Flash purchase question

[surf30]

Im not sure if this is the correct section to put this in, but anyways heres my question.

Im in the market to buy my first flash. I have been doing some reasearch and I've come up with either buying the SB-600 or the 800..My question is this..Is it worth spending the extra money on the 800 as opposed to the 600? Im sure I wouldnt get the full potential out of the 800 right now but as I progress would I need something like the 800 or would the 600 suffice for most people? Thanks.

[PPPhoto]

You'll probably get some varying opinions on this. The 600 will suffice for most people. I have a couple of the lower end Canon units and find that they do the job I need them to do. The advantage with the higher end model is greater range and better capability with off-camera, wireless flash. With your D70 you can use either the 600 or 800 wirelessly with the built in unit. My plan is to get by with what I have, and then, when I can afford it, get the higher end flash to open up great flash possibilities. Since you can't do a real good multiple flash setup with just one flash unit, you can save a little bit now, and then build the system later. Certainly, if you can afford it, without stretching the budget too much, get the 800 now and you'll grow into it.

[surf30]

Ok that sounds like what I was thinking. If my research is correct i should be able to use the 800 as a master and then I can use 1 or 2 other slaves such as 600's? My main gaol is to come up with a relatively inexpensive lighting setup that can be fairly mobile so I was thinking an 800 and a couple 600's down the road to achieve that. Does that sound a though that would work decently for a mini studio setup? Also I was thinking of just getting the 800 and then buying some of those yellow work lights that you can get from home depot for cheap and put in the full spectrum bulbs to replace the ones that come with the light. what type of setup would give you better results?

This whole studio lighting thing is still very new to me and still fairly confusing so you'll have to excuse me if my questions are a little confusing as well.. lol

[brucep]

I don't think your "full spectrum" lamps will match the color of the light which comes from your flashes. I've had the best results sticking to one type of light source. It sounds inexpensive to try, though, so you might experiment. You might get by by using one color of light on your subject (main and fill) and a slightly different color for hair light and background light.

[surf30]

So i was thinking about this at work today and thought I would ask you guys and see what you think. Can I use a continuous light for my background light and hair light..and use a sb800 for my main and a 600 for fill? Or do all the lights have to be putting off the same color light?

Again im sorry if this sounds stupid but Im really trying to get a grasp of the whole lighting thing here.

[PPPhoto]

Matt, I actually have a couple of flood lamps that I use. I use the blue, daylight balanced, bulbs. Unfortunately, they don't provide enough light for much more than still life shots. When I try to shoot my kids, they move around so I get blur. I have found that by using my flash in addition to the floods, I get fairly decent results. The bad thing is that the lights are hot, and I still don't eliminate quite as much shadow as I would like. I can tell a huge difference though if I don't have the lights, or if one burns out mid-shoot, which has happened. As Bruce mentioned, color temp is important. The flash units are geared toward a daylight balance, so your lights need to be close to that as well. I don't think it will make a noticeable difference if they are off by a few degrees.

[surf30]

Ok so I think I have boiled this down to a final decision here..lol. I think I'm going to buy a sb800 for my normal use off camera flash as well as my main studio light. Then when I can afford it im going to pick up a sb600 for my hair light along with a reflector for some fill off the main light and I'll just use a cheap flood work light for my background light...Maybe one day when I can afford it I'll buy an alienbee strobe..For now though I think this light setup might workout fairly well, the only thing I'm not sure about is the floodlight for the background but we'll see.