Feedback on Speedlite EL-5

[Jdoyley]

Look for feedback on the durability and quality of the canon EL-5 I’ve never owned  a native canon speedlight. I recency purchased the R6ii and I feel like westcott fj80ii miss fires at times. I was looking into this speedlight to pair with my R6ii and use the Westcott fj80ii on my r5 

[deebatman316 · Accepted solution]

What type of work do you do. The EL-5 is a great flash if you need a lot power especially when working outside. Or you need multiple off camera lights. The in camera flash menu and other specific Canon features will now be able to use with your camera now. I've owned multiple Canon speedlites over the years and all of them still work just fine and haven't run into any compatibility issues. Some of my older ones were given to me by a friend who has owned them since brand new. They still work just fine and I haven't run into any issues with them. The EL-5 is NOT COMPATIBLE with older EOS R series cameras like the R5. Canon has been transitioning all of their new hot shoe accessories to the multi function hot shoe which is in use on the R6 Mark II. All older hot shoe accessories remain natively compatible on all newer cameras except for the R50 & R50V.  

[shadowsports]

Greetings ,

Reviews for this product are mixed.  Some love it. Others not so much.  Some have complained because it doesn't come with its own charger. A small number of early production units had an issue with the battery draining in under 24 hours, but Canon quickly addressed this offering free repair for any affected units.  I don't own this flash myself as it is not compatible with my body.  It's got a 2.4 GHz radio and can work on or off shoe as master or slave. 

Advisory:

https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/s/article/Product-Advisory

I'd buy from a retailer so you could try it out. See if it meets your needs and works well for you.  

[rs-eos]

I would recommend renting the EL-5 first (e.g. lensrentals starts at $30 for 7 days) to be sure it would meet your needs.

I have never used Canon's newer EL line of speedlites, but gave up on using their 600 series line due to constant communication issues throughout 2022 and 2023 (I sold them at the start of 2024 and since moved to a different brand). Profoto, as with other flash vendors also use the 2.4 GHz band, and so far have had zero communication issues.

Thus, do a side-by-side with the EL-5 and your Westcott strobes to see which one will be more stable. I'm hoping that Canon has solved those communication issues with the newer EL line.

[Jdoyley]

My priority is event photography I need the reliability in key moments and my westcott has missed fired too often in those moments 

[rs-eos · Accepted solution]

Just checking if for the Westcott strobe, you were using a Westcott trigger atop the R6 II. If so, wondering if the issues were due to the slight tolerance difference in Canon's newer hot shoes. While I didn't experience any issues with my Profoto trigger atop an R5 II, I picked up Canon's AD-E1 hot shoe adapter just to play it safe.

[Jdoyley]

Hmm I never thought of that option. I will have to try that thank you 🙏🏾