So I've been shooting with a Rebel T3 for literally forever and I finally grabbed a T7 a few months back thinking it would be a straightforward upgrade since I already know the menu system and have a bunch of EF-S glass. Everything was fine until last night. I was getting ready for my cousins engagement party this coming Saturday and I tried to slide my old Yongnuo flash onto the hot shoe for a quick test run and it just flat out wont fire. I thought maybe the batteries were dead or I bumped a setting but then I looked closer at the mount.

I did some frantic googling at 2am and realized Canon apparently removed the center sync pin on the T7 hot shoe?? I feel like a total idiot for not checking this before buying the body but I honestly didnt even know that was a thing they did to the budget models. My old manual flashes are basically paperweights now because they rely on that middle contact point to tell the flash when to pop. I've been doing photography for about five years now so I'm not a total newbie but this completely caught me off guard.

I'm in a huge rush because this party is in four days and I really need something that is guaranteed to work with this specific crippled hot shoe. I'm looking for something that supports E-TTL because I'm gonna be moving around a lot and wont have time to fiddle with manual power settings while people are dancing and I need something reliable for a dark indoor venue.

• Budget: $150 to $200 max
• Timeline: Need it by Friday
• Use case: Event photography/low light indoor

Does anyone have a solid recommendation for a flash that actually talks to the T7 properly? I've heard the Godox V860II or maybe the V1 might work but I'm seeing conflicting stuff online about the firmware updates for the pin issue. Is the Canon 430EX III-RT the only safe bet or are there cheaper third party options that have definitely updated their hardware for this specific weird Canon quirk? I really dont want to spend $300 on a name brand flash if I dont have to but I'm desperate...