Off camera flash buying decisions may seem difficult, but it doesn't have to be like that. I'll walk you through my current lighting gear and tell you why I decided it was time to make a change, and give you the reasons why you may want to consider updating your own gear.

Why Change my Off Camera Flash System?

A lot of photography gear and brands are part of a system. I use Nikon cameras, which also have Nikon lenses, flashes and other accessories as part of the system.

Sometimes you end up buying another brand to fill a function for a few reasons:

* Your current system doesn't include the gear you want

* The cost of the brand name product is excessive or out of your budget

* Something else just works better

Each of those points are tough. I'm a fan of systems, but I'm also someone who likes best of breed choices. In many cases, the Nikon system choices are the best of breed for me. However, Nikon doesn't do everything.

I ended up buying gear that was great for its intended purpose, but was incompatible with other systems that I purchased.

Now I have a goal to create a body of work that I can display in a gallery showing. When I considered my objectives and the gear I have, it became clear that it's time to make a change.

I'll have an easier time achieving my goal with a coherent lighting strategy.

What Gear Do I Have Now?

When I needed off camera flash, I bought a slew of Nikon Speedlights with easy to understand names, such as:

* SB-800

* SB-900

* SB-910

Sure, there are 3rd party flashes available now and back when I bought these devices, but I chose Nikon flashes because of the system. At the time, that was the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS), which is an optical communication system between your camera and the flashes.

It works. In fact, it works better than I expected. It just doesn't work around corners.

When I wanted to move into something more powerful, Nikon didn't have any options for me. After considering my options, I went with Elinchrom BXRi studio lights and mostly the Elinchrom Rotalux brand of light modifiers.

Seriously, who comes up with the names for these products?

You can see descriptions and links to all of this gear on my Resource Page. Please note that some of the links on that page are an affiliate link and I will receive a commission if you buy, but there is no cost to you. In fact, some of the links there will offer you a discount.

My Attempt to Consolidate Systems

Here's the thing.

Within the Nikon CLS system, I can raise and lower the power of my flashes from my camera. It's easy to great groups of flashes that operate on the same settings or instructions from the camera.

I mentioned that the CLS is an optical system that doesn't go around corners, so I bought some PocketWizard transceivers that allow the Nikon CLS transmissions to work over radio signals. Now I can hide a flash around a corner and rest assured that it will get the signal to fire, despite not being in the line of sight of my camera.

So that cost extra money, as if the Nikon flashes weren't already costly enough.

Elinchrom has something similar. I can create groups of studio lights and configure them from the Skyport controller on top of my camera. Fortunately, it's a radio controlled system, so I can hide the lights behind v-flats or walls and they will still fire.

The two systems really don't talk to each other. Not at all.

My next solution was to buy Elinchrom Skyport receivers for my Nikon speed lights. Although these receives wouldn't adjust the power settings of my Nikon flashes, they would fire when the Elinchrom lights fired.

That gave me more opportunities to create specific lighting arrangements,