Best way to shoot a large manufacturers show?

I'll be at Winter NAMM 2008 this January at the Anaheim Convention Center. It is a humongous musical manufacturers show that last 4 days. The ceilings on the main floor are about 30 to 40 feet or higher so no way to bounce off it.
I don't have an ETTL flash at the moment, but hopefully I can rent one from Samys Camera, and maybe a flash bracket too.
What would be the best way to shoot photos of guitars, music celebrities, cute show girls, and other cool stuff? Should I get "Fong'ed", LOL, or should I go ghetto and use an index card and rubber band to bounce?
Would I be better renting a 580EX or 430EX and shooting ETTL with a bracket, or could I get decent shots with the puny built in flash? I also have a Sunpak 433AF that I could use on camera ala manual mode. It's safe to use with my 30D.
The past 4 or 5 years I've used a crappy P&S and gotten decent shots at the show, but I want to get great shots now that I have my 30D. Any suggestions on the best flash method is appreciated.

thanks, Randy

Wow........this is a tough question. I would suggest a 50ex II on the camera and another for off camera light. It depends on what you are looking for.........I would take my trusty 17-55 ---and backup camera with a 70-200.

shooterman wrote in post #4358615
I'll be at Winter NAMM 2008 this January at the Anaheim Convention Center. It is a humongous musical manufacturers show that last 4 days. The ceilings on the main floor are about 30 to 40 feet or higher so no way to bounce off it.
I don't have an ETTL flash at the moment, but hopefully I can rent one from Samys Camera, and maybe a flash bracket too.
What would be the best way to shoot photos of guitars, music celebrities, cute show girls, and other cool stuff? Should I get "Fong'ed", LOL, or should I go ghetto and use an index card and rubber band to bounce?
Would I be better renting a 580EX or 430EX and shooting ETTL with a bracket, or could I get decent shots with the puny built in flash? I also have a Sunpak 430AF that I could use on camera ala manual mode. It's safe to use with my 30D.
The past 4 or 5 years I've used a crappy P&S and gotten decent shots at the show, but I want to get great shots now that I have my 30D. Any suggestions on the best flash method is appreciated.

thanks, Randy

For me this sounds like it depends on how close you are to the event. would go for a ISO @ at least 800 and a fast lens eg 1.8-2.8.

If you are going to be far away from the subject, dont use flash. But a fast tele-lens.
If you are going to be relatively close, I would go for flash with omnibounce and in 45 degrees and a lens between 17-55 or so.

Thats what I should have done.

NAMM has terrible lighting, you will have to have a flash... shooting fast won't cut it in there most of the time as I recall

That shot looks good to me. I went to NAMM several years back when it was in Nashville. I even went to Bob Zildjians birthday party .

shooterman wrote in post #4891798
Here is a report from after attending NAMM. I bought a cheap flash bracket, mounted my Sunpak flash on it and fired it with my ebay triggers(I forgot to buy a coiled cord from camera to flash). The lighting at that show is terrible, as there are rotating colored lights everywhere. Here is a shot I took of one of the models.

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Nice shot. To further the OP's question, how'd you do it?

joeyserver wrote in post #4895558
Nice shot. To further the OP's question, how'd you do it?

I am the OP . I mounted my Sunpak 433AF flash on a cheap ebay flash bracket so I could keep the flash above the camera while putting the camera in portrait orientation. I pointed the flash straight up and used an index card with rubber band to bounce light forward. The ceilings were very high, as high as 50 ft ? maybe in some spots, but I don't exactly remember how high they were at this particular spot. I forgot and ran out of time to buy a cord from camera to flash so I velcroed the cheapy gadget infinity receiver to the flash bracket and fired it with trigger. The trigger and receiver were just a few inches from one another and I thought there might be electrical interference between them but never had a misfire. The ones I use have the 1/4" connector on the receiver. I'm not at home right now so I can't look at the RAW for the specifics of aperture, SS, and ISO, but my 30D was set to manual, and I had the flash set on manual at either 1/4 or 1/2 power most times. If memory is correct I was about 10 to 15 ft from the model when I shot her.

Thanks for the reply Randy! Opens my eyes to more flash possibilities.