No lar! Sorry! I won't be free for the coming half year or so ler.... everyday after work have to take care of my baby son so cannot go out much ler...

I also want to go out TT and go shoot events with you guys but no one to take care of my son so how?

cplow : Ok, here's what happened to you...

First pic : Normal lor... when using on board flash. Subject lighted but background dark. Since you decreased the flash output, subject also a bit underexposed and background even darker. On board flash does not have enough power to bounce for ballroom so you're a bit limited.

Second pic : The camera goes into slow sync mode. FLash fires but shutter remains open to expose for background. Due to slow shutter speed you are prone to hand shake and/or subject movement. Orange cast in pic is because your white balance is out. Should have set it to tungsten but if you did your flash will then cause a blue cast unless you have a CTO gel (orange film like piece to set your flash colour to tungsten light) on your flash.

Shooting indoors you would really need an external flash to help you along. When shooting with the kitlens, an external flash is a must because of the small aperture rating.

What you can do is to up your ISO to increase your shutter speed and use slow sync to help expose for the ambient. For myself I would be using ISO 800 with an external flash and shutter speed around 1/50 to 1/80

Don't worry too much about noise as the noise would hardly be noticeable if you don't pixel peep and if you overexpose your shot a little.

Most Alpha users here user F42 and F58 becuase they are CHEAP... er... I should really say COMPETITIVELY PRICED!

For RM750 to RM800 you get a F42 and you have a full fledged compatible external flash rated for GN42 and can give you HSS and wireless TTL flash capability!

It's a steal!! If you opt to buy thrid party flash you will not get wireless and you may have some compatibility issues. It may cost around RM400 but eventually you would ditch it and buy a Sony flash also in the end to get all the features so why not save up for the F42 from the start! It just makes sense!

Try comparing the other brand's flash prices and you will know why I say that Sony's flash are competitively priced. For the price of a single Nikon's SB900 I could get a F42 PLUS a F58 - just need top up a little only (I know coz I have a nikon user friend who bought the SB-900).

cplow1 : Like the other said, when you have the F42 or any other flash mounted on your camera, there's no way for you to use the pop-up flash. Besides, why would you even want to use the pop-up flash when the mounted flash gun is miles better?

The only time you would need to use the pop-up AND the F42 flash together is when you are doing wireless flash. When using wireless flash your F42 is NOT mounted on your cam. It is free to be put anywhere you want to put it. The pop-up flash will then send an infrared signal to the F42 to tell it to fire thus you do not need wire to connect your cam to your flash to tell it to fire. That's why it's called WIRELESS flash!

The advantage of getting the F42 over third party brands is wireless flash. Not only wireless but wireless TTL where the cam can communicate with your flash and adjust the flash power according to the scene you want to capture. Third party flash cannot let you do this.

Also with one single F42 flash you can already start taking pictures using 2 light source. Your F42 on wireless PLUS your pop-up flash as the second light source to light up your subject. That, my friend is the biggest advantage of getting the F42. It just let's you do more with one flash than any other third party flash can.

If you wanna do off-camera flash with third party you would either need to buy extra cables to connect or buy radio transmitter and adapter to enable wireless function and even then you can't have wireless TTL.

Snoot is a plug on to focus your flash into a small beam to light up a small area lor... Like a 'corong' but to control light lor...

You can DIY yuor own snoot by making a 'corong' with A4 paper and stick it to your flash.

Same lar... point is you want the light to be a tight beam and only light up small area and don't want spill light anywhere else. How small/big the area up to you lor...

You want bigger area mah make bigger 'corong' opening lor. Want smaller area mah make smaller 'corong' opening lor. Just that you have to be careful not to let light spill out from anywhere. Buy expensive snoot mah have many functions lor...

Oklar... wanna sleep now... see ya guys in the morning ler.

Anyone going to the TT tonight in Kampng Pandan Restaurant in Yap Kwan Seng?