Hi all, I'm trying to acquire a hot shoe flash for my K50 in time for a vacation I am taking very soon. I was thinking of just getting the Pentax AF-200FG, but it seems to completely lack any sort of manual controls. If there's anything I've learned from my first 6 months using a DSLR, it's that I definitely want manual controls because the automatic ones WILL screw up at some point. This in mind, what P-TTL compatible or manual flashes are even out there in the sub-$100 range that are good? I've seen a ton of brands I've never heard of before in Neewer, Yongnuo, Altura, but review ratings seem to be all over the place even for more well known brands such as Vivitar and Matz, so I can't even seem to be able to focus in on one brand, and a lot of flash units that were recommended 2-3 years ago for being great now have horrible review ratings. Besides that, it seems like there are dozens of flash models that look to be exactly the same in terms of features, but the pricing is wildly different. I have no idea what I need or want in a flash either, so that just makes the situation even more complicated. Finally I tried looking at a few resources that were suggested to people who have asked similar questions in the past, but it looks like none of the resources are even up to date anymore.
Bottom line is: What should I be looking for in a very cheap flash (honestly as cheap as possible while still maintaining essential features) as a first-time user of such an accessory, and are there any particular models to pursue/avoid?
Last edited by fullmental; 12-21-2015 at 01:56 PM.