Canon Speedlite 470EX-AI

THIS AP award highlights the most innovative products to arrive in the market over the last 12 months and this year Canon has made it onto the nominees list with two products. After much deliberation, the award went to the Canon Speedlite 470EX-AI – a product quite like no other we’ve seen before.

Though you might think it’s difficult to reinvent the wheel of how a flashgun works, that’s exactly what Canon has achieved here. It’s equipped the 470EX-AI with an Auto Intelligent (AI) function, which is designed to work out the optimum position of the flash head before automatically manoeuvring it to create softer, more flattering illumination. In full-auto mode, the unit requires a test flash to be taken to calculate the optimum angle for natural illumination before the motorised head moves into its optimal position ready to shoot. Alternatively, it can be set to semi-auto mode for flash-savvy users who’d prefer to set the angle of the flash themselves. The clever thing about this mode is that the flash registers the position as manually set by the photographer using the Angle/Set button and readjusts based on the orientation of the camera – very robotic indeed!

If you’re a Canon user who wants to get away from the trial-and- error approach to getting great results from using bounce flash, or simply want a user-friendly Speedlite that won’t faze you, the 470EX-AI is a tempting option and gives us an insight into the direction flashguns might be heading in the future.