Tell me about external flashes

I have been reading about flashes that go on the hotshoe on top of a camera, they say it helps alot? Why is it better than the on board flash set on high? I have a G6 by the way
later,
jon

For me, the two most important advantages to using a external flash are Power and Angle. First, you get much more power and depth in the light vs the on board flash. Second, you can adjust the angle of the flash and either "bounce" the ligth off of a wall or something, or you can also use a diffuser that make the light look great. Sometimes when I use one, you cannot even tell that I was using a flash at all (then there are times when I just have to hit the delete key). Good Luck!

External flashes are great in helping reduce / eliminate red eye.

1) You can bounce the light on a wall or ceiling as previously mentioned,
2) Since the flash is now further away from the lens compared to the internal flash, the light now hits the eyes at an angle instead of almost straight on, reducing the chances of having red eyes.

Bye

I have a Canon 420EX flash with a Sto-fen Omnibounce diffuser and it takes great pics. One other good reason for having the external flash is that lens adapters can get in the way of the builtin flash and you end up with a dark area in one corner of the pic. Not such a big deal if you can crop it out, but you don't get that with the external flash.

You might want to try out the flash on the hotshoe of your camera before you buy it. Not all flashes will fire on my G2. I'm pretty sure a canon flash will work.

These are all very good reasons, along with more power (Higher GN), more versatillity, more options, (Like diffusers and off camera flash via brackets like stroboframe in conjunction with the correct off shoe cable.) Adjustable power on some models, Tilt and bounce options, and especially eliminating Red eye.
-Bruce

All the reasons that everyone has listed are the reasons I bought a 420EX for my G3.