comments:
Flashes typically don't come with lightstands. And the small plastic feet are easily replaced and cheap. While you can use one to attach a flash to anything with a 1/4"x20 thread, it's far better to get a Godox S2 or S3 bracket to put over the 5/8" ("babypin") spigot on the end of a lightstand, because a) you can tilt it, b) it has both an umbrella shaft hole as well as a Bowens mount so you can also attach a modifier to your light and stand. See also: https://strobist.blogspot.com/2015/04/your-basic-lighting-kit-spin-around.html A one-light off-camera setup to me, costs more in the $150-$300 range, even if you only start with a $60 flash, because you want to add on a lightstand, transmitter, bracket (or umbrella adapter) and a softbox (or umbrella). Even if you start without a transmitter, you're still in $40-$100 for a cheap lightstand, $25 for a bracket (or $10 for a swivel) and then $60-sky's the limit for a softbox/octa and $25-$60 for an umbrella. And starting with a manual-only single-pin flash does mean you won't have TTL to work with, which means using the flash on-camera bounced for social/event shooting or chasing kids/pets around the house where dragging a light on a stand with an umbrella around behind you may not be practical. Kids and animals aren't really known for holding still when you want them to. :) Nearly all strobes/flashes come with "dumb" optical S1/S2 slave modes, where the light fires if a sensor on the flash "sees" another flash burst. But this would require you to fire the pop-up flash on your T7, and it's manual only control (just firing, no remote settings adjustments, no TTL (automated power adjustment), and no HSS (you're stuck at 1/250s or slower shutter speed to avoid banding)). To me, Canon is out because at your budget level, most of the used EX or EL flashes you can find would only have "smart" optical slaving, no "dumb" S1/S2 modes, and won't have built-in radio in Canon's RT system. And with the RT radio system, you can't use the cheaper ST-E10 transmitter (which only works on EOS R bodies with the newer multifunction hotshoe) and the ST-E3-RT transmitters might eat up your whole budget, even used, and the RT system over all has radio interference issues. The Altura is also too cheap/dumb to expand usefully in to the future. I would say you really want to budget above the $50 mark if at all possible, and ideally, more like $200. Flash can be far more transformative to your photography than a new lens and budgeting accordingly might not be stupid. The only built-in remote triggering on the Altura are S1/S2 modes. And the head probably only swivels 270º. A Godox TT600, otoh, has a head that rotates 360º and while it's manual-only used directly on a camera hotshoe, if you later get a Godox "X" transmitter to use with it, you will be able to remotely adjust its power and also use HSS. If you get a used TT685C/TT685 II-C/V860 II-C, you would also have remote TTL and zoom control over the flash, as well as both TTL and HSS on-camera. See also: https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/17722/what-features-should-one-look-for-when-selecting-a-flash In addition, Godox is a full lighting system that can expand with you as your needs grow. If you are only doing studio lighting, don't need TTL or HSS, or battery portability outside, but do need much more power than a speedlight (hotshoe flash) can give you, the same $130 that would get you a new TT685 II can also purchase you an AC-powered MS300V studio monolight that's roughly 4x (+2EV) more powerful than a hotshoe flash, and which doesn't need an S2/S3 bracket to attach a softbox. And Godox off-camera strobes mostly all work cross-brand, so if you ever decide to swap systems, the only thing that has to change is whatever gets connected directly to the hotshoe of your camera. My recommendation would be to try and find a used Godox "C" (Canon) version of one of their full-sized TTL speedlights (TT685, TT685 II, or V860 II...maybe a V860 III or V1, but those even used would be likely over your budget). And just start with on-camera bounce flash while you save up to put together a one-light off-camera Strobist setup. I would also highly recommend you avoid the $100 iT32+X5 combo, which will undoubtedly look attractive, but which only has 1/4 the light output of a full-sized speedlight and isn't as general-purpose in its use for portrait photography. Power on a flash is like max. aperture on a lens. Think of a TT600/TT685 as being like an f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, while the iT30Pro and iT32 would be more like an f/8-f/11 lens. Great if you can work within those limitations, but liable to be frustrating. You can think of the MS300 as more like an f/2 lens :) but also one you can't close down past f/8 (only a 1/1 to 1/32 power range of 5EV).