I bought
Gary Fong's The Puffer and
Professor Kobre's Lightscoop from
Adorama.
The Puffer tones down the flash a bit but not enough for me. It's still has the basic harsh flash look. The Lightscoop bounces the flash off the ceiling and in my opinion looks great and much more natural.
Maybe The Puffer works better for long-range shots or places with high ceilings. For typical indoor shots, the Lightscoop appears to be the champ.
The photos below were taken with my Nikon D40 in AUTO mode except for the smurf-lightscoop shot which I upped by 1.7 stops. No post production. It was almost completely dark with just a little ambient light.
Nikon D40 Built-In Flash, no gadgets
Nikon D40 Built-In Flash, Gary Fong Puffer
Nikon D40 Built-In Flash, Lightscoop
Nikon D40 Built-In Flash, no gadgets
Nikon D40 Built-In Flash, Gary Fong Puffer
Nikon D40 Built-In Flash, Lightscoop
You can get
Gary Fong's The Puffer
and
Professor Kobre's Lightscoop from
Adorama.