Just a bunch of questions- (Also opinion on level of ability? )

[ronlane]

They had two that looked similar, one said Canon and the other Nikon, it think it was a 3rd party flash you are right. What does a manual flash entail? I suppose this is a stupid question (Now I really regret not posting in the beginner's thread heh) but does that mean the flash has to be expressed manually? And if so how the heck would I time it right?

Edit/ Okay, it was definitely a stupid question. Googled it and now understand it I think. As long as I get enough hands on with one I'll eventually figure it out and gain some personal experience.

The one you linked looks good and the reviews seem good. Are we sure it'll fit on the t2i or will I need an adapter, and if so, which one? I'll probably buy it in a few hours once I read up on it bit more if it does.

The flashes that our local Walmart has are Sunpak. One would be made specifically for the Canon and one for Nikon. This is probably similar at yours.

 

[Calibun]

Sweet. Thanks so much! ♥ Just had a birthday pass so I guess I'll treat myself this one time and pick it up.

Edit/ And yup- I think you are right the brand was Sun-something. For the price though I think I'll head with the Yongnuo!

 

[Smokeyr67]

If you can get an off camera shoe cord you could get even more freedom with the placement of your flash. The genuine ones are about $80ish here in Australia, but I'm sure there would be cheaper options around in your neck of the woods

P.S. Love the Pup!

 

[Calibun]

I'll definitely look into it. For now I would be super happy just with something that'll bounce off the roof indoors without looking like I made it out of duct tape and dry spaghetti noodles heh. After that I'll start to accumulate accessories as I learn about and can afford them. :mrgreen:

 

[Smokeyr67]

And then you'll accumulate accessories you don't need

 

[Calibun]

Haha yeah I've come to realize hobby photography is a real money sink! Especially when you dont know what you're doing and buy unnecessary things. But I love it.

 

[Calibun]

Looking at the reviews on amazon for the flash there's an uncomfortably high number of 1 star's that claim DOA or dead within a few months. I think if I'm a bit patient and save up for a few more months I'll be able to afford an actual Canon flash.

 

[Smokeyr67]

Probably a good idea, see if you can get a 430exII, it's worth the money

 

[Calibun]

Will do!

 

[robbins.photo]

Thank you for the links! I'll go have a read through them right now.

Edit/ Finished the Cambridgeincolour link. Very informative. I don't think I need that much quality control just yet until I learn a bit more about changing the values but I can see how RAW can be considered superior. I think I'll start taking short photoshoots in RAw and mess around with them. I'll need to find a decent program to work with. For now I just have the software that came with the camera.

The way I think to look at RAW is it's more or less a 2nd chance. If your JPG turns out to have areas that are underexposed/overexposed etc - well there is only a very limited amount of editing you can do with a JPG. By shooting RAW you give yourself the ability to do a lot more indepth edits, and even though hopefully many of your photo's won't really need it, by shooting in RAW though you give yourself a lot more options should you need them later.

Really the only practical advantage to using JPG is that JPG's are smaller, so you won't overwhelm the camera's buffer as fast if your shooting a long burst, and they take up less space on the memory card.

 

[hirejn]

Are the camera-mounted, cheap external flashes worth it?

No. I have enough experience to know that there's always some other cost to buying cheap equipment, whether it's frustration, compatibility, quality or performance. It's never worth it. You are wasting money. That's $60 that could be going toward a Canon unit. Look for used and refurbished ones. There's rarely any need to buy new. This is my opinion. There's a reason you don't see pros pushing Yongnuo or Sunpak. Yes, sometimes they use off brands, but mostly for demonstration purposes. For example, you see Gary Fong nonchalantly using Yongnuo and Radio Poppers in some of his videos, but did he really use that stuff during his career as a wedding photographer? You can bet not. When it's time to perform, you rarely see them pull out cheap stuff.

Is shooting in "RAW" a large advantage over shooting in large JPEG? What are the actual differences?

Technically, RAW is always more of an advantage. Nobody can rightly deny the file has more development potential. It's not just color depth. It's development latitude in exposure, contrast and sharpening, to name a few, plus the ability to take advantage of future software tools that manipulate RAW.

However, it's not an advantage to every user. I don't recommend RAW for your purposes, such as Facebook pics or pics for grandma. RAW is not for snapshots. To take full advantage, you need to be wanting to get the most out of your captures and have a good RAW processor, like Lightroom. A lot of people count on RAW to make it easier to fix mistakes made in camera. This is not an advantage IMO, or a reason to shoot RAW. The advantage is when you do everything right plus have greater development latitude. Not even RAW can make a bad photo good. A photo is good or not the moment before the shutter is pressed; that is you've made good decisions or not.

My article describes further the differences between RAW and JPEG, in friendly terms, if you're interested. RAW is like a negative that requires instructions to develop. JPEG is like a positive which is already developed according to settings chosen in the camera.