Flash for D3100

I had the occasion to shoot with the built in flash on the D3100 this weekend and was very pleased with the results but it left me wanting more. I priced the Nikon flashes and found out they are very high. Anyone have any advice on aftermarket flashes?

Also I have several Olympus flashes from my Film days. Can any of these be used with my D3100?
These are T20 and T32 flashes with the handle mount.

Trac, as far as I know from what I've heard from others, the best flashes to use are the Nikon flashes. I don't believe your Olympus flashes are compatible with Nikons. They have to talk to the camera AF and so on, so I wouldn't fool around with anything other than a Nikon flash. Look for a used SB-600; they should be cheap now, because they don't make them anymore. If you want to go new, I'd recommend the SB-700. I just bought one, and I can tell you, it's idiot proof! Works amazingly well, and the menu is very intuitive and easy to use.
You could even look for an SB-400, too, but of course, it has less power.

There are a number of non-Nikon flash units that will work on the D3100. However you have to be careful about the trigger voltage the non-Nikon units use. Nikon cameras use a low voltage for triggering the flash. Some of the non-Nikon units use a high voltage trigger which, while they will work on the camera, will eventually burn out the camera flash circuitry. If you happen to have a high voltage unit and want to use it on a Nikon, all is not lost. There are voltage adapters available that will make flash and camera compatible. You can lookup your flash units on the internet for the operating specifications and if they are compatible with Nikon cameras. If you need a voltage adapter you can find it on the internet as well. Hope this helps.

I'm glad Joseph chimed in here, because he knows a lot more about this stuff than I do. Joseph is our Senior Technical Advisor. I always defer to him.

From what I've found on the internet the T20 and the T32 are not compatible with any of todays digital cameras. They were originally designed for film cameras. The flash shoe contacts are different. I would not recommend using one on your D3100. If you have to buy another flash unit I would follow Jacks advice and buy Nikon.

Here is from the manual.

TTL: i-TTL balanced fill-flash and standard i-TTL flash for digital SLR using 420-pixel RGB sensor are available with built-in flash and SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, or SB-400 (i-TTL balanced fill-flash is available when matrixor center-weighted metering is selected)
" Auto aperture: Available with SB-900/SB-800 and CPU lens
" Non-TTL auto: Supported flash units include SB-900, SB-800, SB-80DX, SB-28DX, SB-28, SB-27, and SB-22S
" Distance-priority manual: Available with SB-900 and SB-800

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tracsoft said:

...I priced the Nikon flashes and found out they are very high. Anyone have any advice on aftermarket flashes?

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I use this flash: LumoPro LP160. For $160, you get all the power of an SB900 at less than half the price. It's full manual (no TTL) but it has plenty of power and has a very sensitive optical slave for off-camera flash and several different triggering options. They're very durable too. One of mine survived being submerged in water for several hours, and it still runs like a clock.

When i first got my D3100 i got the SB-400, but like mentioned above i also just got the SB-700, and its great..i am still keeping my SB-400, because its a great quick flash to have handy

I went with an after market flash and sold it recently to buy an SB-600. Very glad I did. One person on the site here recommended Nikon Store - Refurbished Flashes for a refurbed one from Nikon. Can not tell it from new. They are currently out of stock but you could check back. They are $179 there.