So far I have either just not used my flash, or used it only when necessary. Since it's an in-camera one it's especially not fun, but still better than some I've used in point-and-shoots.
I'm thinking that my next piece of equipment could be a hotshoe flash, since I'm not ready to step up (pocket-book wise) to a D-SLR yet.
Right now I have a Nikon Coolpix 8700 (8 megapixels, 8x zoom, SLR-like) and love it. It does have the ability to use a hotshoe flash, and since I'd most likely still be able to use whatever one I get with both this camera and whatever camera I upgrade to in the future, I see it as a pretty good investment.
So, since I pretty much am clueless in this area, what hotshoe flashes are the best? And why?
I do mainly portrait/cosplay photography, if that has any bearing on it.
(Sorry I'm not being specific with brands or anything, but I literally have no clue on anything about them. And I hope this hasn't been posted recently, but I haven't been around the forums much, so the search didn't say anything, so I figured it was alright.)
Getting a flash that can be wired/wirelessly might be to your advantage.You can be more creative with your lighting if you can move it in a different direction then the camera is facing. Sometimes you don't want the flash to shoot straight at the subject but rather from the left, right, higher, or lower.
Hot shoe flashes come in two main varieties - plain works with anything, and dedicated for TTL (thru the lens) metering. In Plain you are the brains. In TTL the camera thinks. Either can be had with an Auto mode - the first type is a simple auto mode, the second type can have a rather fancy auto mode as it can talk to the camera, but the flash itself decided how much light is enough when with TTL the camera's computer makes that decision.
What flash is best...as in type, brand, power...and then you can add light modifiers to that too....
You have a Nikon. Check and see what nikon speeedlights are compatible and that might be your first choice. Sigma makes a nice flash, and it is likely less expensive than the nikon (EF500DG Super). They have a non-Super version that you should probably avoid.
If you want to step up a notch you have Metz and Quantum flash units. Metz is nice as the TTL part is in the shoe itself and can be changed for about $80 to fit any camera. So you could get a Nikon shoe now and if you get a canon dSLR you just get teh canon shoe and the rest you keep. It has an excellent auto mode, great when using other flashes with it. Quantum works similarly, but the have an 'open bulb' type of flash that gives a nice wraparound light effect, similar to Gary Fong's LIghtsphere II on a regular flash gun. Quantums are very popular with wedding folks.
If you want the simple method, the most popular choice is the Vivitar 285. With this you'll be doing the thinking. Good flash for the money and with some thinking it'll give very good results.
The guide number is a way to compare flash output from one unit to the next. How much is enough? All depends..more light means you can use modifiers and still have good output, or bounce the flash and still have good output. I like em powerful and would skip the lower output units. You can always dial it back a bit, but if you don;t have enough oomph for the job you're just outta luck.
