Review on 📸 High-performance Sigma EF-610 DG SUPER Electronic Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras by Antonio Santiago

available For reference, this was tested on a Nikon D7000. Comparisons were made with the Metz AF 50. After swapping between this and the Metz AF 58, I decided to give the Sigma a try. The delivery was quick and the case and stand are good. A wide range of motion when tilting the head and turning is good. It can rotate a full 180 degrees clockwise and 90 degrees counterclockwise, and also has a fairly standard up and down range of motion. The screen is good, the backlight is nice too. However, that is where the positives ended. Disadvantages: 1) It is very inconvenient to set up slave operation. There are about 4 lines in the attached manual that are not entirely clear. I was eventually able to set it up, but I had to do a bit of googling. Secondly, you not only have to awkwardly attach it to a hot shoe to set it up, you also have to constantly make sure that the metering control works. this. You have to keep the shutter button pressed halfway almost the entire time you are setting up the flash. 2) Even if configured, it is VERY unreliable as a slave. I would say it fires about 1 time out of 4 as a slave. I had it next to my Metz AF 50 and my Metz fired EVERY TIME while the Sigma just sat like a twig on a log. I can point the D7000's flash at it from 30cm away and it flashes about 1/2 times faster. Reset it. 4) As a commander, he just doesn't work. It looks like it just can't fire fast enough (i.e. with the super slow recharge time others have noted) to actually be a fully functional control unit for the Nikon CLS. That was the main reason I bought it. 5) While the guide number seems impressive when actually measuring it with a Sekonic light meter, it's nowhere near as strong as Sigma claims. It uses high-quality, fully-charged Sanyo Eneloop batteries.6) Build quality is meh at best. I wasn't expecting great build quality given the price, which was good, but I wanted to mention it for completeness. 7) The plastic hot shoe is very "sticky" in my camera's hot shoe. I always feel like I have to force it. Compared to the smooth sliding back and forth with the AF 50, and I always worry about breaking the plastic hot shoe from having to slide it in and out of the camera so hard. 8) The red "Ready" indicator will light up before it is actually fully charged. So not only is the turnaround time long, but you also have no way of knowing when it will actually be ready. Pick it up and buy a Metz AF 58. Using it as part of Nikon's CLS will save you some money. Just leave it attached to your camera's hot shoe and you're good to go. But if that's all you're going to use it for, you can buy $50 flashes that will do it.