Canon MT-26EX-RT Macro Twin Lite

This is a nice flash with some good qualities but in some cases, you might need a step up ring or combine two step down rings to mount it to an optional adapter especially if you have a Canon tilt shift macro lens. And it was not easy finding out how to adapt it in my case. Both of those are reasons why I give it only 3 stars, despite being a fairly good product. I'm just sick of seeing otherwise great products like this that have woefully deficient documentation and pesky flaws that can be discouraging. But determined DIY buyers should not be discouraged by any confusion. Go ahead and buy this flash if you like the benefits that I will describe. But let me save you some time with regard to making it fit. And that might cost a few extra coins. You can use my review to get an idea what step-up-down rings you may need and to see why one ring may not be enough. But to save some time, you might just want to buy a collection of step-down rings and step-up rings so you will have flexibility when adapting other products as well. One of the rings I needed was not available in a an assortment and had to be bought extra. What I actually like about this macro flash is the detachable twin flashes because they can be useful in macro work where light variations must be tried. You could skip buying a macro flash by easily setting up two ordinary flashes (Master/slave) or LED lights on two mini-tripods for this kind of work. But the Canon MT-26EX-RT Macro twin Lite has the advantage of being vastly more convenient, especially when doing macro work outdoors or in nature. Now let's get to the irritating stuff. As a buyer of Canon products going back decades, including many fast and fine lenses and 35mm cameras purchased from , I think Canon really dropped the ball on the MT-26EX-RT Macro Twin Lite. It's not even a bad product except for a serious mounting deficiency and horribly incomplete documentation in both the instructions and online product descriptions. '.Specs' should be specific, never vague or incomplete as they often are with many products including this one. Vague and deficient specs are common to many brands. For starters, this flash fits multiple original Canon macro lenses in my collection. But the Canon Macro Twin Lite flash assembly can very easily fall off. There seems to be two ways to mount this flash. Mounting of the Macro Twin Lite flash assembly onto one of these original macro lenses is directly achieved by four moveable tabs that are opened up by pushing a button and then they spring-close onto a macro lens rim (or Macro Twin Lite adapter). The problem is that the four plastic tabs are not shaped sharp enough to get a good solid grip on the rims of the Canon macro lenses. In contrast, I also own a Nissin MF18 ring flash purchased from a few years ago. It fits these same Canon macro lenses with perfect snugness and cannot be easily knocked off the camera by accident. The Canon Macro Twin Light may or may not fall off your lens by accidentally bumping it, depending on which Canon macro lens you have with the common rim seen on those lenses. But there may be another simple option. In all fairness to Canon, my original older Canon macro lenses each have a 58mm filter thread. So you could probably use a 58mm to 67mm step up ring with the optional Canon 67 Macro lite Adapter to get a more snug fit rather than trying a direct mount using the four tabs. I have not tried that yet but feel sure it will give you a really nice snug fit without the risk of falling off when mounting directly to the rim of an original macro lens. Secondly, you can easily adapt this flash to a Canon tilt shift macro lens and it will work with pretty good imaging results. But I had to do much research and make two extra orders before I had everything I need to make the Canon Macro twin Lite fit my Canon TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro Tilt-Shift Lens. At the time of my purchase (Dec 2019), the website specified that the Macro Twin Lite fits this lens. And presumably they got that info from Canon. Verily, when checking the Canon website for this product, it did not specifically mention the 135mm tilt shift macro lens but it said that the macro Twin Lite fits all Canon macro lenses. However, the three Canon tilt shift series macro lenses are probably newer than the Macro Twin Lite flash and Canon may have failed to update the flash specs. Specifically, the Macro Twin Lite does indeed fit the Canon TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro Tilt-Shift Lens excellently once you know how to adapt it. The Macro Twin Lite instructions and product descriptions will leave you totally stranded trying to figure out how it's done. It's top secret. So now that I've been down that long hard road, I'm gonna tell you how it's done. My recent experience adapting the Canon MT-26EX-RT Twin Light Flash to a tilt-shift lens is limited to my Canon TS-E 135mm f/4L Macro Tilt-Shift Lens. However, this experience should serve as a guide for anyone also trying to adapt the flash to the other two canon tilt shift macro lenses. The Canon Macro Twin Lite flash does not come with any kind of adapters whatsoever. That's presumably because the original Canon macro lenses may have all had a matching rim like the one I described on original older Canon macro lenses. No adapting is needed for the ones that I own. The product description suggest two adapters. One is called the aforementioned Canon 67 Macro Twin Lite Adapter and the other is the Canon 72C Macro Twin Lite Adapter. But Canon also has a 58c and 52c Macro Twin Lite adapter. The Canon 135mm tilt shift lens has an 82mm filter thread. So I had the idea that I could just order an 82-72 step down ring or 82-67 step down ring to use with one of the Macro Lite adapters. WRONG! You can adapt either the 67 Macro TwinLite or 72c Macro Twin Lite to the 82mm thread but just one step down ring is not enough because the flash mounting ring butts up against the step down ring and prevents the flash assembly from mounting onto the Canon 135mm tilt shift lens. Here's the work-around: I made yet a third order and discovered that you CAN adapt the Canon Macro twin Lite to the Canon 135mm tilt shift lens. You just gotta use two step down rings. I used a Sensel 82-72mm with a Sensel 72-67 step down ring screwed onto the optional Canon Macro Twin Lite Adapter 67. And the fit is perfectly snug without danger of falling off. Once I had the Canon Macro Twin Lite Flash mounted to the Canon 135mm tilt shift lens, I checked for vignetting. When the tilt shift lens is used without tilt, there is almost zero vignetting visible even in the corners if you check by aiming at a bright light. However, when the tilt shift lens is fully tilted (bent) left or right, I found that vignetting begins about 25% from one edge and you don't really see substantial vignetting until 15% from the edge. However it can be fixed in post-adjustment or you can simply crop your photo a bit if you're doing fussy pro work. If you want to adapt the Canon Macro Twin Lite to the Canon TS-E 50mm f/2.8L or the Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8L Macro Tilt-Shift Lens, you will probably need to experiment with two step-down rings coming from 77mm lens thread to 67mm Macrolite adapter. Overall, other than the loose grip on original standard Canon macro lens rims, this is a rather nifty utilitarian macro flash. As mentioned, the the twin flashes can be removed from the mounting ring and that's possibly the best reason to buy this flash. Each of the two flashes has a female thread so you can attach them to pocket mini-tripods or find screw-on spring clips. The build quality is excellent except for the aforementioned lack of snugness on most original Canon macro lens rims. I think Canon should have made the direct rim fit more snug and should have provided some adapters and a direct 58mm screw-in option. And they should have at least provided sufficient documentation. The Macro Ring Lite adapters are not too expensive. But you will need to get the right step-down rings or a step-up ring as I described above.