Cheap ring flash and umbrella flash recs?

[loren.jones]

Hi,

As mentioned in my previous thread I am purchasing a DSLR setup for my ears nose and throat clinic. Uses will be macro photos intra-operatively and of skin and oral lesions as well as portrait photos for facial plastic surgeries. I have settled on an Olympus E510 and the Zuiko F2.0 50mm macro lens. I think this setup will meet my needs and is pretty affordable for what you get.

That leaves me $400 to get some kind of a ring flash for the macro stuff and to get a 2 unit umbrella flash kit. I know that is a tall order on such a budget. What I came up with was the Vivitar 5000 macro ring flash for $69.95 and the Smith-Victor KF-2U umbrella flash kit for $154.50. I know neither of these are very high quality items but will they work in a basic way? I just need even light on my subjects with minimal shadow. Will both of these work with auto exposure modes on the E510 or will I have to buy some other controller or something else? I don't have any real idea how to set this stuff up so if you all can help me avoid any pitfalls that would be great.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

You might not need the umbrellas and two strobes. It's a lot simpler if you can mount a flash on the camera hot shoe that swivels enough to bounce off the wall behind you. Provided the colour of the wall is ok. The wall is a nice diffuse light source and gives you all the advantages of working the flash whilst it's connected to the hot shoe. Avoids cables, pocket wizards, extra space etc etc. Just an idea.

Don't know about the vivitar ringflash

[Rhys]

That ring flash looks interesting. You need to check the trigger voltage though. If the trigger voltage is more than your Olympus could handle, it could well destroy your camera.