Speedlite questions

[Science]

PhotoGuy, JuliaGulia or anyone else -- I'm looking to rig my new Canon Digital Rebel with a good speedlite. I don't really feel the need to spend $400 on a 580EX if there's anything else that will do the basic job. Can I go 420EX? 540EZ? Anything beside TTL that I should be on the watch for?

[PhotoGuy]

I am currently selling my entire Nikon system, only keeping my Sunpak 383 flash. The Nikon SB-28 flash is selling with the camera. I usually shoot in manual mode, especially with flash photography. That way I know what the camera is doing because I am telling it what to do and I will know what the results will be.

I will be using the Sunpak flash with whatever I end up buying. Canon and Nikon flashes are way over priced and you can do just as well with another brand. Many other manufacturers make dedicated TTL flashes for Canon and Nikon for a much lower price. Some die-hard brand users would not be caught dead with an "off-brand" accessory or lens on their camera. But I believe in the saying "It's not the camera that takes the picture, it's the photographer." It doesn't matter what you shoot with or what brand accessories you use. As long as they work and make a good picture, that's all that counts.

Shop around and see what the other brands have to offer. I will say that shooting flash photography in manual mode with a "generic flash" is not that difficult. Just set your shutter to 200, your aperature somewhere between f/5 and f/11 and set your flash to "Auto" or to the approximate distance of your subject. You always have the LCD to review your image to see if the lighting was correct and you have some room to play with brightness on the computer after the shoot. This is just how I do it.

Program mode and TTL are for those who just want to let the camera do all the work and for those who really don't understand what they are doing. The nice thing about digital is that you can learn by instantly seeing the results without wasting film and money.