Off-camera flash - what to buy?

[Diamond Hell]

I'm starting to get an itch to play with light painting and want an off-camera flash to play with.

Plus the on-cam flash is a PITA on the wide-angle lens.

This is for my 500D.

What do people have, what do they recommend?

[Horney]

You want to spend lots of money or have a play on the cheap?

Nick

[Horney]

On the cheap you can do this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Flash-Trigger-V2s-Vivitar-285HV-DF-400MZ-/400131491241?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item5d29b205a9

plus this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cactus-KF36-Flash-Canon-1000D-550D-500D-50D-40D-5D-/190404702052?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Digital_Camera_Flashes&hash=item2c55012f64

Nick

[Diamond Hell]

You want to spend lots of money or have a play on the cheap?

My Golf cost £155.

What do you think? 

[jamie_pyrite]

Yongnuo 460II for £40 and they're awesome! Couple of them and some wireless triggers and you're sorted.

[Winso]

I use 2 YN460II flashes and cheapo Yongnuo wireless triggers. For what they cost you can't really fault them.

That said, I did have to send one flash back as it was triggering the wireless receiver as it recharged, leading to a sort of run away constant strobe reaction. Also my 2 flashes came from different sellers and although they're same model (in theory) one has much better output than the other. Oh yeh I also had to re-wire the receivers a bit to make them work properly.

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Then learn to work with/around your monkeys and you have no problem!

[Mortimer Hill]

If you want to stick to Canon, the easiest and cheapest way is the off camera cord

If you want to retain full automation, it gets a bit more expensive;

the Canon system uses master and slave units. Any canon EX flash can be used as a slave; but only the 550EX and 580EX models can be used as masters, as can the STE2 flash controller.

Have a look on eBay etc for s/h Canon flashes

[Ridg]

if it's for off camera then anything that doesn't have a standby mode (or one that kicks in after a long time).

End of the day light is light, if you're paying big money you'll get iTTL or eTTL adjustable zoom, bounce card and say 1/3 stepping for power output

As you're using it off camera, you don't need metering, and if it's too powerful you choke it (umbrella) or move it further back, if it's not powerful enough you move it closer 

Generally a more expensive flash will have a large guide number (brighter) but odds are for automotive you wont be on full power (unless you start using soft boxes or large umbrellas).

I use Nissin Di622 but I've modded mine, so that the hotshoe still triggers the flash in slave (optical trigger stock) mode.  The 466 is generally considered better if you aren't handy with a solder, as they don't have a standby mode in non-slave mode.

[Diamond Hell]

Yongnuo 460II for £40 and they're awesome! Couple of them and some wireless triggers and you're sorted.

Jamie, did yours work without you having to get out a soldering iron?!

FFS guys - these aren't cars, I don't want to be welding up the metaphorical sills on my flashguns.  I'm happy to work with monkeys, provided they have legs and arms where they're supposed to be!

[jamie_pyrite]

Yongnuo 460II for £40 and they're awesome! Couple of them and some wireless triggers and you're sorted.

Jamie, did yours work without you having to get out a soldering iron?!

FFS guys - these aren't cars, I don't want to be welding up the metaphorical sills on my flashguns.  I'm happy to work with monkeys, provided they have legs and arms where they're supposed to be!

I don't own one but I borrowed a couple of them with some cactus triggers from a friend for a shoot I did recently and they performed well and found them really easy to use. The owner hasn't had any problems at all with them!