While just about any flash will trigger and fire on any camera (although you do want to look up trigger voltages and make sure you don't fry a new digital camera with an old made-for-film flash), the body-to-flash communication allows for a few extra, fancy features.
Typically, on-brand flashes will have IR wireless mastering capability and some form of TTL (through-the-lens) metering-based auto-setting of the flash power, and high-speed synch. A "manual-only" flash requires that you set the flash power and spread manually and your camera will be limited to its max synch. shutter speed when used with the flash.
If you plan on using the flash on-camera for some form of event shooting (weddings, photojournalism, sports), then TTL-metering becomes far more important because you don't have time to check the shot, adjust, and reshoot. If you plan on using the flash off-camera with radio triggers all the time, then a manual flash (like the Sunpak 383) may get you more bang for your buck, since you'd be losing TTL capability, anyway.
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