Small flash units vs large units

[brian_jackson]

Really depends on what you're shooting.

I shoot a lot of sports and flash for me means lighting gyms. I've gone the lite weight portable route and use Vivitar 285, with battery packs, and pocketwizards.

Sure, I could use 550ex's, but for the price of one of those I can get 3-4 285's or another pocketwizard and cables. If you're stringing 2-4 lites up, that can add up quickly for the pocketbook.

The same setup works great in portait settings as well. Both in studio and location shots. Yea, fancy TTL and micro adjustments in light would be nice, but for the price of 4-5 Canon 550ex's...I'd rather have an additional camera body [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

You're using your lite meter and taking a reading anyway, why buy all the fancy gizmos on a flash when you're shooting it on manual?

Just my thoughts. Good luck.