Customer Ratings:

• Speedlite Digital Field Guide. [[ASIN:0470045280 Canon Speedlite System Digital Field Guide))
  I purchased this book several weeks ago. For those who want to learn how to use the Canon flashes 580EX and the 430EX, it is great. Simple to understand and very visual, with colour pictures included. You will learn more from this book than struggling through the Canon flash user guides. Please note however that it is written for the 580EX NOT the 580EX II. Providing you can make allowances for the slight variation in button layout on the Canon 580EX II, you will find this book works very well.
• Speedlite Syatem. This book solved many of the mysteries of the speedlite 430EX, which I id not understand before. If I had read the book before I purchesed the flashgun I would have bought a 580EX
• Incomplete and useful only if you have no idea about flash photography. Flash photography was a frustrating mystery to me when I bought this book. Although it provides some basic, much needed information for the complete beginner, it contains a lot of off-subject items (posing your subjects and rules of composition for natural light photographs), but does not cover vital issues such as modelling flash light and gel filters.
  This book predates the EX 580 mark II, although the differences between the old and new models aren t so huge.
  Basic info is adequate and well-written: GN, wireless flash, basic techniques.
  There are some convenient crib sheets for standard flash situations: portraits, macro, event photography, although the amount of detail is necessarily meagre. The images used in the book are, frankly, average.
  If you have a basic grounding in flash photography, you d do better to visit dedicated websites.
• Excellent for relatively new photographer. This book is clear, concise and well written and gives a good overview of how to use Speedlites both individually and as a group. Furthermore it includes small sections on composition, posing, and real-world applications of the technology, making it great for someone relatively new to portrait photography but who wants to learn.
  
  I found this book much easier to read and understand than most and though I can understand some other reviewers as it has less to offer to experienced photographers it is nonetheless an indispensible guide to the Canon Speedlite system and a fantastic book for new(ish) amateur photographers.
• good comprehensive guide to canon lighting. very comprehensive - yet easy to get into- book on working with the canon speedlite system of flashguns, covering not only the technical side of the equipment, but also very good ideas on actually using this in a creative and artistic way, in varied situations. this is my usual day to day go-to reference on lighting, as a beginner to intermediate photographer.
  not everyone is a fan of the digital field guide series of books, but they seem to work for me.
  

• STOFEN OM-EY FOR CANON 580EX & 580EX II
• Canon 580EX II Speedlite Flash Unit
• Canon EOS 40D Digital Field Guide
• SanDisk CompactFlash 4GB Extreme III Memory
• Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera