I’m after a decent flashgun to replace my old manual jobbie.

I’m looking for one that will do E-TTL and as it’s to be used with a Canon body, my first port of call is the Speedlite range. There’s a helluva price differential between the 580 and the 430, so is it *that* much better?

Uses will be gig photography (where flash allowed), indoor action shots etc mostly.

Jakester – i’m a Nikon man meself but i figure things will be similar on canon

you’l probably find the main differences are zoom – flash head on the 580 will have a longer zoom than the 480 – ie 105mm as opposed to 80. may be important to you for extra ‘reach’ at gigs etc, 580 possibly has more power and maybe a better recylcle time?
The rest may be down to remote (off camera) functionality, the potential for ‘strobe’ lighting, things like that.
Above is only a guess, if it fits with your intended use then worth a follow up with Canon perhaps?
Failing that I’m sure a Canonian will be along shortly 😀

The 580 II has the main benefits of more power (58 feet at 100 ISO) as opposed to 43 feet at 100 ISO. Also, you are paying for the fact the 580 can be used as a master to wirelessly sync with other 580s or 430s. Other difference include faster recycling time that the 430, a larger power range (being able to drop lower too than the 430), a catchlight (good for band photography as gives a more natural colour if you cant bounce it off the ceiling and extended zoom range as Marsdenman said.

I would start off with a 430 and see how you go. The 580 has the kind of things you might not miss until you have them, but the catchlight is brilliant. If you buy any flash though itll be a good idea to use a softbox or flash diffuser as youre stuffed when ou have massive ceilings.

I had a 430 EX for my 40D and it was good, but more power is always better 🙂

The 580 will swivel 360 Deg, while the 430 is limited to only 90 deg to right and 180 deg to left of forwards.

also the 430 EX does not work with the camera menu systems, only the buttons on the flash gun change settings, whereas the 430 EXII and 580 EXII can be controlled by the cameras onboard menu systems (40D and upwards I think, not sure about lower/oldercamera bodies)

A chap called ‘Kerso’ on ebay and most UK photography forums can do a very good price on the canon guns,got me a 430EX for £140 about 7 months ago and the 580 EXII was around the 200 quid mark. may have gone uprecently due to the currency rates tho.