i am seriously at my wits end with this godox v860iii i bought last year because it just decided to stop firing half the time right when i need it most. i was out doing some test shots for my sisters wedding which is literally next saturday in chicago and the thing just keeps giving me these weird exposure errors or just wont recycle fast enough even with a full battery. i cant deal with this kind of unreliability when im supposed to be the main photographer for her big day and now im panicking because i dont have a backup that actually works.

honestly i should have known better than to cheap out but i thought the reviews were solid. now im looking at my canon r6 and realizing i need something that actually communicates with the camera properly without me having to pray every time i press the shutter button. i have about 500 bucks left in my budget for this but i could maybe stretch it if it means i dont ruin her wedding photos. i need something that can handle a lot of bounce flash in a pretty dark reception hall without overheating after twenty minutes because that happened to me last month at a birthday party and it was embarrassing as hell.

ive been looking at the canon speedlites but the naming conventions are so confusing like whats the real difference between the 430ex and the 600ex-rt besides the price jump? or should i just bite the bullet and look at the el-5 even though people say the battery system is annoying? i need something that is absolutely bulletproof and wont let me down in a week. i dont have time to fiddle with menus or hope a firmware update fixes a connection issue while the bride is walking down the aisle.

what are the actually reliable must-have external flashes for canon eos cameras that wont fail me when things get hectic? please tell me what you guys are actually using in the field because i cant trust these youtube reviewers anymore...