Which Flash?

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pjwalker

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Paul
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Hi all, I am very new to photography and am using TP as my guide for just about everything and am looking for more advice. Bought my camera here and additional lens in the classifieds (D50 with kit lens + 70-300mm). I am becoming increasingly frustrated at being unable to take any decent shots indoors of my 2 children. Outside in the daylight things are going generally quite well but in poor light I may aswell be using a disposable! I am presuming that I need a flash as the pop up one on my d50 is very harsh and not really worth using.
As I am just starting out don't really want to spend a fortune but would appreciate your thoughts as to potential options.
Cheers for your help
Paul
 
sb400 is great but only tilts one way, so you can bounce in landscape but not portrait mode. Bouncing flash off ceilings and walls really does make a huge difference! Around £75 second hand, better still would be a sb600, around £200 second hand.
 
The nissin Di 622 is a great flash for the money and can be found quite cheaply at present.
The head adjusts for bounce and rotates as well, it also has an auto motorised zoom to match the focal length of the lens used and finally a pull out catch light reflector.
Its guide no of 44 makes it quite powerful when needed.
It has full auto as well as manual and a built in slave facility with adjustable power.

Cameraworld are doing them for £109 at the moment, quite a good price.

http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_code=PON07F000020&Prod_name=Nissin+Di622+Speedlite&CAT_CODE=30&SUBCAT_CODE=214
 
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Thanks for the advice / reconmedations. Bouncing light of ceilings etc is exactly what I need to be doing in comparison to my current efforts!
 
Paul,

Until you get a hot-shoe flash you can reduce the harshness of the pop-up by putting some tissue paper (or toilet/kitchen roll paper) over the flash. Not only does this reduce the power of the light but it diffuses it too, making for more natural looking photos.

You can also use kitchen foil as a rudimentary reflector to bounce the light towards the ceiling. Wrap the foil around a piece of card about 2" long and the width of the flash. Attach that, angled upwards at about 45 degrees, to the bottom of the flash with some sellotape.

Hope that helps :)
 
The SB600 is a fine flash and can be had for maybe £160 2nd hand. They are built well and fully controlled by the camera. A 2nd hand SB800 is better with its optical slave flash, 5th battery for quicker recharge, CLS controller, zoom, gels and diffuser but again a hike in price.

If you do not want/need CLS then one of the Yongnuo flashes with TTL will be virtually the same as an SB600 for less than the price of an SB400 but don't forget to budget for some decent re-chargable batteries and a charger.

Yongnui - Check here.
 
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