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07/15/2006 11:21:24 PM · #1
My birthday is coming up and hubby told me to pick two things for my camera habit lol.

I REALLY need a new tripod as the cheap one has bit the dust and I already have one picked out.

Then I thought I'd ask for a wacom tablet but I don't really NEED it, if you know what I mean.

I do however need an external flash for outdoor portraits. And I have these 3 to choose from. I know absolutely nothing about flashes. I don't want to go with the most expensive one, but I want to know if the cheaper one will get the job done.

Please help.flashes

Message edited by author 2006-07-15 23:21:55.
07/16/2006 08:17:30 AM · #2
is it my name? Do I smell? 20 views and no replies lol. SOMEBODY has got to know SOMETHING about flashes around here!
07/16/2006 08:42:50 AM · #3
Hi there,

Let me see if I can help you. Toss the Fl-20 out of the question right away. It wont do what you want it to, and you will feel as though you have wasted your money. The FL-36 was the first flash that I had with my Olympus system and it worked great. Had alot of features, plenty of power and worked for almost everything I needed it too. That was until I needed faster recycle times, and more power for shooting distance. If all your doing is general photography and using it for fill flash, the FL-36 will work great. The FL-50 I bought just before I sold all of my Olympus stuff, has more power, better recycle times, seems to hit the ETTL better most of the time. So if you have to have better power, faster recycle times and just a touch better flash overall. I'd suggest the FL-50. However for 90% of the people shooting Olympus dSLR stuff the FL36 would be more then enough flash.

MattO
07/16/2006 08:55:04 AM · #4
I'm had the same diemna. While I may not have the same camera....Sigma also makes flashes for your Olympus (I don't know much about the ones you linked to)...you can see them HERE. Also, read KiwiShotz's post in MY ORIGINAL THREAD, it may tell you something you didn't know...it helped me a ton.

Message edited by author 2006-07-16 08:55:39.
07/16/2006 09:32:39 AM · #5
I would go with the f501 with flash you do need power especially when in bounce flash.


07/16/2006 10:18:32 AM · #6
Originally posted by MrEd:

I'm had the same diemna. While I may not have the same camera....Sigma also makes flashes for your Olympus (I don't know much about the ones you linked to)...you can see them HERE. Also, read KiwiShotz's post in MY ORIGINAL THREAD, it may tell you something you didn't know...it helped me a ton.


Unfortunately, Olympus seems to be one camera manufacturer that Sigma does NOT make flash units for.

If you don't want to spring for a Olympus unit, I would suggest looking into the ProMaster brand. My dad has one for his 8080 and it works quite well. The model he got has two flashtubes, a big one that provides most of the light and a smaller one that puts a nice keylight into the eyes when using bounce. Metz is also another option (I believe they make Oly compatible units), but Metz will be as expensive or more than the Oly units.
07/16/2006 10:58:22 AM · #7
Originally posted by Spazmo99:

Unfortunately, Olympus seems to be one camera manufacturer that Sigma does NOT make flash units for.

Crap, sorry for that. I didn't look at the mount.
07/16/2006 11:06:12 AM · #8
Speaking of... I, too am ready to buy my first flash, and I'd like some help as to what the following mean:

Dedicated

Non-dedicated

Slave

I have always assumed that Dedicated means that the flash goes off electronically and is triggered by the camera, where Non-dedicated is manually fired... but I've never been told if this is right. I have no idea what Slave means.
07/16/2006 11:38:53 AM · #9
Originally posted by MattO:

Hi there,

Let me see if I can help you. Toss the Fl-20 out of the question right away. It wont do what you want it to, and you will feel as though you have wasted your money. The FL-36 was the first flash that I had with my Olympus system and it worked great. Had alot of features, plenty of power and worked for almost everything I needed it too. That was until I needed faster recycle times, and more power for shooting distance. If all your doing is general photography and using it for fill flash, the FL-36 will work great. The FL-50 I bought just before I sold all of my Olympus stuff, has more power, better recycle times, seems to hit the ETTL better most of the time. So if you have to have better power, faster recycle times and just a touch better flash overall. I'd suggest the FL-50. However for 90% of the people shooting Olympus dSLR stuff the FL36 would be more then enough flash.

MattO


Ty Matto, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Hopefully by NEXT fall I'll have another camera so this has got to work for me till then. I'm only doing portraits, no weddings or anything like that. May be smalling a small setup for studio portraits but not really looking into that seriously yet. Would the FL36 work for indoors also?

Spazzmo I'm going to check into the ones you mentioned also. I want something that will do what I need it to do- quality portraits, but I also don't want to spend too much since I am saving for another system.
07/16/2006 11:43:06 AM · #10
Originally posted by missinseattle:

Originally posted by MattO:

Hi there,

Let me see if I can help you. Toss the Fl-20 out of the question right away. It wont do what you want it to, and you will feel as though you have wasted your money. The FL-36 was the first flash that I had with my Olympus system and it worked great. Had alot of features, plenty of power and worked for almost everything I needed it too. That was until I needed faster recycle times, and more power for shooting distance. If all your doing is general photography and using it for fill flash, the FL-36 will work great. The FL-50 I bought just before I sold all of my Olympus stuff, has more power, better recycle times, seems to hit the ETTL better most of the time. So if you have to have better power, faster recycle times and just a touch better flash overall. I'd suggest the FL-50. However for 90% of the people shooting Olympus dSLR stuff the FL36 would be more then enough flash.

MattO


Ty Matto, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Hopefully by NEXT fall I'll have another camera so this has got to work for me till then. I'm only doing portraits, no weddings or anything like that. May be smalling a small setup for studio portraits but not really looking into that seriously yet. Would the FL36 work for indoors also?

Spazzmo I'm going to check into the ones you mentioned also. I want something that will do what I need it to do- quality portraits, but I also don't want to spend too much since I am saving for another system.


I used the FL36 indoors/outdoors/day and night. Until I needed faster recycle times and longer flash when using longer telephoto it was everything I needed. I wouldnt hesitate to buy another if I were still using the system. They are alot cheaper, lighter(something I didnt mention earlier) and the battery time on 2 AA is actually really impressive. If I were in your shoes I'd certainly get the FL36 and a lightsphere rather then spend the extra $$$ on the Fl50. I think you would be extremely happy with your results.

MattO
07/16/2006 12:24:16 PM · #11
Originally posted by missinseattle:

Originally posted by MattO:

Hi there,

Let me see if I can help you. Toss the Fl-20 out of the question right away. It wont do what you want it to, and you will feel as though you have wasted your money. The FL-36 was the first flash that I had with my Olympus system and it worked great. Had alot of features, plenty of power and worked for almost everything I needed it too. That was until I needed faster recycle times, and more power for shooting distance. If all your doing is general photography and using it for fill flash, the FL-36 will work great. The FL-50 I bought just before I sold all of my Olympus stuff, has more power, better recycle times, seems to hit the ETTL better most of the time. So if you have to have better power, faster recycle times and just a touch better flash overall. I'd suggest the FL-50. However for 90% of the people shooting Olympus dSLR stuff the FL36 would be more then enough flash.

MattO


Ty Matto, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Hopefully by NEXT fall I'll have another camera so this has got to work for me till then. I'm only doing portraits, no weddings or anything like that. May be smalling a small setup for studio portraits but not really looking into that seriously yet. Would the FL36 work for indoors also?

Spazzmo I'm going to check into the ones you mentioned also. I want something that will do what I need it to do- quality portraits, but I also don't want to spend too much since I am saving for another system.


If you are moving to another system in the near future, I'd definitely consider getting a flash unit that is cross compatible. Both the Metz and the ProMaster brands use "modules" to adapt their flash units to a particular camera make. So, if you switch brands, you do not need to buy a whole new flash, only another module.
07/16/2006 02:09:33 PM · #12
that makes sense, do you have a reliable website for those two flashes you've mentioned? If it's over 150 it won't be happening. The tripod I've picked out is around 100.- I know you can get them cheaper, but I've got cheaper and it's falling apart.

Hubby is going to have to order soon since my bday is in a couple weeks.
07/16/2006 02:31:02 PM · #13
Originally posted by fstopstigmata:

Speaking of... I, too am ready to buy my first flash, and I'd like some help as to what the following mean:

Dedicated

Non-dedicated

Slave

I have always assumed that Dedicated means that the flash goes off electronically and is triggered by the camera, where Non-dedicated is manually fired... but I've never been told if this is right. I have no idea what Slave means.


Dedicated: means it can communicate with the camera, processing information and operating interactively. Different manufacturers use different "languages" for this communication, so not all dedicated flashes work on all cameras. Third-party manufacturers, like Sigma, make different versions of their flashes for different camera manufacturers.

Non-dedicated: means it can be triggered off the camera's hot shoe, but it doesn't "talk" to the camera. You need to know a lot more about flash in general to use this one effectively.

Slave: means it can be triggered by another flash going off, so you can have, say, one on the camera plus the slave over to the side, and both will flash.

Robt.
07/16/2006 02:36:23 PM · #14
Originally posted by missinseattle:

that makes sense, do you have a reliable website for those two flashes you've mentioned? If it's over 150 it won't be happening. The tripod I've picked out is around 100.- I know you can get them cheaper, but I've got cheaper and it's falling apart.

Hubby is going to have to order soon since my bday is in a couple weeks.


Whatever you get, do NOT get one like the FL-20, which has a fixed head; it has all the built-in liabilities of the on-cam flash unit, it's just more powerful. You want a flash that will swivel and rotate both. That is to say, the flash head can be swung up to point at the ceiling, and it can be rotated to point to one side or the other.

If you are bouncing your flash in landscape orientation, you want to point the head UP; but if you switch to portrait orientation and still want to bounce, you need rotate the head up, see? Same principle applies to side-bounce off a wall or a reflector; you need both planes of rotation available to you.

It looks to me like the FL-36 will do the job, if budget constraints keep you at that level, but you'd love to have more power if you can afford it...

R.
07/16/2006 07:08:54 PM · #15
You have all been so helpful.

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