It's hit-and-miss with those units; I bought one from B&H, they were $60, and the specs were very good on paper; I figured I could use it as a portable accent light, triggered by my monolights.
The only problem was after about an hour of running it, the power stuck on maximum, and wouldn't budge.
I found out this was a common problem with these flashes, so I sent it back.
Sometimes love just ain't enough.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierre506/sets/
Here's my answer to puny on-camera flashes. Total cost of parts on Ebay about $40. Of course you need AC for outdoor locations, but I have an inverter in my vehicle. This is the Larson Soft Shoulder rig designed by Peter Gowland and no longer in production. It works great with hand held cameras of all kinds and can be set up left or right, horizontal and vertical. With a little re-working, I mounted a Norman LH2000 flash head and umbrella reflector for outputs of 50-2400WS from my Norman 24/24 power pack. I use a 50W modeling lamp bulb instead of the usual 150-250W.
"There are two dirty words in photography; one is 'art', and the other is 'good taste'." - Helmut Newton
I'm going to give you an oddball solution that I've tried myself and it works quite well. The goal of flash is to get it OFF the camera, to reduce red eye and also avoid the "flat" light look. Buy a pair of small flash triggers (I use Cybersyncs. Attach the trigger to the post on the Copal shutter. Attach the receiver to the flash. Attach the flash to your hat, using velcro. Yes, this works quite well.
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
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