Your off-camera Olympus Flash allows you to greatly increase the quality of your photographs. Personally, I use an Olympus E-510, although you might have another camera, so replace Olympus with the type of your SLR. I ordered the Olympus Flash FL-50 soon after I bought my SLR, and I quickly saw a tremendous improvement in my photographs. There was only one reason for this: off-camera flashesvgrant you artistic versatility.
There are many other off-camera flashes that you can use with your DSLR. However, it is best to buy the off-camera flash for your SLR model. It will probably be more expensive, but it has properties that some generic off-camera flashes do not have. And if you aim to take better pictures, using a flash with an Olympus camera is the best approach.
Which traits should you ask about when buying a flash? There are a lot of styles of off-camera flashes, that it is confusing to know if what you have is what you want.
Below is a list of 4 things that you can keep in mind.
1 - Size: How big is your flash?. Usually, the larger the camera flash the brighter it is. This is extremely useful as it can reach much further. Unfortunately, this might make it expensive. If you know you will only shoot indoors, then you may not require a strong flash. But, if you want to use it in concert halls, then you probably need a very powerful flash. Tiny camera flashes do exist, and these are easier to carry than the bigger flashes, as they are easy to fit inside your pocket.
2 - Shutter Rating: What is the smallest shutter speed your flash will operate at? Your full frame needs to be open when your camera flash lights up. When your frame shutter rate is too fast, and the flash can not coordinate with it, then this does not happen, and the picture will not be exposed correctly. This is also a feature of the SLR as well, so make sure to sync both of these properties up!
3 - Controllability: What forms of options do you desire? Personally, I enjoy being able to change everything manually, because this provides me extra control, and because I find it fun. Always make sure that you are aware of whether the camera flash is only completely automatic, or has a manual configuration.
4 - Auto-focus: Does your flash come with infra-red? In extremely low light scenarios, your SLR might have problems auto-focusing. Several SLRs come with in built capabilities, in the form of infra-red. Other cameras don't, and it's worth looking to see if the flash you want to buy has this functionality. My Olympus Flash has this, and is a useful since my SLR doesn't.
If you keep these in mind, then the first Olympus Flash you use will be productive. And once you have extra experience with camera flashes, you can always upgrade.
Mark Chams is an avid photographer, and is fascinated with using his olympus flash to create better pictures.
