<$300 camera capable of non-proprietary external flash?

[itsme000]

I often need to take pictures in large, open area with little to no light and internal flash is almost always inadequate. What cameras out there is capable of connecting a non-proprietary big external flash?

[slipe]

With free shipping this gets you just to your price. Both the EVF and LCD darken when you use an automatic flash in either manual or AP and it isn't the very best for very dark situations. Someone on the board said there is a workaround where you can shoot something bright in aperture priority and it remembers that rather than re-meter when you half depress the shutter aimed toward the dark. That doesn't work on my FZ10 though. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...87361?n=502394

I don't know of anything cheaper with a hot shoe, but maybe someone knows of something with a flash connector you could get a bracket for. I can understand why people might not want hot shoes, but I don't understand why they don't put sync connectors on cheaper cameras.

Your best bet is probably used equipment. You might find a decent 5Mp camera someone has upgraded from. I don't know what this will go for, but you can probably get it pretty cheap as an example: http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-DSC-V1-Cybe...QQcmdZViewItem That is actually a nifty little camera. It is the smallest one I know of with a hot shoe and it will fit in a loose pocket when you don't need the flash.

[mtclimber]

itsme000-

I always carry a slave flash that can be used with any of my cameras. Theflash on your own camera sets off the slave flash andthe two flashes together push your flash range out to 30 to 40 feet providing the ISO is also increased. That allows you to use flash along with telephoto lenses.

Here is a photo sample taken at35 feet using the slave flash and a telephoto lens.

MT