Thinking about buying a Flash

I was thinking about buying an external flash.
Budget upto 10K (cheaper is better if it fulfills my need)
Usage: Casual enthusiast use at weddings, along with softbox for portraits. Will be used in junction with D3300

J

A lot of used sb 600 are available. It is a gem

Yongnuo flashes are VFM. Check YN-468 II available for 8k online.

Or u can consider nissin..
Or as compatible u can sb600

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If u r getting yugnuo then get the one with wireless trigger integrated.. May be 560mkiii

Nissin Di600 and Di466ii both have iTTL and compatible with D3300 (9.5K and 7.5K respectively)

YN-468II has ttl but doesn't work with D3300
YN-560 iii/iv - no ttl.

My main use is shooting portraits so suggest a suitable one maybe even in lower price bracket if it suits my needs?

Nissin is much more reliable then yuognuo ...and more famous too

Prashant belive me I never use TTL ...its of no use...I like to control the light myself ..thats the reason we are using DSLR ..right

R

sujoyp said:
I never use TTL ...its of no use...

I take it you don't cover many events with lots of activity and highly variable lighting conditions. I'm know for my portraits in such situations, and that is possible only because I use TTL - if I kept stopping to adjust the speedlite I would miss the moment.

but then y not keep the whole DSLR in auto mode...its true for every situations

More confusion.

[STRIKE]Nissin di466 doesn't have full rotation of head which is very useful. So dropping it. [/STRIKE]

Di600 - powerful, ttl, 2yrs warranty, costs 10K
YN-560III - no TTL, most powerful,no warranty, costs 7k

More inclined towards di600 till now.

Any other brands that i should consider?

About Di466, would it be sufficient (GN33) as a bounce flash for portraits?

Amazon.com : Altura Photo Flash Kit for NIKON DSLR D7100 D7000 D5300 D5200 D5100 D5000 D3300 D3200 D3100 - Includes: Altura Photo I-TTL Auto-Focus Dedicated Speedlite Flash + Wireless Camera Flash Trigger and Camera Remote Control Function + Cable-M
Altura Photo Flash Kit
No experience but heard they are compatible with D3300/5300.

Edit 2: I dont think TTL is extremely necessary for me as I don't shoot at weddings etc. which require to capture the moment.

So why pay extra bucks for Nissin Di600. YN560IV (7.4K) should be good enough?

Sujoy made me skeptic about Yongnuo quality but he himself is using one. I have only read good reviews about it so far

J

Two points that should be considered. First nikon flashes are easily repairable and fetch great value at the time of resale. So the initial premium often justifies itself.

justgothere said:
Two points that should be considered. First nikon flashes are easily repairable and fetch great value at the time of resale. So the initial premium often justifies itself.

This is always true.

But if you really tight on budget and don't need i-TTL(D3300/5300) get any cheap yongnuo flash with Eneloop batteries.

R

sujoyp said:
but then y not keep the whole DSLR in auto mode...its true for every situations

Exactly. DSLRs have a variety of different modes and features to cover various situations and needs. Saying that a particular feature is of no use suggests that you don't explore a variety of shooting conditions.
If I were to extend your 'why we use a DSLR' argument, I would end up saying that, (just to pick one feature at random) shutter priority is a useless feature because we are DSLR users and we should always choose our settings. Now where does that leave the top of the line 1D and D1 series that are known for their shutter priority modes and favoured by sports and news photographers? Do we now say that they are not 'real' photographers in line with our discussion in another thread?

ok I understood...but still as I said I have the TTL flash from last 3 years now and havent used TTL for more then 10 times ....its not accurate...maybe yougnuo metering is not as good as nikon's

I was saying about reliability when I preffred Nissin ...its like you can not afford a Sony so you buy a samsung...but u can get all features in micromax just bit unreliable

My yougnuo worked fine till now...now its having bit issues...but 3 years is long time

Have made up my mind. Will order Nissin di600 tomorrow. Would have ordered today but Ebay seller is not picking up my call

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Have made up my mind. Will order Nissin di600 tomorrow. Would have ordered today but Ebay seller is not picking up my call. I think 2K extra will be worth it for added reliability + 2yr warranty + iTTL if i ever need it

marvelousprashant said:
iTTL if i ever need it

Good decision. Wanted to say this, but I don't know anything about flash accessories. Though I have read things, when I read your thread I didn't even know what an i TTL could do which non i TTL couldn't.

Paying little more for something better and reliable is a good decision.

good prashant

[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] there is a whole lot of things regarding flash...lot of theory to study

I got one YN 568 EX2 and two YN 560 EX2 and a controller in January. They are doing great.

yes inci they work great ...untill u r in middle of something imp and it do not flash ...it happened with me as well as one of my professional photographer

Ordered Di600

About the batteries these will be good?
Buy Panasonic Eneloop Pro upto 2550mAh 4xAA Rechargeable Ni-MH Battery BK-3HCCE/4BN Online at Low Price in India | Panasonic Camera Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in

charger
Panasonic BQ-CC17SBA eneloop Advanced Individual: Amazon.in: Electronics

or this combo
Sony BCG34HH4EI Power Charger and 4-pc AA High Capacity (2500mAh): Buy Sony BCG34HH4EI Power Charger and 4-pc AA High Capacity (2500mAh) Online at Low Price in India - Amazon.in

marvelousprashant said:
Ordered Di600

Congrats...

marvelousprashant said:
About the batteries these will be good?
Buy Panasonic Eneloop Pro upto 2550mAh 4xAA Rechargeable Ni-MH Battery BK-3HCCE/4BN Online at Low Price in India | Panasonic Camera Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in

So Panasonic acquired Sanyo? Old story, but I am just learning that...
I have read good reviews about this, so I would say good to go.

marvelousprashant said:
charger
Panasonic BQ-CC17SBA eneloop Advanced Individual: Amazon.in: Electronics
or this combo
Sony BCG34HH4EI Power Charger and 4-pc AA High Capacity (2500mAh): Buy Sony BCG34HH4EI Power Charger and 4-pc AA High Capacity (2500mAh) Online at Low Price in India - Amazon.in

Nope. You don't wanna charge your batteries for looooong time. Better buy a quick charger. Not necessarily it has to be 1 hour quick charger. Just look for charger which charges @ 500mah (at least) or so.
If possible better buy one which has LCD display to show the status and options like conditioning/refresh and all. It's little expensive, but worth it.

For charger get this if you can:
Amazon.com - Ambient Weather BC-2000 Intelligent Battery Charger for AA/AAA Rechargeable Batteries -

Better than La Crosse BC700/1000.

takemein said:
For charger get this if you can:
Amazon.com - Ambient Weather BC-2000 Intelligent Battery Charger for AA/AAA Rechargeable Batteries -

Better than La Crosse BC700/1000.

Available in India?
[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] any link to product?

marvelousprashant said:
Available in India?
[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] any link to product?

Nope you've to get it from Amazon.com only !!

marvelousprashant said:
@nac any link to product?

These were the models I considered before buying charger three years ago. Pretty much all of them are discontinued, I assume.

Models with refresh function and also has LCD
Sony BCG-34HRMF4
Yes Quick charger - A099

Model with refresh function but no LCD
Sony BCG-34HRE4

No LCD, No refresh function
Sanyo - MQR06
Yes Quick charger 505
Yes Quick charger-6688

No refresh function, but has LCD
Envie Speedster

Finally, I end up buying Envie speedster. It's more like cheapo version. But it charges fast. They claim 500mah output rate when charing 4 batteries at the same time, 900mah when charging 1 or 2 batteries.

La crosse and maha were got good reviews at that time. But they are not available here and they are also much expensive.

See if you can find any of those models I mentioned and do your own research before placing order.

[MENTION=39722]sujoyp[/MENTION] , that's unfortunate and really bad if that has happened. Wanted to get all Canons but the price would have been a bit more than double.

Ordered a different Panasonic model which is a quick charger

thanks for the input guys

quick charger is good for photography...even if you forget to charge batteries before you can just start charging and half hr charge is enough for 50 shots...I also have one of uniross..

Batteries and chargers on the way. Ordered nissin di600 from amazon but seller called and cancelled order. He said he had only 1 piece and was defective.

Ebay seller doesn't ship to my location. Have called him and asked to make an exception. Waiting for confirmation.

Meanwhile on amazon price of nissin from diff seller has gone up to 13k

I hope ebay ships otherwise will settle for yn560

ooh ..prashant is this YN560 with wireless trigger inbuilt?

There are 2. YN560III and YN560IV. Both have wireless trigger built in. Both cost 7k.

ok so urs have trigger inbuilt ..right...thats great

from a review

The YN560 IV now adding a master mode, or effectively a YN560-TX radio transmitter unit built into the flash (in addition to the remote manual radio receiver already built into the current YN-560 III)

The YN560 IV master flash can control the remote manual flash power, and flash zoom length, of 3 individual groups of remote YN-560 III and YN560 IV flashes (while the YN560-TX has the extra ability to control up to 6 individual groups).

Like the current YN-560 III, the new YN560 IV flash has the remote manual radio slave built in as well, which can be controlled by other YN560 IV, YN560-TX, or simply fired by RF-603 II, RF-603, and RF-602 manual radio triggers.

Thats awesome...I will get this someday soon

#update: Di600 has been ordered. Hopefully this one won't get cancelled