cgardner
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The EZ series flashes were designed to work with film cameras which meter exposure off the actual film surface during exposure. Digital forced Canon to switch to metering off the view-finder, requiring pre-flash for metering and setting flash exposure. The EZ flash can only be used off camera, triggered manually (i.e. with a radio trigger).
I feel the best long-term strategy for owning a Canon camera is using the integrated wireless EX Canon flash system an I have written a number of tutorials explaining how it works. Click the WWW button below and look in the Canon section.
The simplest, but very versatile arrangement with Canon flash is to place a 580ex on a bracket as Master / fill with a second flash (580ex or 430ex) on a stand as Slave / key light:
The diffusers shown are DIY and can be make for about $2 each in about 15 minutes. I have a tutorial showing how to make them in the hot shoe flash section of my site. The thing to realize is that when using two flashes in a Key / Fill arrangement the fill controls the lighting ratio and apparent softness so huge diffusers are not needed to get "soft" looking light: all you need to do is dial in more fill.
So as much as it might seem advantageous to use that old EZ flash with radio triggers, I feel you'd be money ahead in the long run to instead buy a pair of EX flashes which can be used wirelessly in either ETTL-II or Manual with full remote control over operation of up to three different groups (i.e. key / fill / background):
Most significantly the EX flash system allows the use of high speed FP sync outdoors where a manual flash would limit shutter speed to 1/200th sec @ f/11 on your camera in bright sunlight. See the test I did at f/2.8 outdoors with high speed FP mode at the end of the Canon section. The ability to do that is what finally convinced me to switch from the pair of Vivitars I'd used for 30+ years to the Canon system. The Canon system does have limits, but they are well within the realm of most normal flash use if one understands how the system works.
Chuck
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