The following is part of a series of articles describing the type of camera and computer equipment I use on a daily basis. These are not exactly reviews of the equipment, but more of just a synopsis of what I like to use and why. I will be adding to this section as time permits, and you will always be able to read through them by selecting the In The Bag category or one of its sub-categories in the sidebar.
The Canon Speedlite 220EX is a great little flash to have around. It is pretty feature limited in that you really can’t control it much, but for a dedicated TTL flash that is really small it makes for a great backup.
I have used this flash quite a bit in conjunction with my 70-200 f/2.8 when I knew I just needed to add some light, but I wanted to leave the 550EX on the wide angle camera. It’s just enough light to brighten someone up form across the room.
It is also much better than the built in pop-up flash on the 20D. In fact it will cover my 17-35 f/2.8 without casting a lens hood shadow.
My main gripe with the little flash is that it can’t be slaved with the ST-E2. It would be really nice to have it available as a little portable 2nd light. Oh well!
The Canon 10-22mm EF-S was the third lens I bought after switching to Canon some time ago. I was pretty skeptical about this lens at first. It’s pretty slow at f/3.5-4.5 and it isn’t an “L” series lens. But I really wanted something much wider for my 20D. The other main criticism I had about this lens was that it is an EF-S lens, which means it only works on Canon’s 1.6x crop factor cameras. This means the 20D, 30D, and 40D and the Rebels, and that’s it. If I ever upgraded to a 1D series camera or a 5D I wouldn’t be able to use this lens.