» Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Nikon SB-900 AF Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: fantastic
Comment: my husband is the photographer and he loves the flash. he says it's larger than he expected, but he shoots with his new D3 and loves the outcome.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Highly recommend
Comment: This flash is a great item. I read the reviews and was a little concerned, but took the plunge anyway. I am glad I did. I have no problems with the battery or speed at which the next flash is ready. It is very powerful and has increased distance for zooming. The flash is perfect for my D300 and 18-200 Nikor lens. I have yet to try it using it as a master flash.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: So Far So Good
Comment: I own 3 SB-800s and I shoot weddings. So far none of SB-800s have quit on me. They are real workhorses. I bought the Sb-900 because i like the ease of switching it from being a regular flash to a master control in a quick flick. If you use this function a lot, it may be worth it to get the SB900. The $130 difference to me depends on how fast you use that function. In a wedding, you could set up some remote lights with your other nikon speedlights...and create some nice lighting. But sometime you want to turn these remotes on/off and it is a real hassle doing it withe the Sb800. Now, it takes less that second...which is essential in a wedding environment.
I read other comments about how their 900s overheated and shut down. I did not experience this for the 2 weddings i shot recently. However, since i'm shooting with a new D700 at ISO 400 - 800, i'm probably not working the 900 extremely hard. Overall, the flash seems to be working well, and apart from its size, i like it. The negatives: The controls needs a little getting used to and the flash case is a little too long too. If it was priced in the 3 hundreds...then it would be 5 star...for this price...it only gets 4 stars from me.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: awsome
Comment: great flash
rel fast recycle time
has a safty mode to prevent damage to flash
display is very easy to see and work with
good range and great control of settings
you get what you ordered

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Looks ready for battle, but turns out to be a delicate flower
Comment: I shot two weddings this weekend and the SB-900 didn't even make it out of my case for the second one. It overheats unbelievably quickly, after hardly a dozen shots at full power, and then it does a thermal shutdown -- meaning it emits a series of pinball machine-esque beeps and then refuses to operate for a few minutes until the internal temperature goes down far enough. Pretty bad if you're in the middle of taking group photos, and twenty pairs of eyes are on you. What are you supposed to do -- tell everyone to wait around until the flash is good 'n' ready again? With this limitation, it's just not a tool that's remotely acceptable to a pro.

(Of course, if you don't shoot events, and can take your time between flashed photos, what is a critical point to me may well be unimportant to you.)

I suppose it makes sense for Nikon to err on the side of caution, but I'm glad my SB-800s seem to be made of sturdier stuff. True, you can't keep flashing away with the SB-800 either -- Nikon recommends cooling its bigger speedlights for at least ten minutes after bursts of heavy and sustained flash use -- but I haven't run up against a practical limitation. I work my SB-800 speedlights hard, and so far (four years and counting) I haven't burned one out yet.

As for the SB-900, it's surprising that a flash this expensive is such a delicate flower, so prone to overheating. In that regard, it may actually be just a little too big & powerful for its own good.

I believe you can elect (somewhere in the menu) not to have the thing turn itself off when it gets too hot, so perhaps you can wring the same performance and stamina from the SB-900 that you can from the SB-800. But while it'd be no fun to burn out a 300-dollar flash, it'd be especially painful to accidentally bump off its considerably more expensive big brother. So I'm going back to my three SB-800s, and the SB-900 is going back to Amazon for a refund.

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