I have £200 - suggest me a set up!

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Xarra

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Right, I have ~ £200 (I can get flash or a 40D)

If I go with flash, what's a good setup for a beginner for inside, outside (in woods), and outside (urban) with an option for portraits. :)

Suggest me a set up! I'm using a 1000D which has e-TTL - which I have a vague idea what it means. :)
 
secondhand 430ex, cheap stand adapter brolly and RF602 triggers from FiTP on here. Great on camera when you need it and gives you enough off camera to be learning with.
 
for £200 I'm afraid your going to have to forget ettl and work your flashes in manual I'm afraid, unless I'm being an idiot... which does occasionally happen...

a stand, bracket, and brolly/softbox alone will set you back around £25-50 depending on the quality, and that's just to get one flash off camera.

to have ettl control from off camera using a flash, I think I'm correct in saying you need at least a 580exII as master, and then at least a 430ex off camera to act as slave? - I could be wrong however. thats going to cost about £400 just for flashes.

Best thing I could suggest is to get a couple of the manual flashes FiTP sells in the classified section on here, they will do just fine.

Have you read up much on this subject out of interest?

P.S. to trigger off camera you will be looking at using a sync cables or radio triggers.
 
Its much easier to get a grasp of this kinda thing, if you have an idea of whats involved. A good place people find to start learning about off camera flash is the Strobist 101 blog, Google it and have a read, not to everyone's taste, but I think you would find it useful.

Having done a little research I think it will help you decide what you need.

Learning to use flash in manual is not to difficult once you get an idea of whats involved, the more reading up and experimenting you do the better you will get :)
 
If your worried one flash is not enough, I will post an image I took a very long time ago now using a single flash in manual, using a simple reflector as a fill light (forget the background light in this image) You will be able to see how you can get very acceptable images just using the one light.

CLICK ME
 
I've had a read and it didn't help me that much, sadly. :(

I've just read that setting flashes in manual is a real headache & you lose your apperture and focus distance controls as the flash needs to be reset every time you change on?
 
Well you don't lose your controls, in fact you need to know how to use them more, to properly expose your subject in relation to your flash power.

If your serious about using flash off camera, for your budget, I'm afraid its going to have to be a case of learning how to do it properly, or saving a lot more money and building a ttl system... which even then wont just 'work' you still need to know whats going on.

When working in manual, each time you move, change position, move around, you are changing factors that contribute to the shot, therefore adjustment on camera, to your positioning of the flash, or flash power need to be made to compensate.

Oh, and I cant really believe you read through the hundreds of pages of tutorials in around 10 mins...
 
Get a SB26 and use it on manual with a ebay trigger, you could get yourself set up with a flash, trigger set, umbrella mount and stand all for below £100 if you look hard enough
 
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