Speedlight recommendation sought

[mark_pierlot]

<p>I'm a Canon user, so please bear with me if my question seems facile.</p>

<p>I want to get a tilt-rotate Speedlight for a friend of mine, and understand that there are three contenders: the SB-910, SB-700, and SB-600. The first is ruled out because of its prohibitive cost (for me), so it comes down to the latter two.</p>

<p>He uses a D90 (which he's planning on upgrading in a year or so), and shoots mainly informal portraiture of his family (especially his grandchild) and friends, often at social gatherings. He is of course now limited to the direct, built-in flash of his D90 body, so I think he'll really benefit from the bounce flash capability of a Speedlight.</p>

<p>So I guess my question comes down to whether there are any advantages of the SB-700 over the SB-600, given his needs. Any and all advice you can offer in this matter would be greatly appreciated.</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

SB-700 over the Sb600 series.

[mark_pierlot]

<p>Thanks, Ellis. Are there any particular reasons to favour the SB-700 over the SB-600?</p>

<p>To muddy the waters a bit, I just noticed that the SB-910 is available locally (I'm in Vancouver, BC) for CDN$430 (discounted from $550), which is almost within my budget. So is there any compelling reason why I shouldn't squeeze for the 910 over the 700? </p>

<p>I should add that my friend will keep and use the flash for many years.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>The user interface on the SB-700 is wildly superior to the SB-600, and it has much greater head-rotation freedom. The SB-600's nice and compact, but it's just not in the same class in terms of flexibility and ease of use. Especially if "for many years" is in the requirements, skip that older, discontinued version.</p>

[owen_omeara]

<p>Both are good but I would agree with Matt overall. I do like the size of the SB-600 though.</p>

<p>-O</p>

[kohanmike]

<p>I agree that the SB700 is a good choice, but with that, I use three SB600 strobes with my two D300s and an SU-800 and they are quite functional, but can be awkward when changing some settings.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>If you can afford the SB-700, definitely pick it over the SB-600 because it is much easier to use. The older SB-600 and SB-800 have a user unfriendly interface.</p>

<p>Not sure your friend will use this feature, but the SB-700 can be a Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) master, controlling other flashes. The SB-600 can only be a remove slave.</p>

<p>One thing to keep in mind is that the SB-900 and SB-910 are huge flashes. They will be big and heavy on top of a D90.</p>

<BR>

<BR>

<CENTER>

<IMG SRC="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/16798015-lg.jpg">

</CENTER>

[mike_halliwell]

<p>Nice, handy comparison shot. I'd go SB-700, the smaller SBs are too dumb and the bigger ones are <em>very</em> big and very $$$!</p>

<p>Interesting to see the red AF assist unit moved down closer to the hot-shoe with the SB-800 and then became the whole front face with the 900 series. What's in the extra space..another light/lens unit?</p>

<p>I fully agree with the horrible user interface with the SB-800. It's probably OK if you use it regularly or in just plain Auto, but try CLS or remote trigger and it's dire. Whoever designed it needs re-training!</p>

<p>I'd personally like AF assist to be an option in AF-C and/or LV. The whole point of flash (partly...:-)) is that there's not enough light to take a good picture and this often coincides with not enough light to AF properly!! OK, it might eat more juice, but what's a spare set of rechargeable batteries?</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>For the non-SB-9x0: What Matt and Shun wrote; I have both SB600 and SB700 and using the SB700 is just a lot nicer. The SB600 operation is a bit cryptic at the best of times. Plus: whatever SB600 you can get now is either 2nd hand or has been in storage for a serious while. The SB700 is a current model with full warranty.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>So is there any compelling reason why I shouldn't squeeze for the 910 over the 700?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Size. If that's not an issue, the SB910 got it all.</p>

[dxin]

<p>What about the bare bulbs? For the fun part of photography?</p>

[ArthurRichardson]

<p>I have a SB900 and it is a killer flash. I suggest looking into Metz flashguns as well. They have a long pedigree of professional flash gear and are probably more competitively priced as well.</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>I got an SB600 (I'm fighting the urge to write "610" there - too much time talking FX cameras) before the 700 came out. Having got one, I have a multi-flash set-up using several - if I have to learn how to set it up once (and, while a bit cryptic, it's not rocket science) at least I can apply the same to my other flashes. And they're cheaper and smaller as a multi-flash set-up than using 700s.<br />

<br />

The 700, as Shun says, can be a master. I use the on-camera flash for that (the D90 can do this), though it's no SU-800 for range, so I don't really miss that. The SB600 works with film cameras (TTL), which the SB700 doesn't, if that bothers you. I have an F5 as a back-up camera and, though I've never used it with flash, it's nice to have the option. There's no doubt that the SB700 interface is nicer, but I generally leave my 600s all set up the obvious way and control them from the camera via CLS (though I've been known to add tweaks), so I don't use the interface much. The 800 might be another matter - when I shot Canon, I had a 550EX, and once you start playing with strobe rates and other weird features you start needing menus more.<br />

<br />

Some of the higher-end Nissin flashes are pretty good as well, by all accounts... Good luck.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>The SB-700 has a stop less power than the SB-910 (i.e. it's a bit weedy) and like you say Mark, the SB-910 is ludicrously expensive. To me, Nikon have basically priced themselves out of the hotshoe flash market, so why not buy an independent make?</p>

<p>Best value for money IMO is Nissin's Di866 MkII flash. It offers i-TTL, CLS and Auto-FP capabilities, as well as a secondary flash that's not available on any of Nikon's guns. Build quality and design are excellent and it's actually slightly more powerful than an SB-910. The price here in the UK is slightly less than what's being asked for the SB-700. BTW, Nissin are a well-established flashgun maker going back to the late 1960s.</p>

<p>I've just seen that Nikon has a fairly hefty cashback offer on the SB-910 at the moment, but that still makes it one-and-a-half times as much as the Nissin. Perhaps Nikon are finally realising that well over 300 quid for a little hotshoe flash is just way OTT. Wonder if Canon's £500 offering is flying off the shelves?</p>

[elliot1]

<p>Definitely the SB-700 over the SB-600 because of its far superior interface. Considering you can get a SB-900 (used) for about the price of the SB-700, I would suggest you consider the SB-900. While it has a reputation for overheating, its overheating properties are not different than other similar flashes. It has n overly sensitive overheat alarm which activates 'prematurely', and is the alarm which has given the flash its reputation. Fortunately, the alarm is easy to turn off. I have the SB-600, SB-800 and SB-900 and prefer the SB-900 over the other two. As Arthur states, it is a "killer flash". And bargain basement priced!</p>

 

[Two23]

<p>For wedding work an SB-900/910 is a no-brainer, but for everything else the SB-700 is a great choice.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[Renee Shipley]

<p>I'm going to also recommend the sb-700. I am a beginner as well, doing similar work to your friend, and I also got the 700 flash. I'm still learning to use it; I think it's a nice place to start. It will be well-balanced on the body he's using currently, and if/when he upgrades, he could get a larger second flash as well and have a nice little setup going with the two flashes. </p>

[mark_pierlot]

<p>Thanks for all your insightful and very helpful responses, guys. You almost make me want to switch to Nikon. ;-)</p>

<p>While I was reading your responses, I remembered that my friend has relatively small hands, and that after handling several Canon and Nikon bodies, he was reluctant to buy a body larger or heavier than the D90. So, given his size and weight concerns, it seems that the SB-700 would be the best choice for him.</p>

<p>I'd like to give a special thanks to Shun for the photo of the Speedlights constrasting their sizes. As goes the old cliche, a picture is worth a thousand words.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>You are welcome Mark. It is rare that so many people all recommend the same piece of equipment. The SB-700 is still on the expensive side but works very well.</p>

<p>When Nikon first introduced the SB-900 back in 2008, a lot of people noticed that it is a huge flash, and the subsequent SB-910 is just a minor update. The size is one issue we always point out since having a huge flash on a small camera can be a bit unstable. I captured that image with all the flashes together last year for another thread, so it was merely finding it and link to it again.</p>

<p>The difficulty of capturing that image was that I needed to get all of those flashes together. And as a result, I was almost out of flashes to light that image, so the lighting was not ideal. I used a second SB-800 that was not in the picture.</p>

[jaap_roskam]

<p>Get the most basic flash strobe you can get , by the time you figure out how that blitz computer works the moment is gone .... I'm a die hard fan of the good old Metz CT60 series .... maybe to stupid for modern TTL do it all for you computers ;-)</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>See the SB-700 and SB-910 have much clearer controls. There is one switch that controls on (as stand-alone flash), as CLS remote slave, or CLS master. The SB-900 is very similar to the newer SB-910.</p>

<p>On the other hand, you need to hold down different combinations of two buttons on the SB-600 to control different functinos. Since I don't use it very often, I cannot remember those controls and need the manual every time. The SB-800 is also cryptic, but I use it frequently so that I remember how to use the SB-800.</p>

<p>Additionally, the SB-700 has a built-in white bounce card, just like the SB-800, 900, and 910. The SB-600 does not have that feature.</p><div></div>

[dave_wilson1]

Metz 52 AF-1 Touchscreen is a great TTL flash that I've now used on a few important assignments and some personal

stuff. Team it with a simple Gary Fong collapsable cone and white & warm cover and you've got a very nice setup for lots

of shoots. Flash is like $250, Fong is about $40, free shipping from someone and for less than the base price of those other guys you have a real useable combo.