Repair vs. Replace SB-600

<p>My aging SB-600 took a 6ft fall to concrete and powers on but no longer fires. The repair is likely $90+ so my questions is, is the sb-600 worth the Benjamin to repair or would I be better off selling it for parts and investing towards the newer sb-700 or sb-900? Is there any benefit to keeping the SB-600 at potentially up to $150 in repairs vs just spending $250 on a used sb-700 (or maybe $200 on another used sb-600)? From what I've read the sb-600 is marginally more powerful but less feature-rich than the 700, so there doesn't seem to be a huge difference.</p>

<p><br /> Those of you who've had a sb-600 fail have you already made the switch?</p>

<p><br /> Apologies if this has been answered, I tried using the search but found related, but not the same threads.</p>

<p><br /> If it matters in the choice, I'm shooting on a D90 body. I need a functioning flash so I will be spending the money either way repairing or replacing.</p>

<p>Perfect opportunity to upgrade to the SB-700: http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00cSPw</p>

<p>Flashes do age ungracefully with heavy use. I would get a new unit.</p>

<p>As written in the thread Shun mentions - I went to the SB700 when my SB600 went bad; but mine never stopped working completely; it's not reliable anymore though, probably a capacitor that's not working well. I never really noticed the power difference between the SB600 and SB700, but I do not push my flashes that hard. The SB700 is just allround a nicer flash, in my view. Well worth the extra bit of money.</p>

<p>Don't neglect the third party flash units that are just as powerful and less expensive than Nikon.</p>

<p>If you repair your sb-600 you have a repaired sb-600, that you know worked perfectly with no hidden problems before and Nikon will fix it so it works like new, with warranty.</p>

<p>If you buy used you just can't be sure what you have anymore. You never know how much it has been abused. It may need replacement very soon or have some hidden problem that you will discover far too late.</p>

<p>If it's only $100 or $150 I would repair it. Better to know what you have. Better for the environment too. Unfortunately a lot of people don't think about that. For instance the US alone generates more than 30% of the worlds waste despite being less than 4% of it's population.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>There is a market for broken Nikon flash on ebay. It won't be a total loss.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

Personally, I wouldn't fix it. Maybe sell it as-is and get a new unit of your liking. I have several Nikon flashes, but I like the

Metz 52-AF1 (?) with the touch screen. Nice unit with good performance.

<p>90 bucks? If it weren't heavily used over the years, I think I'd actually pay that to get it repaired.<br /><br />Over about 120 and I wouldn't.</p>

<p>Hi<br>

I dropped my SB-600 and it stopped working, it turned out that that the batteries had flattened the contacts inside. I carefully pried them back up with a screwdriver and all is well again.<br>

Have a look to see if this is what happened to your one.<br>

The give away is the battery cover does not spring up when released.<br>

Good luck<br>

Dave</p>