I recently bought a ring flash add on for my canon speedlite; it’s actually a big plastic circle which channels the light from the speedlite and distributes the light around the lines. It’s very big and costs about one stop of light, but that still means a lot more power than a regular ring flash, and also a lot cheaper. The two disadvantages that I found were that it blocks the red focus pattern transmitted by the speedlite and that it does not allow firing of a secondary speedlite in slave mode. It does provide a very cost-effective method of macro and ring flash photography though.
The following comparison shots were made when I came home with the new add-on. Notice the “what the heck has he bought now-look on the model : )
Straight regular speedlite
Speedlite sent trough the ring flash
You can find more info for it here.
