Flash advice please

[niccas9]

I just got my first flash and it is the speedlite 270 ex. Not a bad lil guy, but definitely has its limits. I was wondering if I bought a 3rd party flash that is more powerful/versatile, would I be able to use that as a slave flash also or are slave flashes a whole separate entity. I am trying to acquire gear (lenses, flash, tripod) that will follow me if I decide to upgrade bodies down the road. Any advice would be helpful. Sorry if the question is dumb and thanks for the answer.

 

[RockstarPhotography]

depending on the flash, it can be put in "slave" mode. it will basically fire when it see's another flash go off. So yes, a slave flash will work with your current flash. As far as I know, there is no "slave only" flash.

 

[KmH]

Yep, there are 3rd party flashes that can be triggered optically as a slave by the flash of light from your 270EX as long as the 270EX is not doing TTL pre-flashes that would trigger the slave unit prematurely.

Here is a $60 unit that has a swivel/tilt head and more power than your 270EX: YONGNUO Adjustable Flash Speedlite Hot Shoe Bounce Flash for Nikon Canon Pentax (YN-460II)

This one has more power and some other nice features: Speedlite YN560 Flash for Canon, Nikon Cameras

 

[niccas9]

Thank you both very much. That is exactly the information I was looking for.

KMH- I am going to research both of those and try and pick one up here soon. Thanks for the specific suggestions.

 

[bikingman]

What about hand held flashes? I've seen a few photographers wandering around with them in their hands - I like the idea of having mobile light.

 

[KmH]

I use radio triggers and hand hold a light often. That is known as OCF (off camera flash) and is done to make the lighting more interesting by getting it off the lens axis, as it is when the flash is on the camera hot shoe.

You put the radio transmitter on the camera hot shoe, and a receiver on the flash unit. However with inexpensive radio triggers, TTL flash is usually no longer possible.

Here are a couple of inexpensive trigger/receiver kit: Yongnuo 2.4GHz Wireless Flash Trigger/Receiver and Shutter Remote for Canon 1D/5D/7D/10D/20D/30D/40D/50D DSLR

CowboyStudio NPT-04 4 Channel Wireless Hot Shoe Flash Trigger Receiver for Canon EOS, Nikon, Olympus & Pentax Flashes Other products by cowboystudio

 

[bikingman]

These are amazing. wow. The Yongnu seems focused more for Canon. I've read the 15 reviews on Amazon and they seem to admit the Yongnuo is a good buy, apart from the minor problem of "failure mode," one buyer had. OCF is great technology for photographers.

 

[KmH]

Flash units that don't TTL can pretty much be used on any dSLR camera that has a standard hotshoe. Sony cameras use a non-standard hot shoe layout.

 

[dnavarrojr]

So would you recommend a wireless without TTL over a wire that supports TTL?