Newbie here, question about flashes

[jwa95ta]

Well actually I am a newbie because I am trying to buy a flash for my wife for Christmas.

Also she has a Minolta Maxxum STSi camera. I know this is a cannon forum, but its the only camera forum I could find that wasnt blocked out by our web admin :(

Anyways, I figured all of you guys have more camera expereince then I do and here is my question.

I am looking at two different flashes. They are both made by Quantaray. Doesnt Sunpak make these? I have seen some just like the Quantaray I am looking at made by sunpak.

The first one is the Quantaray - PZ-1 Or the one like it is the Sunpak PZ 4000AF which I can get on Adorama for 14.

The other is the Quantaray qaf 6600 for about 49 dollars. The main difference seems to be the the 6600 is more of a manual flash and the pz-1 is more automatic. It will zoom out when you zoom out with your lens.

I have two questions.

1.) are these flashes good enough for the price.

2.) My wife has been using her minolta for about 4 years now. She is a pretty smart person. Would the manual flash be too hard for someone's first external flash? The automatic one bothers me becuase it seems there is just more moving parts that would break.

Thanks for any advice you guys can give me

Thanks

Jason Armes

[stopbath]

Sunpak and Quantaray are generic brands and they do a fairly large quantity of trade. Unless there is a design flaw in one of the models, you should get what you pay for with those.

As to if Manual is too much of a bother for your wife. You should check with your wife. She may have enough experience and not mind it. She may hate the idea. She may really want auto. She may want auto and manual on the same flash.

Another very large concern would be to match the output of the flash, to your wifes requirements. Does she need the flash to cover a certain distance at a certain ISO? The larger (and more expensive) the flash, generally, the further the flash can illuminate well.

The built in zoom head allows the flash to concentrate the flash during zoom mode, so that the flash can reach further. Might be nice.