Nikon SB-900 compatible with Olympus camera?

[theodoremuran]

<p>I've a SB900 and I'm wondering if it can be used with a Olympus camera?<br /> I'm planning to buy a E3 Olympus body. Anyone knows if it can work with the SB900? If so, don't need to buy the Olympus flashgun.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>If you don't need TTL flash it may work. I'm not familiar with the SB-900, but the SB-800 can be used on just about any SLR in all-manual mode or in what used to be called auto thyristor mode. Looking at the specs for the SB-900 it appears to have the same features. I've used the SB-800 successfully on non-TTL Nikon film bodies and even on non-Nikon compact rangefinders. It dwarfs my Olympus 35 RC but does work in manual and auto thyristor modes and with the distance based flash system built into some older cameras like this little Olympus (the aperture changes along with focus).</p>

[joseph_wisniewski]

<p>I'd buy the Oly gun...</p>

<p>I learned a long time ago that DSLRs are touchy about exposure, like slide film. Auto flash works so poorly that the only reason people got away with it for so long was that event shooters were using more forgiving print film (typically on medium format, which makes it even more forgiving).</p>

<p>Although there are a few DLSRs out there that are moving up into print film dynamic range, the E3 is not one of them. I put it into the "touchy" category, and recommend the matched digital TTL flash.</p>