Decent General Purpose Flash?

chuckinsocal

Hi Gang,

I'm looking to buy a decent general purpose flash unit for my D80 on a really tight budget of <$100.

This one and this one look interesting but since I know nothing about flash I'd appreciate any comments.

Also, what does "Guide No. 92'/28 m at 50mm" mean?

As always, thanks for your help.

ziggy53

I'm not a fan of either of those because I don't believe that they are i-TTL capable (the Nikon advanced flash control technology.) Without i-TTL I would recommend either an "auto" flash or at least a flash with manual settings.

If you can find a Sunpak 383 Super flash it's a great auto/manual flash with both bounce and swivel capabilities. The Vivitar 285HV is still somewhat available and it has a decent auto/manual capability with bounce only capability (and it's often recommended by "The Strobist" site.)

There is an alternative in the Vivitar DF400MZ Digital TTL Shoe Mount Flash for Nikon i-TTL:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/542080-REG/Vivitar_DF400MZN_DF400MZ_Digital_TTL_Shoe.html

It gets fairly good customer reviews, has bounce and swivel, and both manual power settings and a slave function, making it pretty versatile. I have been looking at this flash in the Canon mount because it also has gotten fairly good user reviews.

A "Guide Number" (GN) is a measure of power output that allows comparison between different flashes. The "at 50mm" generally means with the flash zoomed to accomodate a lens with a FOV of a 50mm lens on a full frame 35mm format camera. As flashes zoom further out into telephoto FOV they generally have a higher GN because the light doesn't spread as much.

If you use a flash in manual mode you can also use the GN to calculate the correct aperture per distance with the following formula:

GN/distance=f-stop (assuming ISO 100)

Joves

The SB400 is $105 at B&H. While not my favorite Nikon flash it is i-TTL compatable. It would make a good starter for you. Too bad you cant spend up to $200 but, you cant seem to be able to so this flash is my best suggestion.

Scott_Quier

ziggy53 wrote:

If you can find a Sunpak 383 Super flash it's a great auto/manual flash with both bounce and swivel capabilities. The Vivitar 285HV is still somewhat available and it has a decent auto/manual capability with bounce only capability (and it's often recommended by "The Strobist" site.)

FWIW - B&H has this flash in stock for $90USD here. At that bang:buck ratio - I can easily see myself picking up a couple of these for my more "strobist" location shoots. Hmmmm .... now there's an idea -more toys!!

Village Idiot

What about a used SB28? Can it be used with a D80 in Commander mode?

chuckinsocal

Thanks guys for the great suggestions ... they're highly appreciated .... so far I think I like the Vivitar DF400MZ the best.

Unless some one has a better suggestion < $100, I'll probably go ahead and order it later this week.

Thanks again.