Good inexpensive flashes

[crbeveri]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

Yes. Have you seen the Strobist post on Speedlighting sports?

yup sure have, i just wanted to verify how many I needed before ordering. I am not getting anything right now but will at the end of the month as school will be starting up for the kiddies and games will be starting.

[MikeC]

I just picked up Yonguo 560 speedlight from Amazon for $60 shipped.
I've had it for about a week and only played with it few times and so far I'm impressed with it. I like the simplicity of the manual functions of this flash and for less then $100 I think its worth a try. Also I did a little research around the net and found alot of photographers like this "cheap" speedlight.

[BrassPremier]

Originally Posted by crbeveri

even for a high school gym?

They put out about same power as the top of the line nikon and canon speedlights. should be enough power for anything indoors. just need to find good places to prop up the lights

[Daniel W.]

Originally Posted by crbeveri

even for a high school gym?

Even more so for HS gyms. But on a 1D3, you can probably get away at ISO800-1250 to knock down the power to eh....1/4? Plus, lower power = shorter flash duration, something I've had issues with using bigger flashes at higher powers.

[contributor_M]

Even if this sounds like a dumb question, I'm asking it anyway.


Manual flash meaning no ETTL and you are setting the power settings manually right? Could hey be adjusted remotely? Or would I have to go and walk over there and set the flash and come back?

I have a 580EXII and I'm now buying flash number 2 (even before I get any new glass).

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by contributor_M

Even if this sounds like a dumb question, I'm asking it anyway.


Manual flash meaning no ETTL and you are setting the power settings manually right? Could hey be adjusted remotely? Or would I have to go and walk over there and set the flash and come back?

I have a 580EXII and I'm now buying flash number 2 (even before I get any new glass).

On Nikons I think they can be set remotely. Not on Sony and I am pretty sure not on Canon. Off brands are all walk over and set.

[nameBrandon]

Originally Posted by MikeC

I just picked up Yonguo 560 speedlight from Amazon for $60 shipped.
I've had it for about a week and only played with it few times and so far I'm impressed with it. I like the simplicity of the manual functions of this flash and for less then $100 I think its worth a try. Also I did a little research around the net and found alot of photographers like this "cheap" speedlight.

I use two YN-560's and two YN-460 II's for speedlites.. For manual flashes they work great, though if I had to do it over again, I would've gone with four YN-560's.. The YN-460 II just feel cheap, and I hate the battery door on them. They've recently release a YN-565 which has ETTL, though at ~$180 I think I'd go with the Metz 48 AF-1 assuming you didn't need the extra power that the 565 puts out.

Originally Posted by contributor_M

Even if this sounds like a dumb question, I'm asking it anyway.


Manual flash meaning no ETTL and you are setting the power settings manually right? Could hey be adjusted remotely? Or would I have to go and walk over there and set the flash and come back?

I have a 580EXII and I'm now buying flash number 2 (even before I get any new glass).

580EX II can act as master or slave, and the 480EX II can be a slave to the 580EX's.. so you can still maintain ETTL if you have the 580EX on camera and the 480EX (or another 580EX) off camera. They communicate with each other via IR / pre-flashes so you don't need triggers in that scenario.

If you go the trigger route, ETTL triggers are much more expensive, but essential for some photogs. PW is the standard for those, but you can get cheaper ETTL triggers.. Pixel Knight comes to mind.

As far as I know, once you use monolights / studio strobes, your days of ETTL are over... though I imagine with enough money, a solution exists somewhere.

You can still adjust the power settings on monolights remotely, but that's usually brand specific. For example, look at Paul C Buff's cyber commander. Almost every brand has a solution for adjusting strobe power remotely, as many people have them mounted high up, or far away, etc.. It's not ETTL, but it's better than walking around and changing each light manually.

[contributor_M]

Thanks Keith and Brandon for the informative feedback!

Guess my only main concern is that if I do get a non Canon flash, I do want to power to be similar to my 580EXII.