Say "cheese"- (flash question)

[lighthouse]

Hi...

Recently stumbled across this site and now have it bookmarked as I will be camping out here quite a bit.

I've recently purchased a Canon 30D and am getting back into my old shutter bug hobby after being out for many years. Talk about a whole new world with digital. Amazing.

My question is about flash units. The 30D has a built in flash but I feel like I need a larger unit for various things I'll be shooting. I also know the 64 dollar question to answer is just what will I be shooting to better gauge what I purchase, but at this point, I want something for general purpose shooting that has bounce capabilities. I'll be doing mostly outdoor portraits, local ball team pictures, 'after wedding' receptions stuff (indoors), etc.

Anyone able to point me in the direction of where I could read up or make any suggestions on particular flashes? (would like to keep it under $250.00)

Thanks in advance...

[George Riehm]

Hi...

Recently stumbled across this site and now have it bookmarked as I will be camping out here quite a bit.

I've recently purchased a Canon 30D and am getting back into my old shutter bug hobby after being out for many years. Talk about a whole new world with digital. Amazing.

My question is about flash units. The 30D has a built in flash but I feel like I need a larger unit for various things I'll be shooting. I also know the 64 dollar question to answer is just what will I be shooting to better gauge what I purchase, but at this point, I want something for general purpose shooting that has bounce capabilities. I'll be doing mostly outdoor portraits, local ball team pictures, 'after wedding' receptions stuff (indoors), etc.

Anyone able to point me in the direction of where I could read up or make any suggestions on particular flashes? (would like to keep it under $250.00)

Thanks in advance...

You will probably get some good ansers here, but for Canon specific questions you will probably get a faster response on the Canon dSLR board.

I shoot Nikon and stayed with Nikon speedlights, which are competitivly priced with equivalent 3rd party flash units. Since they are designed and built by the company that knows the camera best (no reverse engineering) I have no concerns that I will run into operational issues down the road. I'm thinking the same is true for Canon.

[jamison55]

A Canon 430ex ought to fit the bill pretty well.

http://www.adorama.com/CA430EXU.html