I’d just like to second James on a 50mm 1.8 That is by a long shot the most bang for the buck purchase you can make in photography. Bar none.
I’m presently doing a lot of research on these things. I’m using a 320ex II (i think), but find myself quite limited in some ways. Mainly by optical slave, lack of power and a few other things
Although I’m as much a Canon person as the next guy, I’m of the personal opinion that Canon’s (and Nikon’s) proprietary flashes are overpriced. They are rock-solid solutions that almost always have the features most people need, at varying price brackets. But since I like to save money, I’m taking a good look at both Godox (flashpoint if you buy at Adorama, just repackaged and rebranded) and Yongnuo gear. Those are the two main brands with a large ecosystem and a proven track record. (there are others such as Phottix, Interfit, Bolt, metz, and many, many others) Godox has the advantage of having a huge ecosystem of flashes, modifiers, mounts, strobes, etc. Yongnuo has the advantage that some* of their gear can be used side by side with Canon units using the same trigger. While they may not be quite as well built as their Canon or Nikon counterparts, at third the price one can consider that replacing a faulty still costs less than buying the proprietary gear. That being said, I’d always have a backup if I were doing paid gigs. (otoh I’d want a backup even if i were to use canon gear-moot point)
As with all gear purchases, it’s a good idea to know what you’re your needs are, to know what to look at. I’ve assembled a quick checklist of flash features to consider in what I consider descending order of importance. Your needs may vary- some people may want radio slave over TTL for example. Don’t be intimidated, the main points are the first two. After that it gets technical
TTL
TTL, acrostic for Through The Lens, is the ability to communicate with the camera and adjust exposure automatically, by adjusting the power of the flash. If you’re doing static shots where you have time to meter and adjust, you may not need it. But if your subject moves a lot, or you’re shooting in varying light conditions, (events) TTL is good thing to have. It’s not lazy- flash lighting is very tricky and takes time to get right manually.
Optical/Radio Slave
This allows one to take the flash off the camera and still have it fire. It allows one to place the flash to the side of the subject, behind the subject, in a modifier- the options are limitless. Radio and Optical behave about the same, but Optical requires line-of-sight between the trigger (normal the camera, or attached to the camera) and the flash unit.
High power
Consider what you need in the way of power. If you’re always in normal-sized rooms, you may not need that much. If you’re using modifiers, or lighting up the inside of large rooms, this is of first importance.
Power variability
High power comes at a cost- you can only turn down the power of a flash so far. So if you have a huge, fire-breathing, sky-cracking monster of a flash, it might be great for the 4×6 foot soft box you use every day, ( XD ) or it might light up a large section of auditorium, but it will be problematic when you want to do macro, or even portraits in some low light situations. The variability of a flash is in fractions such as 1/128, which is a good amount of variability. 1/64 is fine, 1/256 is usually only seen in high end units
HSS
High Speed Sync allow you to fire the flash above the sync speed of the camera. It would require a whole article to cover. (as would most of these points)
Master/slave flash unit
Some flashes can behave as an off-camera flash, but not all those flashes can be used on camera to trigger other units.
1st/2nd curtain sync
All flashes do 1st curtain, some do 2nd. 1st curtain means the flash fires at the start of the exposure, and 2nd means it fires at the end of the exposure. It seems technical, but 2nd curtain is useful for things that move, especially for incorporating motion blur into the image
If you’re on a tight budget, Here’s what I would personally recommend:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1341877-REG/godox_tt350c_ttl_mirrorless_camera_flash.html
If you have a little more latitude, I might go for this one which is more powerful https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1341883-REG/godox_tt685c_ttl_camera_speedlite.html
This is the radio trigger that goes with all godox radio flashes: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1341961-REG/godox_photo_equipment_x1r_c_ttl_remote_controller.html
If you have a deep pocket and are always using large modifiers, I might consider this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1341890-REG/godox_adk360iic_ttl_witstro_flash_kit.html
sorry, this is kind of ramble-ish, I hope this helped think through some stuff. 🙂
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