"The Canon speedlite system is a source of confusion to many new (and quite a few old!) Canon EOS users. This has been made somewhat worse with the introduction of DSLRs as they are not really compatible with early "EZ" series Speedlites. DSLRs require newer "EX" Series speedlites in order to provide a reasonable degree of automation and allow automatic exposure. "EX" series speedlites allow the use of E-TTL (and E-TTL II) which are flash metering systems which use a preflash and the camera's multi-zone evaluative metering system to determine optimum flash exposure. Earlier "EZ" series speedlites did not use a pre-flash and determined flash exposure by measuring the amount of light being reflected from the film surface onto special flash exposure sensors during exposure."Can I just say that I love this article. It is very well written and explains in quite some detail the differences between the EX and the EZ series flashes. I purchased a Speedlite 580EX quite some time ago and am incredibly happy with its performance. In general though, I think this article should be required reading for all those that own or plan to own a Canon DSLR.