Which off-camera flash units to buy?

[guybrush]

Hey,

So after reading up about lighting systems and what works best, I've finally decided to go with some off-camera flash units as I pretty much gather they're the most versatile and portable.

The next question is, which ones to buy, and what's the best way to trigger them all off?

I thought about going down the 580 EX II + 430 EX route, but it seems awfully expensive for something which I believe can be done much cheaper, especially as I don't believe I'll really be making that much use out of TTL for the off-camera flash. However it would be nice to have the ability to switch to TTL if it's ever needed, but I do realise there will have to be a compromise somewhere along the line.

I've been hearing all sorts about these Yongnuo flashes, they look awfully cheap but seem to promise great performance. My main criteria here is that I need something relatively powerful, similar to the output of the 580 EX II as I'd like to use some light modifiers on them as well, and also a relatively fast recycle time as I'm likely to be firing off shots every 5-6 seconds for some shoots.

Weather sealing? Don't care about it. Fancy gold plated hot-shoe mounts? Don't care about that either. Just something powerful and robust that isn't going to fail on me after one days worth of shooting.

There just seems to be so many on offer, I'm not really sure which to go for, Yongnuo, Nissin, Metz and so forth.. Also I'd assume the cheapest and most efficient way to trigger these off would be with some sort of wireless receivers?

I'd also be using at least two off-camera flashes, one for fill and another for back light, possibly a third somewhere however I'm not sure if that will be needed but I'd definitely want to that option to be there further down the line without having to switch to a totally different lighting set-up.

So if anyone has any opinions on which ones to go for, or which ones you use, that'd be great.

Thank you.

 

[Alastair]

Don't worry about it.. noone else looks to see if someone is asking the same thing either.

 

[guybrush]

Thank you, but as you can probably tell I was looking for a bit more depth to the answers in relation to some specific queries which I mentioned in my post.

 

[Alastair]

The YN's are cheap, reliable.. the cycle times aren't outstanding at full power (but what flashgun is?). Give them some decent batteries and they'll do ok. 5 or 6 seconds would be about right.

If you don't want TTL I'd suggest the Yongnuo RF-602 triggers, one YN-468 (so you've a TTL flash to use on camera) and a pair of either Canon 430EZ or the more powerful YN manual flashguns - I can't keep up with all their models so one of the the YN56X range).

You could wind-up with an RF-602 kit and three flashes (inc. one TTL) for much less than the price of one 580EXII. Always get more recievers for the RF-602 than you think you'll need. They're cheaper to buy in kits than singly.

If you want more power then double up on the cheap flashes in the same way Joel Grimes does on this video.

It's not that different a question really. Would have been useful to keep two very closely related questions/answers together.

 

[Uzair Kharawala]

I've put up a post here on how I use Nikon CLS for off-camera flash photography in an office environment. The principle is the same whether you use Nikon or any other make. Hope this helps.

Oz