I have just aquired a used AE-1. It came with a Speedlight 155A. I have taken one roll of film and the flash does a god job. Is there a superior flashy for the AE-1? Nate

-- Nathan Burns (nathanb@writeme.com), December 24, 1999

Answers

Nathan,

It depends what you mean by superior. The 155a was introduced with the AE-1, and works very well, but Canon later came out the the 166a, 177a, 188a, and 199a. Each flash is more powerful that the last, and each one will work very well with your AE-1. There are also aftermarket' flashes, such as Sunpak that connect to the AE-1 and maintain all automatic functions. If you have any other questions, please email me. Kirby

-- Kirby Chilton (kirbyc@prodigy.net), December 25, 1999.

Nathan, I use a 199a with both my AE-1 and my A-1. This is the most powerful shoe mount flash made by Canon for the A series cameras. I use it all the time at my daughters' school programs and using ISO 400 film and a Tokina 35-105 f3.5-5.6 lens I get fantastic shots whether I can get close to the action or not. Whole rolls well exposed, even the ones that are farther from the subject than I prefer. They are up for sale on Ebay all the time and, in my opinion, are well worth the price. (maybe $75-100) for a nicer one. In other words, if you can get one of these (199a), it will be plenty powerful enough for most situations. Plus it (199a) angles up for bouncing flash off the ceiling. If you don't do any distance shooting like at school programs, the 155a will do fine. I used one (155a) for 15 years until I broke the shoe off of it. It is plenty adequate for most indoor shooting of snapshots, etc. Hope this helps -- John

-- John Masters (mastersja@aol.com), December 27, 1999.

By far the most versatile flash for the A and T series (the latter without the T90) and the F-1N is the Speedlite 299T.

Cheers, Hans

-- Hans H. Siegrist (hans.siegrist@ne.ch), December 27, 1999.