Yes, everyone. I finally decided to give one of those chinese copies a try. So how did it feel. Well to be honest I only had a short trial with these lights. So far, I think it has lived up to it reputation. What does that mean. I have summed up a few points to help you decide whether the Yongnuo 565EX is worth your money.
Pros
Built quality is pretty good. It's not as solid as the 580EX, but then then you are paying only 1/4 of the 580s price.
Guide - I have not metered it with a sekonic meter yet, but I do think it does live up to a guide number of 58. Pretty strong flash if you ask me. Zoom range is equal to that of the 580EX II (24-105).
User Interface, it's pretty nice comparing to it's other chinese competitors. The only one that I think will look similar are flashes from Oolong (SB690), and not sure but maybe the Meike.
Support ETTL, but I do think the ETTL works much better with the 580EX II, in terms of accuracy. This may have something to do with a weaker metering system built in the lens.
Refresh rate is just as good as the 580EX II
Cons
Horseshoe Mount is not a sturdy as the 580EX.
Looses the scrolling dial (as you can see in the picture).
It happened to me twice where the speedlite automatically switches to M from ETTL as I moved the light head around. This may not be a random thing (still testing it), but rather the manufacturing may have designed it so that everytime you move the head to a certain position it resets the mode to M (not really a good thing though, especially if you are shooting events).
My General Comment,
If you are planning to use this for personal use, definitely save the cash and get the Yongnuo, I believe the Canon are too pricey for personal recreation. Even, for professional use, if you plan to move on to monolights in the near future (once you have a greater grasp of using strobes), these may be the lights to get. Let's face it, with the new 600 EX RT selling itself like a Louis Vuitton bag, you may as well save the money from the transitional phase of using a speedlite for a nice monolight head like a Elinchrome or a Profoto D500. I would not rely on these lights for event photography (especially if you are getting paid for the job). They may make a good spare speedlite for background or rim light if you already have reliable speedlites on hand. The price is definitely reasonable. Yongnuo has gone a long way and seems like their product although still lacking behind from the Canon's reliability, is catching up real fast.
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