mechanism (cactus perhaps?) to ensure the DF400MZ flash fires properly, on time when in slave mode off the camera.

Apart from this one issue I haven't had any problems with the Vivitar DF400MZ. It is huge, huge value for money.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I have used this flash a couple of times and have been very happy with the results. It is a little noisy, but I can live with that. It has a little weight to it, but with 4 AA batteries, no more so than what you would expect. I have had several Vivitar products in the past. I have yet to be greatly disappointed.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

It's cheap, a little bulky, it has an incorporated diffuser that can be slided in any time, it works properly!

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

Very easy to use. I like the bounce flash feature.

Comments about Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Canon E-TTL II:

I'm a nature shooter and this flash has done wonders for me. It is great at fill light situations and with its adjusting head and diffuser and bounce screen it comes through every time. It is a little heavy but thats mostly battery weight and something you probably cant get away from.