What is a good flash (cost effective) for a Nikon D40?

Question

I want to have a good professional flash but I don't have a lot of money. If I did, I'd get the SD800. I'm thinking about getting a Quantaray flash or some other knock off flash. Is that a bad idea?

Answer 1

If you ever plan on wanting to control multiple flashes from off camera, buy the SB-800 now for the commander mode, which the D40 lacks.

If you are not going to use the flash off the hot shoe, then an SB-600 should be enough to fit the bill.

Answer 2

The Nikon SB600 is a very good flash, not quite as powerful as the 800. If I were going to consider a third party flash, I would get a Sunpak rather than a Quantaray. I have a Sunpak AF4000 that I have had for about 12 years now, I use it on a Nikon N6006 and have been happy with it.
Nikon has a great flash system, if I were you I'd try to get at least the SB600 just to take advantage of all that know how and full compatibility.

Answer 3

I would stick to a Nikon flash unit and not one of the others you mentioned. I do not know how much you will use your flash but there are others from Nikon that are not as powerful as the SB-800 but is still a good flash. Any of Nikon flashes will work with your camera if you know what you are doing even the older ones that Nikon does not show on their website. I shoot on a Nikon D2Xs but I use a SB-28DX and I shoot the flash in manual mode (and I do have a SB-800).

Take a look at the links below to see what they have.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/3results/controller/home?O=search&A=search&Q=&ci=2609&sb=bs%2Cupper%28ds%29&sq=asc&atl=%7EBrand_Nikon

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=sort&A=search&Q=&sortDrop=Price%3A+Low+to+High&bl=&atl=Brand_Nikon&pn=1&st=categoryNavigation&mnp=0.0&mxp=0.0&sv=3202&shs=&ac=&fi=all&pn=1&ci=3202&cmpsrch=&cltp=&clsgr=

Hope that helps you,
Kevin