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Photography Accessories

Reader Question: How to buy an Off Camera Flash

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/06/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 08/06/2010 by

Flashes. Many photographers say that they’ll never need one or want one. I was one of them. Then I bought one as my wedding, event and portrait photography business grew, and it changed the way I photographed completely. It is quite possibly the most unappreciated consumer photography accessory. We recently received a question about it from HoMan, one of our readers.

Here’s his question:

“Hi there, i’m a casual photographer using a Panasonic G1 with a 14-45 and a 45-200 lens, while i do love the camera in outdoor or well lit indoor areas it suffers when lighting starts to dim and the G1s flash is extremely weak i find.

I was wondering if you could give a guide and tips on using flash photography in compact point and shoots to hot shoe flashes and what to look for and avoid when buying hot shoe flashes.

Thanks, love your phoblographer (possibly one of the hardest titles to pronounce but still excellent name)

HoMan Cheung”

Thanks for the question HoMan. I’m going to handle the second part of your question: what to look for and avoid when buying hot shoe flashes. Vincent will handle your other question at another time. In general though, you really want to avoid on-camera flash.

However, there are loads of things to look for when buying a hot shoe flash. Since you’re a casual photographer with a G1, we’ll look for a more casual flash for you. You’re going to need one with TTL metering, better known as “through the lens” metering. Also, because you’re shooting indoors, you’ll want to get something with a tiltable or rotatable head of some sort.

A commonly used tactic is to just point it at the ceiling and allow the light to illuminate the subject when bounced from up top. I prefer using diffusers like the Gary Fong Lightsphere Collapsible. You can click that link if you’d like to find out more about it.

Another feature that you should look for in a new flash is if it will meter with your system. The Panasonic G1 is a Micro Four Thirds camera and as it stands, the system does not have any advanced flash systems at the time of writing this. Perhaps you may consider the Nissin Di466 flash for Four Thirds as it will work on Micro Four Thirds (I tested this recently at B&H.) It comes in white too.

According to Olympus’s website, the FL-36R flash is as an accessory for the EP-1. Judging from this, it’s reasonable to conclude that the models will meter with Micro Four Thirds. Though it is a bit more expensive, it will be very worth it for you in the long run. In addition, it also seems to have wireless capabilities, though I’m fairly confident that no Micro Four Thirds bodies do. Your accessories (lenses, flashes etc.) will always outlive your camera body. Amazon also has the Olympus FL-36R available for purchase.

Now since you’re not going to shoot anything like weddings or doing photoshoots, you won’t really need off-camera wireless capabilities so we can keep it cheaper.

Other than this, flashes at the lower end of the game are not very complicated and this is all you’ll need. Be sure to pick up some double A batteries, too.

What would you recommend to HoMan?

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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