It seems that a lot of people on Steemit are into macro photography. It is really interesting thing and you can really get some cool macro photos, but it is also not easy to get good results. As everyone into photography should know already you need a lot of light for good photos and for macro photos it is even more important. This inevitably raises the question about macro lights or flashes that allow you to take good and detailed photos of small things even when the light is not optimal. So I wanted to share some of my personal experience with macro flashes for DSLR cameras and my focus will be on Canon, though the products I'll be mentioning do come in versions for other brands of cameras as well...

Obviously if you have a Canon DSLR you might normally consider going for a Canon macro flash, this really sounds very reasonable, but you will probably soon reconsider. Cannon has pretty much two models of macro flashes, one is the Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX that is essentially two flashes on the two sides of a ring that get attached to the lens. The other one is Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX or Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II which is a bit different as it is a macro ring light that uses two circular flash tubes. Unfortunately while both are pretty good products they are really too expensive for a hobby macro photographer... maybe for professional work their high prices might be justifiable. Fortunately there are some interesting and much more affordable alternatives that I wanted to talk about, my focus is on ring flashes that I have used or am still using.

The YONGNUO YN-14EX Macro Ring LITE Flash

This is my first macro ring flash that I have used for a couple of years before changing it earlier this year. It is looks a lot like the Canon MR-14EX macro light and performs pretty much the same, but costs significantly less. It is compatible with a wide array of cameras and I have used it on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II with very good results. It has a good metering on Canon at least, fires and recycles pretty fast to repeated use and is strong and durable. It comes with 52mm, 58mm, 67mm and 72mm adapters for attaching to the lens, so some of the smaller or larger thread lenses might be unusable for that flash, though the more used range is covered. I can really recommend this macro flash because it really offers a lot for the price you have to pay, it is available for 1/4-1/5 of the similar Canon model and is very similar in capabilities and results that you can get.

I was really happy with the results I got form the YONGNUO YN-14EX until this year when I got a more compact Canon EOS M3 digital camera and I wanted to be able to use it for some macro photography as well. So obviously I have tried the YN-14EX flash on it, but unfortunately it was not working properly... it was detected and I could control settings of the flash, but the flash was not firing properly like there was some delay or a synchronization issue. Even though it was working fine on the 5DII it didn't on the M3 and I had to replace it with something that would work fine on both my cameras. So you might want to be careful with the YONGNUO YN-14EX and some newer Canon DSLR or mirrorless models especially as there could be compatibility issues. It is best if you can try the flash on your camera prior to purchasing it to be sure that it will work properly. If it does, then you will be fine with an affordable and good macro flash light, but if it doesn't there is another model that you can give a try.

The Skyblue MK-14EXT or Meike MK-14EXT

Not sure which one is the original manufacturer of this one, I have seen exactly the same product under both brands and the one I got was supposedly a Skyblue on the box, but inside it was Meike branded flash. Anyway they are exactly the same product and I have seen it also under some other names as well. This one is very similar to the YONGNUO YN-14EX and to the Canon macro ring light as well, but these guys even copied the main controller unit of the flash to be the same like the Canon Speedlite 580EX II (not the Canon macro flash). Since I use the 580EX II I like that design of the controls and I have already used to it, but that is not really important, what is really important is that the flash itself is really good.

The MK-14EXT does perform no worse than what I've seen from the YN-14EX in terms of results and it does work just fine on newer Canon cameras as well as on older ones. Yes, it does perform as good as on the 5D II on the EOS M3 as well. Another small advantage it has compared to the YN-14EX is the bit larger number of adapters for attaching the flash to wider range of lenses, these is are adapters for 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm and 77mm lenses available as accessories that you get with the flash. Price wise it is pretty much the same like the YONGNUO YN-14EX, so still a couple of times cheaper than the original Canon macro ring flashes.

What About LED Macro Lights

Now, the two macro ring flashes that I have mentioned here I have used and I can recommend as good and affordable products with the note that the YN-14EX might be problematic with some newer cameras. I have briefly tried some similar priced or even cheaper LED macro lights as alternative to these and I can't say I was impressed by the results I got... they did work decently, but the light output was not enough and as I've already said in photography light is really important factor. So have this in mind and be careful with LED macro lights, though you may still try them, but make sure you also compare them to a traditional macro light as well in order to avoid getting disappointed by the results from the LED one at a later time.

If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.

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