5060 with 3rd party flash?

I currently have an Olympus 5060 and I am looking to add a flash unit. The FL-20 seems

nearly unnecessary in that it does not swivel or tilt, and the built in flash of the 5060 is

very powerful. Unfortunately the FL-50 costs nearly as much as the camera and the FL-40

has been discontinued. The camera does not support third party flashes in auto mode.

What exactly will I lose with the 3rd party flash? I'm an amateur and don't really know the

specifics of what the manual mode entails when it comes to a flash.

Thanks for any help.

I would not dismiss the FL 20 completely, because it can be used in a bounce mode(handheld or on a little swivel on a bracket if you wish) for off camera flash,which is the main idea of supplementary I think you will agree. Other than that,it is small,really pocketable AA powered unit, adds to the illumination quality with or w/o on camera flash if you value that . I am not trying to oversell you on it,has shortcomings for sure, but it is handy and gives TTL mode in a limited f stop way from my limited tests,but seems to do better than one would expect actually. As someone will surely point out,(you there Todd?) sellers of the FL 40 are cashing in by selling it on eBay at what look like pretty profitable prices. There is always the option of the versatile Metz 54MZ3 with an Olympus foot,but that will be out of your price range also. That seems to leave you with so called automatic aftermarket flash as you correctly state. I will try to explain as best I can at this late hour. You do some selecting,meaning you use the camera in aperture priority (A) mode and pick an appropriate camera f setting for the distance range of subject on the which will match a "mode" setting on the flash. That you have to set also. You may have a choice of two or three f settings depending on the flash reach you expect. The flash photo cell sensor reads the light and quenches the tube at the appropriate point for the exposure. They are not through the lens reading obviously.-more sophisticated,flash then knows lots more info to judge exposure-but they = OK. Common brands are Vivitar and Sunpak names. Also some of the lower end Metz models. Many camera users still employ auto flashes with their manual non TTL cameras since folks have been using such for a long time most successfully.

Even with fill flash outdoors. I wont get into a specific brand recommendation,but trust this reply has helped some. Regards,GS<div></div>

Thanks for your response Gerry. What does this entail?

"because it can be used in a bounce mode(handheld or on a little swivel on a bracket if you

wish"

I am most interested in in the swivel you mention. Would this be mounted on the mount

that Olympus sells that has the extra battery etc? I'd be fine with the FL-20 if I could

bounce it in any way. I would prefer it to be attached to the camera rather than hand held

with a cord. Thanks.