That's it just have a play. Flash is so much easier on digital, cos you can practice and waste shots at your leisure.

The shutter speed can be anything below 1/180 (the max sync speed) depending on whether you want the ambient light to show up in the shot. (The slower the shutter speed, the more impact light from windows and light fittings will have). In a room lit by a bit of window light it's quite nice to balance the flash and window light for a more natural effect.

The AF400FTZ is absolutely fine to use on a DSLR, don't worry! It's a good flash.

I would echo Jonathan's advice about bounce flash being easy. You could actually get away with an old Pentax flash from the film era; set it on max power and simply adjust your ISO/aperture to produce the correct exposure (ISO 100/f5.6 would probably be in the right ball park, depending on the flash rating/ceiling height). Bounce flash creates a room filling light which is quite forgiving about distance from camera to subject.

A pit with spikes at the bottom is better for that Gareth

What are you talking about Algi?

Have to love the assuredness of your 'pronouncements'!

You light your subject with flashes, and use a flash for the background (via the blaster). You can control the output of the flashes to balance the light as desired. This is different from using a normal projector, where the light output is typically low (especially if using battery powered ones, which are feeble).

Imagine a scenario where you used your flash via the blaster at full power, and your 'subject flashes' at 1/16th or lower.

A green screen is not the same, because this product allows you to project ONTO walls, blending the texture with the image, and even project shapes over your subject like this.

Do a google image serach to see how people are (successfully) using this product.

But the technology used here is basic, so it's very cheap. There probably isn't enough demand for this to make it worth the r&d of doing it entirely digitally. You can of course get slides done from digital images.

I think it would be worth getting an old inexpensive Canon lens to try this product, or you could actually try and recreate it yourself with a bit of diy. It's actually a simple (but ingenuous) idea. Some one came up with a very similar concept which used an old camera body as the light blaster... Try googling 'fulgurator'.

By using an old slr body you could actually use the winder to cycle through unmounted slide film!

Aura, you can get unbranded spare batteries from eBay and 7dayshop. Very cheap and work acceptably well as a spare (I've never had any problems) and at least you could check to confirm whether it really is your battery at fault, or something else.

Is it normally worth suing though? If the trespasser continues on their way (if it was me it would be in a maddeningly leisurely fashion, with a cheekily cheery attitude towards the enraged landowner) and causes zero damage there's very little point in suing. You might as well sue the badgers and deer which come across your land 'without permission'.

Hilarious. I can't take my eyes off that bathtub one!