Nikon Speedlight SB-E

Finally a flash that actually reaches across a large living room without looking harsh; the 20ft range is perfect for my indoor candids. Setup was completely automatic with my SLR, so I could focus on catching the moment.

I’ve been shooting indoor family dinners with this and the 20ft reach covers our whole living room, so no more blown-out faces in the shadows. The auto mode just figures everything out on its own, which is exactly what I needed after fumbling with manual settings for years.

The auto flash mode is dead simple to use and handles indoor shots up to about 20 feet without me fiddling with settings. Only gripe is it eats batteries faster than I'd like, so bring spares.