Hello there- I've recently begun photographing events. I've been using the Gary Fong LIghtsphere II on my 580 EX flash. I have to say that I'm very happy with the results. It's great at lighting up the room and eliminating most shadows without even using a flash bracket.

The only thing that worries me is that I fuss with the flash head so much during a day of shooting that I'm scared the connections inside it will suffer. If you've used the Gary Fong, you know that, instead of using a bracket, you simply swivel the flash head to the side when you want to take vertical shots. So I find myself doing that for about half to a third of the shots of the day.

Does anyone who has a lot of experience with the 580 know how much of a beating it can take in that respect? I've only shot about 4 events so far. Would it be worth it to just use a flash bracket, so the strain can go on that instead? I like the light weight of not using one, and it does seem more convenient, but I also don't want to have to buy a new flash prematurely.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

The 580EX is quite durable and I would not be overly concerned.

A flash bracket will absorb strain, but most importantly it moves the flash farther off center to cast some shadow to improve the photograph and avoid that 'deer in the headlights' look. More options that make a flash bracket worth the investment, even with an on camera/flash diffuser. A lot of the Fong units are great if you need to get right up on someone (like photo scrums for journalists) and make the photo.

Bouncing the light off a neutral colored ceiling or wall work as well or better, particularly with group shots.

Check the lighting forum and other posts, including Sports for even more ideas.

I use the Gary fong lightspere as well with my 580EXll. just used it for a wedding anniversary in a dark catering hall and it really works well. I used it with a stroboframe bracket. The thing is, if your using the lightsphere to bounce off ceiling than you will need to swivel the flashead anyway even when you flip the bracket. If you have the flash pointing at subject , then you would not. I find that as long as I am conscious of being gentle with it, I can flip and swivel it quite quickly and not feel that I have cutting down on it's lifespan.
One thing that i find about the lightspehere is that when pointing up towards ceiling, i get alot of power out of the flash head and really lights up the subject well. When it is pointing towards the subject, it somnetimes underexposes. I think this is because some light is lost through the sides and when the flash is pointed upwards it will produec more powerful flash to compensate for having to bounce, even though the lightsphere allows light to be thrown off to the subject from the side. So, if I am pointing at the the subject directly, I compensate by increasing flash exposure by 1/2 to 1 stop.