Budget Flash Unit for Nikon D3100 ?

spiritfly · Jul 16, 2011

Ok, so I will mention again that I'm an amateur and photography is NOT my source of income, only my hoby.

As a newcomer, I'm on a quest to gather all the basic equipment and learn as much as I need to do decent photographs and maybe (JUST MAYBE) sell them online one day if I get good enough.

So I need something better than the built-in flash, but I really have no clue what to get. All I know is that my budget is tightly limited :er: I would like to get one however, and experiment with it. I will do club photography and night portraits most probably, but I may need it for something else also, (not sure right now).

I did a price sorting on ebay and came up with some really cheap flashes like Vivitar 2000 (about 25$), some Chinese changyin (25$) and others, but with a little research I found out that those may burn out your camera because the trigger voltage is higher than the safe volatage of 7V, and that the new flashes have TTL.

So that got me a little confused and scared, so now I'm not really sure what to buy and even what to look for. All I need is some decent flash with TTL if it is that important.

Can someone enlighten me here?

NikonME · Jul 16, 2011

If you just want a budget flash to get you going, with the plan of maybe upgrading in the future. Try Google reviews for the "YONGNUO YN465" - You can get these on eBay for $60 to $75. It is ETTL.

You can go cheaper and get a Yongnuo YN462 (not ETTL) which is manual and has a small knob to adjust your flash brightness. This flash is about $30 to $45.

spiritfly · Jul 26, 2011

Thanks for the suggestion NikonME, I've looked at Yongnuo models before but I didn't know they were good!

To be frank I was even looking for something even cheaper than 60$ with TTL, but I guess I'm looking for the impossible

(hey bear with me here, photography isn't my only hobby)

Anyway I decided to save a little bit more, and get the Yongnuo YN467. Is it good? It's only about 10-15$ more from the yn465 but it has some better functions, which honestly I don't really understand

So is it worth it? How about some other brand of TTL flashes within that price range (0-80$) do such exist?

NikonME · Jul 26, 2011

spiritfly said:
Thanks for the suggestion NikonME, I've looked at Yongnuo models before but I didn't know they were good!

To be frank I was even looking for something even cheaper than 60$ with TTL, but I guess I'm looking for something impossible (hey bear with me hear, photography isn't my only hobby I play tennis, play guitar and everything I do with an average income)

Anyway I decided to save a little bit more, and get the Yongnuo YN467. Is it good? It's only about 10-15$ more from the yn465 but it has some better functions, which honestly I don't really understand

So is it worth it? How about some other TTL flashes within that price range (0-80$) do they exist?

Once you have an idea of the model you may be interested in, just search the forums or google. You will find reviews. I havent tried each model so I can't give you my honest opinion.