Lighting alternatives

[DiamondSCattleCo]

I've been toying with the idea of an SB600 as a first flash unit, until I'm ready to spring for an SB800 or 900. While browsing through eBay and whatnot, I see quite a few cheaper third party lights from the likes of Vivitar and Quantaray and so on. They appear to have iTTL, rotate and tilt. In other words, they seem to support everything that the SB600 does, except for support for the CLS.

Financially, I'm not quite ready for an SB600, however the onboard speedlight is really not great for indoor shooting and would like to be bouncing my light for better results.

So has anyone used any of the cheaper options? What limitations am I not seeing?

Rod

[XaiLo]

vivitar 285

[r3g]

Are you trying to shoot on or off camera?

[DiamondSCattleCo]

For the moment Reg, it'll be on camera while taking snaps of the kids, etc. I haven't had any opportunity to do any portraits (kids won't sit still long enough lol) and for macro stuff, I'm grabbing some worklights the next time I hit to the city.

[fionndruinne]

Why not grab an SB-400? Yeah, no horizontal rotation, but you can use portrait mode for wall bounce indoors some of the time at least.

[DiamondSCattleCo]

After more digging, I think I'm going to do that. I also like the idea of the fast recycle of the 400. And when it comes time to move to the CLS, I'll keep it in my bag for an outdoor fill flash.

Rod