External flashes

[dansamy]

Now, my very close vision, being severely myopic, is pretty good. The farther things are though, the worse it is. In church, if I am sitting near the back, the choir is not very clear even with my glasses. That is a distance of about 100-150 feet, I suppose.

 

[WDWFigment]

I'm selling my Nikon SB-800 flash and its case (I can also included the printed manual I have, but it's not the original manual that came with the flash - does not include the box or any other accessories) for $350 shipped (via Priority Mail--and I ship quickly). I'll accept Paypal, money order, or personal check.

Oh and I will let you know in advance that I'm not including batteries (I let you know because I always think it's lame when I buy a piece of electronics that is really expensive and the batteries aren't included--c'mon seller, do you really need to nickel and dime me on that?!) because I only use eneloop batteries that I purchased at Costco last year, and my Costco membership lapsed, so I no longer have the means to purchase said batteries...so I need to conserve my batteries. Not that you cared.

I can post pictures upon request.

 

[AndrewWG]

Oh and I will let you know in advance that I'm not including batteries (I let you know because I always think it's lame when I buy a piece of electronics that is really expensive and the batteries aren't included--c'mon seller, do you really need to nickel and dime me on that?!) because I only use eneloop batteries that I purchased at Costco last year, and my Costco membership lapsed, so I no longer have the means to purchase said batteries...so I need to conserve my batteries. Not that you cared.

Eneloop batteries were available at WalMart last I checked. I haven't needed AA batteries for my flash all that much lately but am getting into flash photography more and more so I am thinking of picking some up.

 

[JoeDif]

As an FYI....Enloops are also available at Ritz Camera.

 

[hillview]

We will have some indoor lunches. Do I need to lug my external flash with me? I have D90.
/hillary

 

[YesDear]

I would say for the most part no. There have been times I have put it on and left it there all day in the parks. It is nice to have fill on bright sunny days where there is a strong shadow.

 

[ukcatfan]

I agree. Most low light shooting is going to be in rides where you either can not or should not use a flash anyway. For fill light, it might be helpful for a high speed sync if it is faster than the on camera flash at that.

 

[Brad M]

I have a long-distance cousin who just purchased an Olympus FL-50r external flash for her Olympus E-510 DSLR. It works fine on-camera, but she does not yet know how to trigger wirelessly off-camera. I've read the camera/flash combo has the capability (although this camera will not do wireless TTL, manual flash only). Are there any Olympus experts out there who can provide some instruction on how to use the built-in optical flash trigger?

Thank you!

 

[Code]

The 510 doesn't support wireless flash control, that was introduced in the next model. I'm not sure if the FL-50R has an optical slave mode for manual firing with the camera's popup, but that would be the only way.

 

[JoeDif]

I have the E510 and the FL36R. Unfortunately the 510 does not support wireless TTL of the flash. The only way I know how to do it is either with flash triggers (Pocket Wizard, Cactus, etc.) or my current method of putting the flash in slave mode and triggering it with the pop up flash at 1/64 power.

Hope this helps.

 

[disneyboy2003]

We will have some indoor lunches. Do I need to lug my external flash with me? I have D90.
/hillary

I've actually started using my external flash a lot during the day, mostly as fill flash. As ukcatfan said, you have to set it for high speed sync so that you can take advantage of the faster shutter speeds during the day. (otherwise, without turning on high speed sync on your flash, your camera's stuck at 1/250 sec or slower, possibly overexposing your photo because of the slower shutter speed)

As for indoor lunches, I would definitely use the external flash. Here's a photo I took at during lunch at Les Chefs de France at Epcot:

I set the camera exposure for the background / ambient light, and slightly underexposed it. I set the external flash to TTL to light Remy, the Chef rat from Ratatouille. I don't think I could have balanced the foreground with the ambient light without using an external flash.

This camera / external flash set-up & settings are also especially useful if you're having character dining for your indoor lunches.

I'm certainly no expert at using flash (my wife can attest to that...she's been blinded by all my "test shots"). But I've been reading and re-reading and re-reading about how to use an external flash. I've tried pouring through the Strobist Web site (strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html). All this flash information is slowly starting to sink in. Over the past year, I've really started bringing my external flash with me every time I have my camera, and I've found it to be a surprisingly useful tool, even during daytime.

 

[Groucho]

Based on my DSLR observations at WDW, Nikon users are, by far, most likely to walk around with an external flash mounted at all times.

So, there's that. Fitting into the crowd and all.

But seriously - fill flash is nice, but your onboard flash can do a half-way decent job at fill flash (as long as your lens doesn't block it), better than it can when it is the main source of light. Try experimenting a little at home with the onboard to see if it's worth the extra weight and bother or if you're satisfied with just the onboard.

 

[donaldduck1967]

On board flash is good, but depending on what lens you will be using the on board flash may cast a shadow. I know it does with the Tokina 12-24.

 

[Bstanley]

As a newbie I haven't advanced to the stage where I even have an external flash - however I used the camera flash several times during December's visit:

1. AK : Pictures of De Vine : she was performing along a relatively dark walkway at AK and without a little fill flash (I think I had it set to -1.5) I totally lost her face into the darkness.

2. All Parks : Pictures of my Party : there were a couple of days during the trip that were overcast and depending on the location (along the 'wrong/dark' side of MK Main Street for example) I needed some fill flash to bring out the details.

3. Ditto "2" for various inside restaurant or shots while waiting in ride lines.


I actually became fairly adept at using the 'zoom' feature of the picture review in my camera to look at people's faces, make adjustments to the flash power level and have things turn out better with the next shot.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think you will definitely need it for the character meals. I'm not sure about your camera, but on my Canon Xsi, once I take a number of shots, it takes a bit for the onboard flash to recycle. If that happens while the character is at your table, you're sunk. You only get a minute or so with the characters, and you don't want to spend that time waiting for the flash to recycle!

 

[wenrob]

I think you will definitely need it for the character meals. I'm not sure about your camera, but on my Canon Xsi, once I take a number of shots, it takes a bit for the onboard flash to recycle. If that happens while the character is at your table, you're sunk. You only get a minute or so with the characters, and you don't want to spend that time waiting for the flash to recycle!

If you want your flash to recycle faster up your ISO a little bit, it will use less power.

Nikon user who always has their flash handy here. I think the pop up is fine for fill outdoors providing your lens isn't in the way and you're not too far from your subject. But for indoors you'd be far better off with an external flash where you have much more control.

 

[dmccarty]

I don't take the external flash during our "normal" park visits. The internal flash has been all that I have needed for the most part. THERE have been times when the SB800 would have been better. But you use what you got with ya. Lugging around the SB800 would be a pain.

We have only done one character breakfast. And for that I did bring the full camera outfit. And the SB800 was needed and used.

Just visiting a park I leave the external flash at the resort.

Later,
Dan

 

[boBQuincy]

I carry a small external flash for character meals, Pixie Hollow, and such. I don't need a lot of power but the fast recycle time is very helpful.

 

[mabas9395]

If you use your external flash anywhere outside, be prepared to get some strange looks/comments from people who either wonder why you would use your flash in broad daylight or wonder why someone with a big camera set up isn't smart enough to figure out how to turn their flash off.

I get it all the time.

 

[MICKEY88]

If you use your external flash anywhere outside, be prepared to get some strange looks/comments from people who either wonder why you would use your flash in broad daylight or wonder why someone with a big camera set up isn't smart enough to figure out how to turn their flash off.

I get it all the time.

that's interesting, I use my flash all the time and never get comments

as for needing your flash outside at wdw, not neccessarily, but it can be quite useful, I use mine for parades when I'm in an area with partial shade, or for shooting charachters on top of floats with a brite sky behind them

here is an example from the other day, the bright sky would have caused lumierre to be a sillouette, if I gave a plus exposure comp I'd have blown the sky, so I used my flash, keeping the sky and lighting lumierre the way I wanted him..