Flash for my Nikon D50

I have a D50 and would like an external flash. I don't want anything fancy

yet but I do want to be able to take action shots at my sons basketball

games. Right now if I speed up the shutter speed and then modify them on the

computer for lighting its ok - but that's a lot of effort.

 

I recently purchased a Quantaray QDC 900WA digital zoom flash. It cost me

nearly $250 and I would rather take it back and get a better priced one. I

don't need a lot of bells and whistles or fancy gadgets - just the ability to

take pictures at the basketeball game.

 

I saw a Sunpak 266D that seems to have a lot of the same features. Any

comments?

 

Thanks

The best flash for your D50 is one of the Nikon Speelights, like the SB600, 400, or 800. I find

the 600 to be GREAT!

 

Will they let you use flash at the basketball games, though? What a distraction for the players.

And you are far enough from the action at something like that that you will need "bells and

whistles" to get the shot if they will. On top of that, what lens are you using? It might be too

slow to work with flash at much of any distance.

Get an SB600 or better yet, the SB800 speedlite for your D50. For indoor basketball games,

you're not going to be very popular with a flash in their faces.

 

Bump up the ISO, use a fast lens, and steady hand.

Look at the photos taken by Dave Brown with a D50 and a 50mmm f/1.8 lens in this thread from the sports forum:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00J60m&tag=

 

The lens would be a cheaper and better investment than the flash, and allow you to continue shooting rather than waiting for the falsh to recycle.

Get SB-800 for D50, and not SB-600. Neither SB-600, nor the D50 built-in flash has commander capability, so usage of those 2 flashes in any automated mode will not be possible. If you will never use both flashes at the same time in any automated mode, than SB-600 is OK. E.g. using SB-600 in D50 camera hot shoe is good, but you will limit your creative lighting capabilities.

 

Get SB-800 for D50.

Get the SB-800. You will not regret it. I regretted it so little that I own 4 of them.

Frank, I thought about that a lot and still got a SB600

 

Think about it, if you're going to use the CLS, then you'll need two flashes, since the on-

board flash on the D50 won't act as commander.

 

So... go ahead and get the 600, and if you're going to use CLS, then buy an 800 next...

since it will control the 600!

 

Either way, be careful of using flash shooting sports... The coaches and refs will get rather

annoyed with you, as will the players!

I have the D50 and use my 50mm/1.8 for taking sport shots of my daughter and have good luck with it. It is a cheap lens to learn on and a great portrait lens. If my daughter plays college sports I am thinking of getting the Sigma 70-200/2.8 lens. It takes great pictures. If you are interested in the Sigma take a look at this sight, he uses the Sigma lens for all of his shots. http://mit.midco.net/prairiestorm/Prairiestorm.html

Peter is right.

 

Single SB-800 as a commander is not enough for CLS with D50. You would need another Nikon iTTL flash. Perhaps getting SB-600 only, and the SB-800 later when/if needed, is an economical way to go.

 

Though the SB-800 has an auxiliary socket to trigger by wire additional studio strobes, or attach there a Pocket Wizard radio triggers, it has built-in SU-4 slave trigger, has more power for bounced photography.

 

Hands down, get the SB-800.

Since David wants to return a $250 Quantaray flash to perhaps get a $50 Sunpak, I assume money is an issue. If so, then he's better off with the SB-600 at around $190. He still gets money back and gets to take advantage of Nikon's TTL feature. Buying the 50mm Nikkor AFD (f/1.8) is also a good idea and would be very handy in the gym, but that's another $110. But I would forget about the Sunpak as you will only be disappointed in the end.

 

The SB-800 is a wonderful unit, but the price is high (even with the current $10 rebate) and if David is not sure of needing the extra features, why recommend it at this point? He can always grow his kit later, if he wants.

If you can 'live' with the camera in 'A' mode, the Nikon SB-28dx or the SB-22s will work. But if you want the 1/500th second shutter-flash combination to work for indoor sports: you might try to find a used Nikon SB-800 speedlight.

 

 

 

Try

 

 

 

www.keh.com

 

 

 

and see what might be available.

I thought long and hard about which flash to get for my D50. And in the end decided for the SB800. Yes, it's true that the D50 does not have a CLS commander mode, and in that respect there's no difference between the SB800 versus the SB600. But it's not the entire story..

 

First, consider the prices. When you add the bits that are missing in the SB600 package (a diffuser dome, some gels, a slave/su4 trigger), compared to the SB800 package, there's practically no difference. If any, it's worse.

 

Second, an SB800 will trigger remotely from the D50 in SU4-M mode. No cables required, no slave trigger with iffy contacts or a battery that's always flat when you need it..

 

My advice: if you can't afford an SB800 now, save some money untill you can.. rather than buying something you'll want to upgrade at a later stage again..