Flash - SB600/SB900 vs Third Party Units

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Flash - SB600/SB900 vs Third Party Units

(19 posts) (13 voices)

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Anaxagoras

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I'm thinking about buying a flash for my D90. The obvious choices are SB600 and SB900.

However, I don't shoot with flash very often, so I'm looking to save cash. The price of the SB900 is more than a little off-putting for my needs.

Both Nissin (Di866) and Metz (58 AF-1) seem to have specs not far off the SB900 but at prices nearer to the SB600.

Anyone any experience or views on third party units compared to Nikon's own?

"Ground rules"
Economise on price
Economise on size/weight
Bounce head, ideally with a secondary 'fill-flash'
Option of fully automatic control, ideally via camera
Not bothered about multi flash setups

Posted 3 years ago #
Ragnarog

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I've got a D80 and a Metz 58 AF-1. In the studio we're using a SB-600 and SB-800.
In my opinion the Metz is the equivalent to the SB-800 with some small differences:

pro Metz:
+small secondary flash (ideal for bouncing the main flash against walls and still got some light from the direction of your camera)
+cheaper than the SB-800 / SB-900

pro Nikon:
+using it as a wireless slave with studio flashes, you can use the built-in photocell (personally I came in this situation just once)
+Nikon gives you color filter which come very handy if you want to combine ambiant light and a flash and want to get a correct white balance all over the picture.
+quick mount with just one "switch"

If the price difference is just minimal I would take the Nikon.

Does anyone know other differences??

Posted 3 years ago #
MW

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Joined: Mar '10
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I started with a SB400 and with the help of this forum (thanks to everyone here!), I recently picked up a SB900. It's pricey but now I can't live without it. I shoot with a D300S and it's great to be able to use the commander mode and shoot wireless. Can you borrow one to test and see if it's right for your type of photography?

Posted 3 years ago #
yttan

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i rather take SB900, no need to think about to upgrade my flash again. Believe me or not. Lenses or Camera may think about it, for Flash go for high end and forget about upgrading again.

Posted 3 years ago #
towen7

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yttan said:
for Flash go for high end and forget about upgrading again.

Thats exactly how I see it. I bought an SB900 for use with my D40 and D90. The SB900's SU4 mode allows me to use it off body wirelessly with the D40. With the D90's commander mode you get full wireless control with TTL. The 200mm zoom is awesome because it allows you to focus the light into a tight area without a snoot. The recyle time is around 2 seconds at full power. From my perspective the SB900 is all I'll ever need in a speedlight. The SB600 (or SB800) would probably suffice but it comforting to know that I have all the control possiblewith the SB900.

Posted 3 years ago #
jonnyapple

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towen7 said:
The SB600 (or SB800) would probably suffice but it comforting to know that I have all the control possiblewith the SB900.

Like you say, the SB-600 doesn't have an optical slave mode outside CLS, so for a D40 the SB-900 makes more sense. Except that it costs more than the body. ;-)

Posted 3 years ago #
adamz

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Nikon - CLS - some would kill for this
Othere brands - price

so basically, if You are not planning to use CLS, than any of the off-brand flashlight are good for You

Posted 3 years ago #
towen7

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I think CLS is great but I do find that I want to overide it's decisions from time-to-time. If your not going to use CLS than the strobist recommended $130 LumoPro LP120 seems like a good way to go. This strobe has a built-in optical slave, manual control down to 1/32 power, swivel/tilt head, PC and miniphone sync ports. I have a couple on order to use as secondary strobes.

Posted 3 years ago #
shivaswrath

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SB900 hands down - the menu system and continual ability to update firmware make it a no-brainer compared to many.

I have a SB400 for travel purposes, and serves itself well on my D90. . . .

Posted 3 years ago #
Bob Pan

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If I didn't already know how to use the menus with the SB-600 I'd go for the SB-900 if nothing else for the simpler menu system. The SB-600 definitely isn't intuitive to use.

I'm sure there is a sadist somewhere that comes up with these looney button combinations for watches, flash units and other stuff that no one can figure out.

Posted 3 years ago #
jonnyapple

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Bob Pan said:
I'm sure there is a sadist somewhere that comes up with these looney button combinations for watches, flash units and other stuff that no one can figure out.

And you're right about the SB-600. They must have hired all the sadists. I guess we're lucky there are no settings that require three buttons pressed at the same time. That's about all you can say.

Posted 3 years ago #
NSXType-R

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jonnyapple said:
Like you say, the SB-600 doesn't have an optical slave mode outside CLS, so for a D40 the SB-900 makes more sense. Except that it costs more than the body. ;-)

Actually, that might be fun on a D40, especially with the 1/500th flash sync speed. I'm not sure how I'd take advantage of that though, since I have no experience with flash in general.

Posted 3 years ago #
pcraigs

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I got the SB-900 which is great but pricey, and recently I picked up two Nissin Di866 for the price of 1 SB-900 to use as slave. The Nissin build is good but no where as good as the SB-900, flash output is consistent also work as master.

The Nissin work as a great on camera flash as well but I do prefer the wheel and buttons of the SB-900 over the Nissin

So if you have the money to get the SB-900 and dont mind the size it is the best flash for Nikon system. But comparing a SB-600 vs the Nissin at the same price, I will go for the Di866.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anaxagoras

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Thanks, folks, for all your (excellent) advice.

I've used multi-flash set ups before with little success. Might try again with CLS.

Bob/Jonny, I too hate sadistic buttons, so that'l be bye bye to the SB600 then. And yttan's (and others') argument about never upgrading again is very persuasive.

All things considered, I'm tempted to bite the bullet and go for the SB900 after all.

Once again, thanks for your help.

Posted 3 years ago #
shivaswrath

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be smart about shopping around for it - you can get the SB900 close to $400 if you look hard and find $10 discounts here and there. . .

Posted 3 years ago #
Girardian

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shivaswrath said:
be smart about shopping around for it - you can get the SB900 close to $400 if you look hard and find $10 discounts here and there. . .

I've looked around but the best price I've seen is much closer to $450. Can folks here post a link to the best price for the SB900? I checked the PriceWatch and didn't see below $460.

Posted 2 years ago #
NikoDoby

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Shivas said "close to $400" which to mean means he rounded down heavily :^) The cheapest I think right now is amazon.com for $442 but I guess that price depends on where you live. If you apply for an amazon.com credit card you get another discount which is why I think Shivaswrath was rounding down to "close to $400".

And just a reminder that we don't allow links to commercial websites in the forum.

Posted 2 years ago #
Girardian

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Great. Thanks. That's consistent with what I found.

Posted 2 years ago #
Anaxagoras

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NikoDoby said:
The cheapest I think right now is amazon.com for $442 but I guess that price depends on where you live.

Whoa! Here in the UK the cheapest price is a shade under £300 (GBP) including VAT (our hefty 17.5% sales tax). That means pre-tax they're a tad cheaper here than the US. A rare event indeed!

I still haven't bought a flash. But reading the above, I think it makes sense to pay the extra £100 and get the SB900 ;)

Posted 2 years ago #