Originally posted by mcgregni A modern P-TTL model makes sense for this type of use case, and considering your DSLR.
This all depends on whether you are interested in taking control over the light distribution (ie having light on your subjects), the exposure balancing (background vs foreground), colour balance control (ie having good looking skin tones) and managing excessive contrast within the images .....
If you are interested in all of this, then on camera bounced automatic flash is the way forward. High ISOs do nothing to deal with any of the matters I listed.
Personally I would try and use the smoke to advantage and use it for atmosphere. It just needs to not have direct harsh bright flash blasting at the smoke ....nice directional bounced flash that lights the people through the smoke will surely look much better.
I got advantages of the smoke at times, but only when they first shoot it or playing with long exposures and laser machines
But maybe the picture attached helps to understand how smoky the room gets the whole party: aside from this kind of shoot, I can't get anything else good.
What I should do is to NOT illuminate the smoke between the camera and the subject at all, but illuminate the subject only...
I'll try to bouce the flash to the ceiling, that old thing should perform well since it's SO bright. Besides, I checked it, it's safe to use.
And since they pay me with free drinks, the Vivitar 283 is more than enough