sure they threw something at you? there was a child standing there also they could've hit the kid...
I'd have snapped the plate and filed a report.

both flashes will work fine in manual or auto....

I'm at a loss on the need for a battery pak...
the battery pak will cost as much as a new flash, at leats... a new Pentax dedicated flash would make more sense...

more power has two drawbacks... cables and weight...

you really don't want to be blasting hundreds of full power pops at wedding anyways...

a little fill flash here, a few pops through a brollie there... swap batteries (rechargeable) in between the church and the park/the park and the ceremony...

all the af points in the world won't amount to a better photo, when most photos taken with a canon are of the canon owners shoes as they accidentally shoot themselves in the foot, while scrolling through countless menus trying to activate some obscure "feature"....

link
intersting way to share ideas for those that can't draw very welll!

I have a 501.4, and my favorite 85mm soft....

Unlike Mannesty, I'm not happy with all the p-ttl flash stuff, and prefer tobwork with manual.
So I'd say any decently built flash would do, but I like my old af 080c.....

here's a ringflash shot I made with mine:
(I'm a big believer in using the ringflash with other lighting for contrast control)

you'd be surprised how tough that was to light...
my polarizer gels for the strobes was MIA so glare off the back walls was an issue...
so the softbox wasn't gonna cut it.
I decided to re-create what you'd see in a real house...
the softbox for fill, and a gridded snoot to bounce a pool of light off the white ceilings and a gel'd gridded reflector to emulate the bright morning sun....

here's some doll house shots:
objective to recreate a more natural lighting look inside the doll house....




and a hint at how it was done....

that'd be the semi-pros...lol

I can't speak for everyone, but when time is money, waste not want not.

either it is a photo trip or family. if family gear get pared down, and it seems when the focus (pun intended) is on the kids, the photos will suffer...
our family vacation snaps are really not much better than anybody else's!


Terry Fox Memorial, Thunder Bay Ontario