Sony HVL-F58AM

A very versatile unit – After purchasing my first DSLR camera late December 2011, I bought it only as a body but eventually received a good deal with a lens, at the time; it was a Tamron 18-270mm series. The shop where I bought it from did sell one with a kit, however the lens despite being a Sony brand, it had limited range. While using the camera, it had limited battery life from the genuine battery; approximately half of that of a pentaprism SLR camera that didn't use an electronic view finder. The camera body's on-board flash was very basic. Normally most people that use a DSLR, in this case a DSLT; wouldn't use the flash nor would they need to for most general photography shooting.

As with most of my photography, it is mostly with portrait and landscape shots; with only several months since its initial purchase, I decided to venture out and look at proper flash units. At the time, Sony's premiere flagship flash unit was the HVL-F58AM, it ticked all the boxes of what you could do with it and it had wireless capability which worked well with my camera.

The user manual for this unit is, to a better description that requires a bit of reading, if not that; then finding some internet videos to hasten your knowledge. It took me between 3 days and a week in experimenting with the flash unit; which can sit on the camera's flash mount or can sit on its own pedestal which is a piece of plastic that is shaped like a miniature tripod or stand.

Through the configuration made to the camera as well as the set up with the control buttons on the flash. You can shoot with flash wirelessly; or if you must, connect to the camera's flash mount and alter the various swivel positions of the flash itself.

Furthermore, this flash unit is very capable if you're using rapid succession of shooting in high velocity mode. Cameras such as the Sony Alpha A77 which has 12 fps; it has been tested that the F58 can keep up with the demands of the camera body with ease.

Although, this also works well when using a high speed class 10 memory card that was a high rate of read and write speed. I have tested this using a Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC with a 16GB storage card that has a speed of up to 95mb/sec.

As a recommendation when any one is deciding to use this flash unit or another Sony branded version; one would be wise to only use non-rechargeable and non-lithium-based batteries.

It has been found from major reviewing websites that for some strange reason, the flash unit can overheat and in some cases cause the batteries themselves to leak. Therefore, since ownership, I have only used alkaline batteries. Surprisingly, the batteries do last a while; unless you're the sort that has to constantly use the flash.

I guess, as another point of view in terms of the negative aspects other than the user manual which is quite in-depth for the learning curve; the weight of the F58 is almost as much as the camera body itself.

It is somewhat heavy with the batteries installed; the plastic mount feels as though it is about to snap off the camera mount even though it is securely connected. I tend to use a camera strap and additional battery module to allow a much better feel and grip to the entire camera. Versatility, Caters for every single photographic needs Weight, User Manual (Learning curve), Price