taking pics in the wooded part of the Bristol Bike Fest i realised the limitations of the built in flash on my slr. so which reasonibly priced flash for sports photography and general all rond use?

He saved the Universe.

Reasonable is such a vague term… how much are you willing to spend?

For Nikon, the speedlight series are very good, or at least they were when I was into photography. Try the SB800, then you can use the 600 as a slave unit for weird lighting effects.

flash systems these days can be really quite clever so, i’d suggest anything made by the manufacturer of your camera… if you’re a Nikon user I’d suggest the SB-800

Edit – Willard beat me too it but, we’re both assuming you use Nikon…

I’ve a speedlight, but I’ve yet to work out just how to use it properly

sorry, it’s a canon. reasonible to me is circa £150-200

For Canon then either a new 430EX or a secondhand 550EX or maybe a 580EX if you’re lucky

For Canon then either a new 430EX or a secondhand 550EX or maybe a 580EX if you’re lucky

What he says – get the best you can as it will make all the difference.

Swivel and bounce boys, swivel and bounce.

Although this can be hard in trees.. which is where off camera flash comes in.

Just back from tracking you’re camera down on Flickr… 😉
I don’t know owt about the canon system… advice to stick with their system still stands though so, 430EX is less than £200 new.

edit, too slow, again!
still

which is where off camera flash comes in

would also have me suggest +2 on the 580EX – add (sorry, more dosh) the STE2 controller to give you remote (off camera) flash control – incl adjusting flash output power. You can also use a variety of radio triggers that have various cost / functionality / reliability implications….

Happy shopping…

buy any flash you can get cheap with controllable output levels – I saw a Canon 430 EZ advertised for £30 recently – and some cactus triggers, about £30 or £40. You can stack them to use the flash on camera, and still have the ability to use remote flash. Means you have tp put alittle extra work into figuring out what your flash levels should be. no bad thing

Just to argue with what Chris has posted, I’d sa ystay away from the STE2 controller, I played with Sheldon’s (ooo-err) and while it;s great inasmuch as you have full control of the flash, all the metering and ranging is based on measurements from the camera, not from where the flash is. Kind of defeats the ide of having a flash that isn;t on the camera…#

(I’ve a 430 EX as I got one cheap, and cactus triggers)

Means you have tp put alittle extra work into figuring out what your flash levels should be. no bad thing

Says you.

I want to get the action not fanny about with levels 🙂

Do not get an EZ flash if your camera is a DSLR, they are designed for film SLRs and the firing voltages are different. This can bugger your lovely DSLR quite happily.

All EX flashes will be fine though

EZ flashes will work fine though if you use a remote trigger of some sort.

I know that this might go against the current flash thinking, but I had the Pocket Wizards TT1 and TT5 using the Canon 580 EX II off camera.

Sold all the Pocket Wizards, and assorted off camera stuff.

Now use the flash in the hot shoe with very good results for fill in flash – you just need to be a little close to the action – say about three metres away.

If you can’t be bothered with off camera flash, get a 430EXII for 160 quid stick it in high speed sync mode, and then just use it as fill flash on a widish angle lens.

If you upgrade your camera at some point you’ll be able to control it wirelessly without pocket wizard faff as well (well, 7D, 60D, and 600D have the controller built in anyway).