Metz mecablitz 52 AF-1 £210/$320

Very Easy to use, but Not the quickest

Take a quick glance around the back of this Metz flashgun and you might think that the control interface is even more simplistic than that of the Nissin Di700A. But looks can be deceiving, and the lack of buttons, dials and general clutter is due to the fact that it boasts a touch-sensitive screen. This makes settings and adjustments easy to get at, and intuitive to use, even when dipping into advanced set-ups like infrared commander and slave modes.

Up top, it has a fairly standard zoom range of 24-105mm, along with 0-90 degree bounce, but a slightly stunted swivel facility: you get a full 180 degrees of swivel to the left but only 120 degrees to the right. As with other similarly-priced flashguns on test, there’s an Auto FP mode for high-speed sync, but no programmable repeat (stroboscopic) mode.

Performance

TTL flash is a little overexuberant and the Metz benefits from about half a stop of negative flash exposure compensation. Recycling speed is a bit sluggish too.