Guy would like to hear some personal opinions from you, I'm with a budget constraint now . . coz i intend get 1 of the 85mm prime lens from our fellow cs-er and now budget rather limited. wanna get a flash and tripod both serve the main purpose of night shoot, but dunno which to get first, hands will shake when i pull my 18-200 lens to the max pics will get blurred so personally i need the tripod. And the build in flash are meant to play "Fatal Frame" which blast every da*m picture to become white and not as warm. I'm in a fix, hope to get more opinions on this so i can think through before i made my plunge . . thank you.
In a dilemma . . tripod or flash first ?
- Thread starter nichz82
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Personally, the way I see it is. It depends on what you like to shoot. Portraits or Landscapes or Macro etc. There is no right or wrong answer. Go with what you think is more useful with your regular shooting.
IMO
Portrait - Flash
Landscape - Tripod
IMO
Portrait - Flash
Landscape - Tripod
If you take photos of people or plants at night then flash will be the way to go. Don't use flash on a building, it will never work.
Daytime - if bright and outdoor, dun need flash. Tripod only if you are using AEB, v.precise shooting or some other shooting that is slow shutter speed (e.g. when using ND filters).
For Night Street shots. It depends on your subject and light available and what effect you are looking for. If you want to "freeze motion" at night, you may require flash. But if you want motion blur, which requires a slower shutter speed, using a tripod is more recommended.
Night Scenery - Recommended to get tripod, else v.likely will underexpose (for night scenery, many uses long exposure > 3 sec). And as spree86 mentioned, Flash dun work on buildings. (Imagine shooting flash at a building 100m away)
It really depends on what is your preference of shooting. More Landscape over Portrait ? Freeze Motion or Motion Blur shots or other factors that counts.
For Night Street shots. It depends on your subject and light available and what effect you are looking for. If you want to "freeze motion" at night, you may require flash. But if you want motion blur, which requires a slower shutter speed, using a tripod is more recommended.
Night Scenery - Recommended to get tripod, else v.likely will underexpose (for night scenery, many uses long exposure > 3 sec). And as spree86 mentioned, Flash dun work on buildings. (Imagine shooting flash at a building 100m away)
It really depends on what is your preference of shooting. More Landscape over Portrait ? Freeze Motion or Motion Blur shots or other factors that counts.
Given your budget constrain, you need to weigh out which genre of photography you prefer more.
If you're intending to do daylight portraits, you may be able to do without the flash (use natural light whenever possible). For night scenery shots, you'll definitely need a tripod. If it's difficult to decide which to get first, why not get both?
Try getting a 2nd hand Slik tripod, you can get one for less than $100 from B&S. The cheap ones have a lower maximum load though, but if you're not using a heavy lens it should suffice for now.
As for flash, do consider the cheaper Nissin or Yong Nuo flashes that come with ETTL. They cost a lot less than Canon/Nikon Speedlites.
If you're intending to do daylight portraits, you may be able to do without the flash (use natural light whenever possible). For night scenery shots, you'll definitely need a tripod. If it's difficult to decide which to get first, why not get both?
Try getting a 2nd hand Slik tripod, you can get one for less than $100 from B&S. The cheap ones have a lower maximum load though, but if you're not using a heavy lens it should suffice for now.
As for flash, do consider the cheaper Nissin or Yong Nuo flashes that come with ETTL. They cost a lot less than Canon/Nikon Speedlites.
I've read reviews on yongnuo and nissin . . . a lot of people recommended nissin becoz of it's quality and yongnuo is cheaper. as for tripod i've went to peninsular there 1 of the shops selling benro, i saw 1 that cost about S$198 . . suits my height as i dun need to bend down to look at the view finder, i'm not that tall anyways my height 1.73ish meters.
I know nuts about flash and I have not gotten my flash yet (intending to get for low light portraits/snaps). Prob best if you do a forum search or google search (e.g. yongnuo vs nissin).
For Tripods, I think many would advise you to use the search feature and type in "tripod".....you will see hundreds of such topics. Please do not start a new thread on "how to select a tripod or such" as you will v.likely be replied with the same answer I've given or a "lmgtfy"
Just a word on tripod, You may/do not need to have a tripod that extends all the way to your height (even if there is, that is when the middle column raised). It's about Budget and Constraints. Do read up the tripod topics, they are VERY informative.
Maybe if flash-kind of photography is YET to be your priority, and you're afraid of those harshness of the pop up flash, get those pop up flash diffuser to diffuse the direct light? As to if you would then want to go ahead with a tripod, it's your take again. Just a suggestion 
If you use an external flash in an outdoor setting, you would need to use flash modifiers since there really isn't anything to bounce the flash light off. Otherwise you're back to square one with your 'Fatal Frame' type of blasted lighting.
Flash photography is not as easy as you may think it is.
Nikon flashes also have TTL Balanced Lighting which aims to balance the flash with the ambient light. Using diffusers plus lowering flash exposure compensation can also help to blend in more of the ambient light. Also, slower shutter speeds are good at bringing in more of the ambient light. This is because camera exposure if affected by aperture, shutter speed and ISO, while flash exposure is only affected by aperture and ISO, not shutter speed.
All these knowledge I hope will help the TS to minimise the "fatal frame" effect.
hmmm.. I know what you're saying.
Not sure if the pop-up flash has TTL-BL mode (I doubt it, eh?).
My main beef with the pop-up flash is that it's not powerful enough
hmmm.. I know what you're saying.
Not sure if the pop-up flash has TTL-BL mode (I doubt it, eh?).
My main beef with the pop-up flash is that it's not powerful enough
Nope the pop-up flash doesn't have it. I think that mode is useful for the TS as he does not yet have much knowledge about flash exposures and stuff, so sticking with some sort of auto mode on the flash would be wise. The TTL-BL mode which I don't think exists on third party flashes should get him better results.
Base on your needs get the tripod first as there's no alternate. For the time being you should live with the pop-up flash +/- diffuser.
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