I wouldn't pay more for a camera just to get that feature, but one of my sony camcorders has it, and it does work. So for general/family snaps It'd improve your keeper ratio on "average" shots. But for professional work, since when does "average" sell?

do everything on manual.

here's an idea I slapped together for you:
my fire wasn't really going yet and Gerri was not really into being photo'd, so it may not be the greatest.
using a long shutter speed (2 seconds), mixed lighting sources (one halogen lamp, bounced to raise ambient levels, just below the light levels of the flames), keylight flash gelled orange, one direct from 45 deg to Gerri's right, the other (seperation/hairlight) snooted and gelled from 45 degs behind Gerri (beside the xmas tree) both set to 2 stops brighter than the ambient.

the ambient light in this case was actually fairly well lit, easily bright enough for manual focussing, but appears darker in the image due to underexposure. the aperture was set to get a good exposure off the flash. (key light) f9 in this case.



sounds more complicated than it is. took ten minutes to set up, and get the shot.
now I could remove the gells, set balance for daylight and have the fire looking more red/orange if I wanted...but the xmas tree lights would be off. that is the challenge with mixing lightsources!
if you want to get photoshoppy, you could process the image twice with two different color balances, overlay them in photoshop, and get red/orange back in the fire while keeping the xmas lights on incandesent.....

sounds like you got plenty of light... all diferent colors.....

here's what I'd try....
using mirrors/silver reflectors to bounce some light through those doors into your subject area....
try to get a decent balance with the hot metal/ fire so you can get some detial in the shadows. Use your lamps too light up any dark area (indirect/bounced is best)...(try to get within two stops of the brightest highlights, (the fire.)...
now use your vivitars (with snoots, and/or difusers to light your main subject (seperation and key). Ideally your key light will be bright enough to allow your highlights in the fire to not blow out.... remember shutter controls ambient exposure, aperture controls flash exposure.
establish your ambient exposure setting first, then add your flashes set up to 1/2 to 2 stops brighter than your ambient depending on how you want the final image to look.

sure. if you learn to use the fisheye, you can exagerate or minimise the distortion effect.

try this, line up a groupshot, in a straight line and take a shot....see all the distortion?
now arrange the in a semi circle, so they are all the same distance from the lens...they won't look so distorted...

now imagine a group of people sitting around a round table at a reception....angle it right, and light it right and you get everybody at the table in the frame, looking good. no matter how crouded the venue is.

stand beside the bride/groom when the boquet/garter gets tossed, time the shot to get the item as it passes the apex of it's flight, and you got everybodies expressions as the reach for it, even the bride/groom looking over thier shoulder at the action.

and more,,,

if I had to soot a wedding with the minimal kit possible (bear in mind, I consider my 93 chevy astro van to be a camera bag) I'd have two bodies (preferably the same, in my case k10's) the 10-17mm fisheye, 50mm 1.4, 16-45, ftg360 flash, ringflash, tripod. (just cause I have all that stuff).

And plus one for what Gartmore said about letting your friend have the equipment to learn.

link

while outside, place in ziplock baggie, suck out excess air, seal, then bring inside, and allow to aclimatize to room temp before opening.

not to mention interesting patterns on the film from static electricty making sparks!

I got a usb thumbdrive case that holds an sd card. in that I keep a sandisk foldable sd card.
on that I have a selection of images layed out for printing as 4x6 business cards (usually keep some cards in my camera bag).
In a pinch I could pop that out and put it in my camera.
I also got a keychain which holds an sd card.
then theres a card in the battery grip...
a couple in the camera bag....
somemore laying around the studio.

I never forget the card, but try and remember what day it is? Oh boy...

Buy aperture, call adobe (i had trouble with cs2 and they linked me to a file that got me sorted), if that doesen't get it sorted, go shopping for a wacom tablet, and load up the free photoshop elements, you probably won't ever miss photoshop. I opened the full photoshop 3 times in the last five months (some of my work, as you know is heavily altered art work) and elements is up to it!
Leopard ROCKS! I run multiple macs and the screen shaing thing is amazing!

the few times i've opened it was working on transparent gifs for web and video, have a nice "Action" for that.