Help on buying a Flash

I have tried to read around about what I am about to ask. I am trying to mate my D60 which I have had for about 6

months now with a good and relatively inexpensive flash which I can use on the camera with bounce capability and

off the camera with some type of wireless controller. Can someone please help me in this quest of mine. Also, one

day I saw another shooter using a D200 and he put a flashlight looking flash against the wall and was triggering it

wirelessly - does anyone know what that was and were I could read about it. Thanks in advance for all the help.

Read your D60 camera manual for list of recommended flashes, that are fully compatible with your camera flash

system. Also look up list of all Nikon flashes and their mode of operations on D60, to understand what you will be

missing if you get a less than desirable flash.

 

Typical recommendation most likely will be in this order:

 

SB-800,

 

SB-600,

 

SB-400.

 

Other flashes are subject of your flash experientce and what limitations you could live with. You will need to

understand what your camera flash system is and how it works, and how other flashes are not compatible with your

camera.

If you stick with the SB-XXX Nikon flashes, you can activate them wirelessly if your D60 has a Commander Mode for the built-in Speedlight - so look for that in your manual. It comes under the general discussion of Nikon's CLS - Creative Lighting System.

 

I can't remember the specifics off the top of my head, but I recall a big drop-off in the feature set of the SB-400 vs the SB-600 and higher. If it comes to me I'll drop back in.

 

If your camera doesn't have Commander Mode, you will either need a Nikon Flash that has a Commander Mode to mount in the hotshoe (so you might end up with two flashes), or a radio, IR, or optical triggering device (one for camera and one for flash).

 

Strobist.com has a lot of information on this topic, so I would encourage you to look there.

My recommendation would be SB-600. I can't see spending SB-800 money on a flash for the D60. The only significant

difference between them is power and the 600 is plenty powerful, just not AS powerful as the 800.

The significant difference between the SB-600 and SB-800 is commander mode. Neither the D60 nor the SB-600 has

commander mode. That is why I bought an SB-800 for my D60; the SB-800 gives the D60 user commander mode.

I second Claude's advice especially if you are going to be playing about with the CLS. Also the 800 has approx 25% more power and if you are going to use bounce flash, that makes a big difference. I originally had the 600 and found that it was lacking in this aspect, sold it and got a 800 which is perfect. Your choice will also depend on your budget!!!

If your looking for cheap but affective, i suggest the older SB-28,50, or 80 DX

Claude - oomf. I did not know that. For me, that would be a disqualifier for the D60. Kind of a shame that Nikon has been

stripping things out of their lower end cameres. I loved the feature set of the D70 in the flash area and didn't realize that the

D60 was missing this feature.