Purchasing a flash

Hey guys I'm looking to buy a good and reliable flash. I've used a 580EX II which i thought was awesome but that is completely out of the question. I want a flash for basic lighting assistance that would also suffice for indoor basketball games.

Basically i need some suggestions for a good quality, strong, and fast flash that wont cost me an arm and a leg haha.

Please give me a bunch of suggestions and the pros and cons if you can. I won't really ever need multiple flashes that I can think of so lets throw that problem away.

Thanks a lot!

I have a Canon 580, but I just purchased a Sigma 530 DG Super and it works great, I have used it as a slave and using wireless through the 7D, consider looking at this with what ever other options you come up with. It definitely isn't built as well as the Canon but at around $220.00 it was well worth it.

Canon 430exII would seem to be the standard you ought to compare other options to. It has the same lineage as the 580, one stop less power and a few less bells and whistles but nothing really that you would miss using it on camera. You can get the original 430ex for under $200 in the sell forum here if you watch closely.

YN465 - $70 on eBay.

is the yn465 actually a quality flash though? honestly... hahaha

Quality is kind of a moving target. You said you wanted a flash that wouldnt cost you an arm and a leg. No price exact price point, but if you exclude the canon flashes there is a big step down in build quality and most likely quality control.

What is your budget? That makes it a lot easier to figure out your needs.


-A

jcarp618 wrote in post #9752671
is the yn465 actually a quality flash though? honestly... hahaha

do a search here, I've had the YN460 for 9 months without a problem. From what I've seen the YN465 has better controls, ETTL, and more features, etc. There are Flickr groups for Yongnuo flashes - check them out.
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/strobist
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/yongnuo

If you are using it "On Camera" I wouldn't consider anything but a 580EX or 580EX II. The fact that you have great flash power and the ability to use it as a master, should you decide to use multiple flashes in a wireless setup, is just secondary to the fact the head swivels 180 degrees both right and left and also tilts upwards 90 degrees which is invaluable for "On Camera" flash operations.