Going to buy a flash, which one?

I want to get a external flash for my d40x and the cheapest nikon compatible one is £130 or something like that, way out of my price range for a flash.
Someone i know photographs skateboarding and he uses a Vivitar 285 which on ebay is alot cheaper. I was wondering will this work with my D40x or does anyone know any other cheap flashes that would be compatible ?
Also does anyone know an online dealer instead of buying of ebay, which would stock Vivitar 285?

Thanks
Callum

Anyone ? Please ?

Well any old flash will work in MANUAL mode. But to get the most from the Nikon you really need a Nikon Flash unit.

Nikon have a brilliant flash system which is pretty well adapted to the problems of digital cameras. I don't say it's perfect but most of the time you can just leave it on full auto and the camera will sort out problems like giving just enough light to give a fill-in that looks really good.

I think that the Vivitar unit should work with the D40x. You would have to do everything yourself - choose the ISO setting, choose the flash power, read off the aperture on the calculator dial, set the camera to manual exposure with the aperture from the calculator, choose a shutter speed (probably 1/60 to 1/500 would work). Then you shoot - the flash exposure will be determined by the sensor on the flashgun which is reading from the center of the image. This is how we used to do flash pictures 20 years ago and it worked most of the time.

Personally - I think the Vivitar is a waste of money. Better to save up and get the SB400.