Mini Test

You don’t need to be flush to afford a flash. Give one of these bargain blasters a bash

We look at why budget doesn’t always have to mean bargain basement with these six affordable flashguns

Photography can be expensive, but you don’t need to spend a lot to get a capable flashgun. Big-brand speedlights may offer better build quality, but if you don’t plan on thrashing your flash, cheaper third-party options will do fine. They’re also a very cost-effective solution for setting up a multi-light system with key and fill illumination.

Let’s start with manual flashguns – these have a single electrical contact on the hot shoe that detects the camera’s flash fire signal. You’ll need to manually set your camera’s exposure and the flash’s power, but for a stationary creative lighting setup, manual control is often best. Another advantage with a manual flash is it should work on any camera with a standard sized hot shoe.

For around £100/$100 you can bag a third-party flashgun with TTL metering to automatically set exposure metering and flash power. It’s a great system, and some flashguns can also operate in TTL mode wirelessly, as an automatic slave flash.