Customer Reviews

Sigma EF-530 DG Super Electronic Flash for Nikon DSLR

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just got this in the mail today and have been playing with it all afternoon. I absolutely love it. I'm a wedding photographer, and I wanted a flash I could use for photographing receptions rather than the on-camera flash I already have (I use a Nikon D90). This flash is AMAZING, and so much more natural-looking than a built-in flash if you bounce it correctly/diffuse it. I've used a Nikon brand speedlight before, and from what I remember about it, this Sigma brand works exactly the same way. I am so glad I didn't shell out the money to get a Nikon speedlight because this is just as good.

I have 2 SB-900 and an sb-800. While I like them all, being a full time photographer we all look for ways to increase our bottom line at the end of the day. I purchased one of these awhile back just to see how it will hold with what we do out in the field. For 11 weddings, this was the flash I used. I can't complain. It did what I wanted it to do throughout the day.
Build quality is good. No glitz and glamour, just straight up basic controls.
I ordered 2 more of these and I'm really happy with them overall. 3 of these for under $500 from Amazon, can't beat it. I will be selling my nikon's should come out $$$ ahead.

not a bad flash for the price, however, the manual is next to worthless and the icons on the flash are not helpful.
exposures are accurate, but the wireless mode didn't work with the d7000. as per sigma, this may need a firmware update.

I have an SB-600 as well as the ef-530 dg super and could not get the Sigma to work as a CLS slave until I found a link from another frustrated user who figure it out. It works great now, but only if you do the following:
1) setup D7000 flash in commander mode and leave channel set on "1"
2) turn off camera and mount ef-530.
3) turn on camera and flash.
4) press shutter half way to activate metering.
5) while meter is active, quickly press the Sigma's Mode button until the screen shows up with "1 C1 Fx.x" on it. the 1 is the Group number (Group A on Nikon setup), and the C1 is the channel number. If you need to change the Group, press the SEL button until it starts flashing, use + - to select the right group, then press SEL until nothing is flashing. Remember, you need to do all of this while the camera is still metering for the shot, so keep pressing the shutter down half way while you are making changes to the flash.
6)This is the last and most important step: turn off the camera but DON'T turn off the flash. Remove the flash and place it where you're going to use it and don't hit any buttons (except ZOOM), or you'll have to start over. The Sigma will not go into standby mode as long as it's in the CLS slave mode, so no worries there.

Note: one author said to turn off both the camera and flash in step 6, which I did. When I turned the flash back on, it still showed the correct screen "1 C1 Fx.x" but it would NOT fire. Only by leaving the flash on after it has been programmed on the hotshoe will it retain the settings. Because the flash does such a great job (and it's cheap compared to an SB-900), I'm giving it 4 stars. Having to mount the stupid thing in order to program it is the only drawback I've found. Some say it tends to overexpose, but I'm not having that problem and could easily compensate by dropping the EV setting if it were an issue.

Hope this helps.

I just got this flash and ran a few tests. It is a pretty decent unit. The build quality is noticeably inferior to that in the nikon flashes, but the light is just as good as that from an SB 900. I can easily take the build quality difference for the enormous price drop. Other than that, the flash has worked flawlessly so far. A bit soon to tell how it works in the long run yet.
I wished that they had put more tilt steps in the flash head. It has only two fixed positions, but I place it in between steps and remains there for my shooting, so it's not a huge problem. This, and a litle bit of awkwardness in the interface are the reasons why i dropped the stars to 4
I use it mostly as a slave unit and haven't encountered any problems.

Do yourself a favor...spend the extra $50 and get the Nikon SB-800 instead. I initially bought the Sigma EF-530 DG Super as a lower-cost alternative to the Nikon SB-800, and I regret it. I ended up buying the Nikon SB-800 after all.

Any way I use this flash, either standalone on-camera, wireless master or wireless slave, I have to make manual adjustments to exposure because it always over exposes. In addition, as a wireless master, it often miscommunicates with the slaves, resulting in slaves firing at full power, not only over-exposing the subject, but also wasting battery life.

To setup as a wireless slave, you must first attach the flash to camera, make your settings, then remove it from the camera. Then if you turn off the flash or accidentally press the "mode" button, you have to re-attach it to the camera and make all you settings all over again. Such a hassle. In comparison, the Nikon SB-800 or SB-600 can be setup as a wireless slave without having to attach the flash to the camera, and when you turn the Nikon flashes off and back on again, all the settings are the same a you left them, so they're always ready to go straight out of the bag.

One more thing, the menus on the Sigma are very cumbersome and not very intuitive.

Bottom line, if you're only ever going to use this flash as a standalone, and having to play with exposure settings is worth saving $50 to you, then you might be okay with the Sigma EF-530 DG Super, otherwise go with the Nikon SB-800.

Let's get the negatives out of the way. The manual is not great. You have to do some figuring out on your own. If that's not for you, then spend the money and get a Speedlight where there is a bounty of information available. Now that that is out of the way, let's move on.

For the money, I don't think you will find many better flash options. Sure, I would have liked to have a Speedlight; however, I am working through how to get better flash pictures. And the reality is that I didn't want a $400+ 'experiment' to start that process. While it has taken some time to determine how to change all of the flash settings and their impact, I was completely OK taking the time.

If you are looking to make a foray into flash photography and don't want to spend a bundle to get into it, then this is the flash you have been looking for given that you are somewhat a curious sort and have the patience to experiment. If you are not patient, then spend the money on a Speedlight and leverage all of the information available on them. Time or money, it's your choice.

The only problem I have is the instruction booklet. I am a point and shoot photographer and pretty much bought this because of the price. I use a D-40 Nikon and the little flip up flash was not enough. I was advised to use a flash when photographing outdoors to eliminate shadows. Well this does that. However I have no clue on the settings and have been experimenting with the TTL setting. Indoors in a dark setting this thing is awesome. Definitely see a difference. Still experimenting and believe that this thing will be awesome once I figure out the bells and whistles. Almost zero wait time when using fresh batteries. Does anyone know a good book for beginners who want to learn more about Flash photography. I need something simple. Not into all the crazy calculations of feet from subject etc.... sometimes there is no time to figure out all that crap. Point and Shoot. A lot cheaper than Nikon brand and appears way to much for me at this time but glad I bought it. Makes camera heavier but not a real problem.

It's a good flash for the money, especially now since SB-800 is discontinued and SB-900 costs at least twice as much. So, for a about a price of SB-600 you get a flash that has almost all of the features and is even more powerful than SB-800 (from what I see it only lacks PC sync - but I never used it anyway). Well, yes it does not feel as robust as Nikon flash, but it does all the job it's supposed to. As the other poster noted you do have to mount it on the camera if you need to use it as a stand-alone wireless slave, but if you prefer using wireless triggers (which was always more reliable) for your strobist experiments you will be delighted to take a full use of its manual output features from full to 1/128.

Good value and good set of features.

Every feature I tested worked well when I limited my shutter speed at or below the X-sync speed. Exposure was very good, maybe just a bit under.

Beyond the X-sync speed, the High Speed Sync (HSS) became less consistent. If I tried to lock exposure with the FV feature on my camera, all exposures were under by more than 2~3 EV. The pre-flash emitted while locking FV was powerful, almost full dump, but at the subsequent shutter actuation, the actual flash emitted was very weak, regardless of the distance and subject brightness. Waiting 10+ seconds between pre-flash and actual flash to allow the flash to recharge did not make any differences.

If HSS is not needed, this flash fucntions well and is of good value. If you need HSS often, you might want to consider some other flashes.

On a separate note, Amazon was very responsive and courteous when I requested a return/refund.