Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

After years of manual flash macro work, recently in digital format with extension tubes on the Canon 100mm macro lens, I decided to cast a onsiderable sum of money at this twin light. Where I used to struggle just to get the correct exposure, now I'm able to concentrate on background (no night-looking flash fall-off anymore) and on modeling the light -- including little shiny aphids tended by ants! If you're serious about great macro work -- this is the flash to have.

I was worried about breaking the hot-shoe mount with rough field work, but the 45 degree angle of the mount adds stability. Even so, I bent up an aluminum strap bracket in my shop that surrounds the camera and flash -- a camera "roll bar."

There's a bit of a learning curve -- but when I tried manually setting the aperature (f22 is my lens's "sweet spot") and a shutter speed of 1/200 -- ISO 100 -- all of the exposures were perfect, because the ETTL function "dials in" the foregrand and background appropriately. I've used the same manual settings for just the macro lens, and for many variations of one to three extension tubes.

I've retired my 25 year-old Cokin flash unit that has served me so well with guess-timate exposures.

I do a lot of macro photography in the lab (mostly for forensic engineering work). While I was able to do a pretty decent job with enough available light and my 580EX, there were times that didn't work...and I missed some important shots; but not with the MT-24EX. The flexibility and versatility of this flash unit makes it the "one" to have for macro work. The ability to remove one or both flash heads and aim them right where you want is a terrific feature.

There are times when I have to capture moving subjects, and the high speed sync function works great when you need to push a faster shutter speed but still keep the fill flash ability. And as one of the other reviewers mentioned, you can set this flash for either master or slave mode; works great with my 580EX as a slave unit. I continue to be astounded by the quality of macro photos produced with this flash.


Bottom line: if you're serious about macro work, this flash is a must have.

Canon 50D, Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro USM, Canon EF25 extension tube

What a great Macro/Close-up flash. The flash works great lens mounted or by romoving one or both of the heads (they also have tripod mounts on them). This makes this flash so versatile. Excellent Canon quality and performance. Ettl works flawless with my Rebel XTi! It is also able to control a slave and I believe it can also be used as a slave. I couldn't be happier with this flash!

As a twin flash, this works and helps take great macro photos. However it falls short on many fronts as I would expect much better from such an expensive flash light.

1. The twin lights are not wireless, nor can the wires be disconnected. Those thick cords are fixed. It is a nightmare to store it and when I need only one light, I can not completely disable one light. I have to leave one light dangling or hold it with my hand pointing in opposite direction.

2. No AF Assist! I can use modeling light, but it does not have enough range, and the AF assist will be much more helpful as it provides a much easier pattern for AF assist.

3. Very poorly designed lens adapter. Basically the mounting adapter is designed for 58mm. The 72mm adapter does not replace 58mm fitting, it is just a step-up to fit the 58mm opening onto a 72mm lens. So the 72mm lens is still covered by a 58mm opening. It obviously causes too much vignetting unless one is focusing really really close. In addition there is no adapter for any other lens size.

Basically this flash symbolizes Canon's arrogance. We are limited to using this flash only for canon's intended purpose, with canon's intended lens, and in canon's intended ways.

Nikon's system is cheaper and has none of these limitations. Unfortunately however I have no choice but to recommend this unit as there are no other viable options for Canon users.

I ame a newbie to macro photography and just love this flash. I wish that I knew that it also required an adapter for my EOS 180mm 3.5L lens. The combo works great.