Cheapest flash setup options under 100 $

Got less than 100 to spare and I need a wireless flash setup. I may invest more in flashs once I get use to it and have more mature flash units from sony in future.

What I am looking at

•Slave flash units on ebay that get fired by the camera flash. I will never connect it to the camera and use it as the wireless option only. Many have mentioned that the cheap flashes may have higher voltage and can destroy the camera.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Slave-Flash-For-SONY-Sony-Alpha-DSLR-A100-NEW_W0QQitemZ300087546611QQcategoryZ48515QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
1.Cheap 54 dollars.

2.Since it works with the camera flash, I will have to use the camera flash and I don’t want to use the camera flash in most low light conditions?

3.Will the camera be able to measure the light properly if the slave flash will be fired each time the camera flash will be fired?

•Digital Wireless 4-Channel Slave Strobe & Flash Trigger

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Wireless-4-Channel-Slave-Strobe-Flash-Trigger_W0QQitemZ170088101454QQcategoryZ64354QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
1.Price 34 dollars

2.I will need a slave flash to go with it. I think the above mentioned flash will work
3.Its better because the in unit flash will not be needed with this.
4.Will the camera be able to measure light with this setup?

•A Minolta 5600HS, 3600HS compatible flash is that true?

http://cgi.ebay.com/TTL-SWIVEL-FLASH-FOR-Sony-Alpha-A100-Minolta-7D-5D-A1_W0QQitemZ130087415049QQcategoryZ48515QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Comments suggestions please.

If you can squeeze your budget by about $45-$50, you can get a Minolta 3600 HS from KEH for about $145 - I would think it would be a much better option than the ones you have listed (I have one of the cheap ebay flashes as a slave for my S3 and it's pretty weak - I wouldn't spend the $50 again).

Hope this helps - if not, maybe others will have better suggestions.

--
Keith
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chicago_summer said:

Got less than 100 to spare and I need a wireless flash setup. I may
invest more in flashs once I get use to it and have more mature
flash units from sony in future.

What I am looking at

•Slave flash units on ebay that get fired by the camera flash. I
will never connect it to the camera and use it as the wireless
option only. Many have mentioned that the cheap flashes may have
higher voltage and can destroy the camera.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Slave-Flash-For-SONY-Sony-Alpha-DSLR-A100-NEW_W0QQitemZ300087546611QQcategoryZ48515QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
1.Cheap 54 dollars.
2.Since it works with the camera flash, I will have to use the
camera flash and I don’t want to use the camera flash in most low
light conditions?
3.Will the camera be able to measure the light properly if the
slave flash will be fired each time the camera flash will be fired?

Click to expand...

I have one of these. Worked well with my old KM Z1. Haven't used it with my 5D since I have the 5600.

There is no metering. Primarily, it works best as a bounce flash to supplement the on-camera direct. Using it direct will likely result in overexposure and harsh shadows.

You can probably put exposed film over the on-camera flash to reduce or eliminate on-camera contribution. I can see if this works (if the Phoenix photocell is sensitive in the IR range).

chicago_summer said:

•Digital Wireless 4-Channel Slave Strobe & Flash Trigger

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Wireless-4-Channel-Slave-Strobe-Flash-Trigger_W0QQitemZ170088101454QQcategoryZ64354QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
1.Price 34 dollars
2.I will need a slave flash to go with it. I think the above
mentioned flash will work
3.Its better because the in unit flash will not be needed with this.
4.Will the camera be able to measure light with this setup?

Click to expand...

No cheap setup has any sort of TTL metering that I know of.

chicago_summer said:

•A Minolta 5600HS, 3600HS compatible flash is that true?

http://cgi.ebay.com/TTL-SWIVEL-FLASH-FOR-Sony-Alpha-A100-Minolta-7D-5D-A1_W0QQitemZ130087415049QQcategoryZ48515QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Comments suggestions please.

Click to expand...

Greg

It's funny reading all the excitement and reactions. Congratulations guys.

Thanks Greg. If you can figure that it will be really helpful. Any more coments are welcome.

Come on people wait for Phil to give more details.

Need some more opinions on this. Please comment if you have any experience of the cheap ebay stuff.

FS-1100 equivalent adapter to give you an ISO standard hotshoe for $15.95
http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/home.php?cat=275

Wireless Trigger and Receiver for $24.95
http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16546&cat=0&page=

Make sure you ask them if it's know to work OK on a KM or Sony DSLR via an FS-1100 equivalent adapter (probably so).

Then, buy a non-dedicated Auto Thyristor type flash to use with the receiver that has multiple auto ranges as well as manual settings.

Some new non-dedicated strobes would include the Vivitar 285HV or the Sunpak 383 Super (both under $100). The Sunpak has both tilt and swivel (tilt only for the Vivitar).

You can find them dirt cheap on the used market, too. For example, I got a Sunpak 333 Auto with 3 Auto Ranges, manual power settings, tilt, swivel, manual zoom head and more for $25 (as new in the box) from B&H a while back.

You'd need to use manual exposure on the camera. But, it's really not that big of a deal if you're shooting inside. For outside use, it's more limiting (since you would not have HSS).

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JimC
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http://www.pbase.com/jcockfield

I have a little Sunpak BK 1900 from ebay. It has settings for normal flash and pre-flash slave mode. It works fine but of course the output is low.

here is an example using the on camera flash with the Sunpak on the ground in the corner.



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dhaslam
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Any cheap solution will likely be not very suitable for easy action, but needs experimentation to get the settings right.

You might be better of spending a little bit more on a Sigma 500, Metz or Sony 36. I feel it's always better to spend a bit more on something good rather then get something cheap that doesn't really work well.

See this thread on Dyxum for more possibilities:

http://dyxum.com/dforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12788

You can get cheap optical hotshoes on ebay, and get older manual flashes (old nikon/sunpak/etc models) for cheap. Only thing is you need a flash on the camera that does not pre-flash (don't think built-in flash can be set to not pre-flash). Exposure would be entirely manual for all flashes, which is better than not having any exposure controls at all (i.e. the phoenix flash you mentioned).

Curious...do any of the remote flashes have thyristor capability, or does the remote location of the flash make any sort of thyristor calculation useless?

Seems like there might be some semi-automatic capability in some setup like that.

Greg

Another option you may want to look at is using the camera's built in flash as a trigger (using a piece of a milk carton or similar material as diffuser over it -- but, you'd need to make sure it's got enough "juice" to trigger the slaves that way).

Wein makes a "Digital Aware" slave trigger that is designed to ignore a preflash if your strobes can be triggered via a PC Sync Port connection. They run $79.95 a 3 pack at B&H (or $34.95 each).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=273331&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Personally, I'd probably go with a radio trigger solution (as mentioned in my first post in this thread) so that I'd be taking the camera's flash out of the equation (since you can't control it's power output manually with a Sony DSLR-A100 or Maxxum 5D, and that could impact your results trying to supplement it with other strobes).

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JimC
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http://www.pbase.com/jcockfield