«

Have decided to take the plunge and see if the Nikon can do most of what my
Canon EOS 35mm stuff does without the weight or bulk. The best indoor flash
photos I've ever taken have been with my Canon with the 380EX flash unit
with (this is very important) a Sto-fen Omni-Bounce unit. My current
options seem to be:

1. Nikon SB-50DX Speedlight
Advantages- light weight, lower cost
Disadvangates- uses nonrechargeable batteries (123A 3v, or are rechargeable
models available?), low zoom range (only to 50mm zoom- or can the 5700 take
advantage of this feature? I know there are some things that can't be
controlled by the camera as they would be on a 35mm SLR)

2. Nikon SB-80DX Speedlight
Advantages- Much greater zoom range (to 105mm), can use rechargeable AA
batteries, which I use all the time anyway, comes with Nikon diffuser
Disadvantages- bulkier, higher cost

or
3. Use the built in flash and try to fix everything in Photoshop. My PS
skills are limited, and don't want to spend more time post-processing photos
than necessary, but is this a really viable alternative? I tend to want to
compose the shot and leave it alone, but should I rethink my stategy with a
digital camera? Based on the few indoor photos I've taken so far, there
will probably be more stuff to clean up than I will want to bother with.

Most of my photography is of either nature scenes (mushrooms, leaves,
insects, etc.), artwork, or musicians (the latter two almost always under
low light conditons with no flash). But, the photos I've taken with Canon
flash described above of friends, family, weddings, etc. have been so
superior to anything I'd done before that I'd like to closely approximate it
with the Nikon.

Thanks in advance.

If price is not an issue, I'd go for the SB-80 DX (or a second hand SB28DX
if that works).

It's the only one that has tilt & swivel and I find myself almost always
bouncing the flash light on the ceiling/walls when shooting indoors.
Personnally, I would not buy a flashgun that has no tilt and swivel control
(well, I have a tiny SB23, but that's to do fill-in with my old F801s that
has no nuilt-in flash). Red-eye can be removed in Photoshop, but you can't
compensate for the low power and harsh light of the built-in flash.

Make sure you try the combo in a shop before buying as it could be very
unbalanced.

Regards.