It's important for you to understand where and how a reviewer acquires stuff. On one side, there are the things that you personally purchase, where if you don't like it you are going to be quite pissed. On the other side, there's the review where you are paid to write a positive review...
Most stuff I talk about on this site is stuff I've personally acquired. Sometimes I get freebies, however, and I felt I should disclose them
After reading Strobist, I almost purchased the recommended cheap old Nikon flash. However, I also wanted a flash to be carried around for impromptu situations that I could have better control over, I felt that the Nikon would be too specific to the Nikon cameras.
My personal preference in natural-looking photography is to search out beautiful lighting instead of trying to create it. It has a habit of surprising you with beautiful colors and glows and shading. Plus, it's cheaper and I'm stingy. So I picked up the Sunpack Digital Flash.
...or how I purchased three optical slaves but only have one functioning optical slave at the moment...
