do I really need an off camera flash?

timmygcsc2308

timmygcsc2308

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Timmy
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So...payday on Friday and I'm looking to spend £100 on a Nissin Di622.
But the question is do I really need one? As in..I like to shoot long exposures in the dark and also outside-y stuff like beaches, landscapes etc. to which I never use the onboard flash.
Photographing people doesn't really interest me too much and I don't particularly enjoy shooting indoors but with the winter coming up and it getting cold, getting outdoors may be an issue.
If I buy the Nissin I'm going to buy a Raynox DCR-250 as well so having an off camera flash in that situation is obv. required.

If I don't buy a Nissin I'll probably get a Tamron 17-50 2.8 to replace my Nikon 18-70mm
 
sounds like you just want to spend money/collect equipment!
 
awp said:
sounds like you just want to spend money/collect equipment!
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thank you, I wasn't really looking to justify whether I need to spend the money or not :bang: but if you want to look at it from that angle - I want to buy a new piece of equipment for my hobby from some spare money I have - with the money I have available (£250 max) would an off camera flash be a useful addition to my camera bag so I can take my hobby further.
Basically - how often and in what situations can an off camera flash be useful? in daylight outside? indoors? close up? long way away? flash n00b here
 
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It's very useful to me - no idea if it will be useful to you! What sort of pictures do you take?
 
Get the flash. It will expand your photography in all sorts of new ways - if you learn to use it properly. Combined with the Raynox is a brilliant idea - that's two completely new avenues to explore.

Get that new lens and you'll hardly notice any difference at all.
 
HoppyUK said:
Get the flash. It will expand your photography in all sorts of new ways - if you learn to use it properly. Combined with the Raynox is a brilliant idea - that's two completely new avenues to explore.

Get that new lens and you'll hardly notice any difference at all.
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thank you hoppy lol..I think its just monday morning and having 2 hours sleep last night so not explaining myself properly :thumbsdown: but yea basically thats what I was looking for..will the flash allow me to learn new things and open new avenues. Cheers. And thankyou Awp too :thumbs:
 
We musta been thinking about the same kinda thing, I replaced my kit lens 17-85mm with a 28-75mm 2.8 last week and have just bought my first off camera flash!! :) Like you I am mostly into landscapes seascapes but I am hoping the off camera flash will allow me to be more creative with portraits and also will be handy for a touch of macro.
 
What tripod do you have?

Based on what you curently do I would say if you don't already have one, a decent tripod and head would be better use of your money. If you do have one, ignore me!
 
I had the opportunity to get an SB600 due to a raffle, never thought of buying one before but now I wouldn't be without one.
 
RichardtheSane said:
What tripod do you have?

Based on what you curently do I would say if you don't already have one, a decent tripod and head would be better use of your money. If you do have one, ignore me!
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can't remember what it is, its decent enough for me at the moment and I certainly don't find it lacking.

Thanks for the info and reassurance guys, guess the Nissin is the way to go :thumbs:
 
timmygcsc2308 said:
But the question is do I really need one? As in..I like to shoot long exposures in the dark and also outside-y stuff like beaches, landscapes etc. to which I never use the onboard flash.
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Looks to me as though the answer is in the question - if this is your interest when are you likely to use one:thinking:

Simon
 
If it were me, I would just collect money rather than photo things.
Then have it available to spend when I actually need something particular.
I have always worked that way.
That way I always have enough spare cash to get literally any stuff I want, when I want it.

If you just buy stuff, you will end up with a lot of things you never use. and not enough money to get what you need.
 
I'd vote get one, for the money even if you only use it a few times to get a shot you couldnt have done previosuly.

Also you say you like long exposures, so practice using some off camera flash during a long exposure to pick things out in the photo and try some funky effects.

As you say also, with the winter rolling in, buy yourself a light tent and get doing some macros inside in the warm, although you may find you need more than 1 flashgun for that.
 
God I'm gonna get in trouble here...

Yep the Di622 is a great gun, got one myself and shooting indoors all the time and doing portraits, its essential.
But before I had it, and when I was playing with macro, I never had a flash gun, I used two little cheap mains powered LED lamps from argos, cost me under £20 the pair, have clips on them so fit anywhere and work a treat for lighting up spiders, bugs, flowers etc.
Yes you dont get the illumination you do from a bounced flash, nor do you have the ability to use them for portraits, but back then they worked fine for me and I still use them now.

This was done all with the LED lamps, + I added a small led lamp as an uplighter on the shadow side.
1 lamp hard left on the subject, 1 hard right on the wall behind, little red LED head lamp underneath on R/h side.

(Please forgive the banding, bad reduction in resolution on PB)

SH4800pix.jpg


And this is bounced flash from the Di622, flash bounced of ceiling, subject around 1 metre away.(heavily cropped)

watchoolookinat-1.jpg
 
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I would say go for it, it is not a huge ammount of money for a good spec flash.

If you are looking to try new areas of photography then OCF is a great area to look at.
 
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