non-dedicated flash

joshhuntnm

I think I know what a dedicated flash is--I have three--580ex, two 430exs

What is a non dedicated flash, and why would you want to use one?

ian408

A non-dedicated flash is one which lacks the contacts necessary to match your cameras ability to do ETTL. Take a look at the shoe of your flash, you see several contacts. For the dedicated flash, you will note they match the camera's hot shoe. A non-dedicated flash may have only one, the center, to trigger with.

If you were shooting with remote flash or preferred manual settings, you might not need a dedicated flash. It's true that a more feature-less flash may cost less money.

Mr. 2H2O

Josh,
I use non-didicated flashes...well, dedicated flashes but just not for my system.

My main reason is cost - I could obtain 20 year old high quality flashes for a small amount of money. I shoot a lot of remote flash so I often use two or three and the cost or benefit of TTL just doesn't matter in those situations.

For my own photography, I am not a fan of direct flash on the camera - for me its more of a "last choice" scenario.

- Mike

Scott_Quier

In addition to all the above, with a flash that is not dedicated to your camera (i.e., it doesn't communicate with your camera) you are "forced" to do all or most of your flash settings manually. Not so cool when you are looking for quick and portable solutions - like on-camera flash can (sometimes) provide.

However, with non-dedicated flashes, you can get good to great quality for quite low prices because you aren't paying for the badge or the communications electronics - just for the electronics needed to actually generate a flash.

If you are shooting off-camera (and not using something like the Radio Popper), you are setting your lighting manually anyway - so why spend the big $$$ on a dedicated flash when you can get 3 or 4 for the same price?

And, BTW, off-camera manual lighting is not as difficult as one might initially believe. The last wedding I did, for the family portraits I used the sun and one off-camera flash (a 580EX in this case, but in manual mode). Getting the electronics (a couple of PocketWizards) connected and working took about a minute and getting the flash power set right for the first shot took another 30 seconds. I used a flash/ambient light meter, but it can be quite easily done without one - just read the strobist if you don't believe me .

As the sun dropped, I had to alter the amount of light from the flash that was illuminating the subjects. The simplest way to do this was to move the flash further from the subjects - just a couple of feet - for instant power reduction (ain't the inverse square law wonderful?). Of course for this to work, you need to mount the flash on some sort of a light stand. I used a carbon-based light stand - my assistant .