Bridge cameras and flash guns

Man of Honour
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Hello folks... I'm after a camera to replace my ancient Fuji Finepix 6900 bridge camera. It was a second-hand purchase and I've been really pleased with it so will probably go in the same direction again. I have to say though, I find the current Fuji range bewildering. So many models....

Here's a little about what I have used the old camera for, and it will be the same with a newer one.

Mostly I keep the camera in the van with me and use it to take progress shots of the home cinema & AV installs I do. It is also used for Ebay pics, so macro is really useful. Then there's the general family stuff.

For what I do and where the camera lives most of the time it doesn't warrant a full DSLR. Nor do I have any great pretensions of being a photographer. I do make use of aperture, shutter speed and ISO controls. Manual focus is important too. But mostly it's just about having a bigger lens and getting sharper pics than I would with a compact.

I'm keeping my eyes open for another used Finepix camera. I just missed a 6000/6500fd for £70 the other day. That kind of fits the budget really nicely, but there's some flex too :D


The other thing I'd like to do is start using an external flash. So I could really do with some advice here as well. As I understand it there's some care needed choosing flashes beyond just the mount; something about the voltages frying electronics which sounds quite worrying. What should I be looking for?
 
Associate
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"Optical slave flash" is probably a better term since it's one that triggers based on another flash. You get flashes which have a slave mode which is triggered via Infrared which won't work in your case.
 
Man of Honour
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Thanks for the help so far. Slight change of plans. An EOS 400D came up at the right price so I have now officially joined the DSLR crowd, albeit in a very modest way.

Now, to find a flash gun that'll work with it.
 
Caporegime
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Thanks for the help so far. Slight change of plans. An EOS 400D came up at the right price so I have now officially joined the DSLR crowd, albeit in a very modest way.

Now, to find a flash gun that'll work with it.

All Canon EX flashes will work. Other makes will also work, you will have to do the research as to if there are any function limitation as they have to reverse engineer to protocol between the camera and flash in order to get it work, hence some 3rd party flashes won't do certain things that the official one can.
 
Man of Honour
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Blooming heck.... function limitations.... reverse engineering...protocols!!! I know I'm a noob at this but it's a flash gun surely!? Apart from flashing at the right time and the right amount what else are they supposed to do??? :D
 
Caporegime
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Blooming heck.... function limitations.... reverse engineering...protocols!!! I know I'm a noob at this but it's a flash gun surely!? Apart from flashing at the right time and the right amount what else are they supposed to do??? :D

Get a Canon flash to ensure 100% compatibility :)

If you want to go 2nd hand, the old 420EX would be very nice. I'd stay away from the 220EX as that add nothing to the pop up flash apart from power.
 
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