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Can someone explain biggest difference between these flashes?
- Thread Starter Lodovico
- Start date
Patrice
No longer a newbie, moving up!
Lodovico,
You asked about the value difference between the SB400 and the SB700 and then the thread turned into a slinging match in semantics and then into a discussion of other flashes. Sorry about that.
So to answer your question. The SB700 has features that are not present on the SB400 in addition to having a higher output: more articulation of the flash head, af assist light, zoom head, SU-4 mode, manual mode, CLS compatibility, CLS commander mode, control panel. To some photographers these are all useful features and make the SB700 a versatile tool to have in your camera bag. The choice you have to make is whether you would use any of these features and how important they are to you.
Think about how you want to use a flash and the features you would need then look into the various models from Nikon and others that have the capabilities you want/need.
You asked about the value difference between the SB400 and the SB700 and then the thread turned into a slinging match in semantics and then into a discussion of other flashes. Sorry about that.
So to answer your question. The SB700 has features that are not present on the SB400 in addition to having a higher output: more articulation of the flash head, af assist light, zoom head, SU-4 mode, manual mode, CLS compatibility, CLS commander mode, control panel. To some photographers these are all useful features and make the SB700 a versatile tool to have in your camera bag. The choice you have to make is whether you would use any of these features and how important they are to you.
Think about how you want to use a flash and the features you would need then look into the various models from Nikon and others that have the capabilities you want/need.
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30-some years ago when I got started "pro photographers" (outside the journalism area) frowned upon camera mounted flashes and calling the use of this tool "lighting" would had made for more than a chuckle and a hiss...
How thing change, I still love my Profotos but I also learned to love the camera mounted flash, as any other tool, there is a right place and way to make use of them. They have limited power compared to the hefty powerpacks + crew of assistants but can also do wonders in the right setup.
I had this Nikon SB-27 that was a dream for a long time, simple but just great! Nikon could not fix it and believe me they tried so many times and failed at fixing it that they just gave up and sent me a new SB-800 which is a nice unit but I guess I am quite unlucky with this.type flashes, it went bad eventually, they "fixed it" 3-4 times, it worked for a while and it went bad again... Was really nice when it worked.
I prefer to use them as a "fill in" to complement available light, somewhere dialed in about half a stop under ambient light, also in a muggy day a warming gel as the ones used in cinema over the flash, about a half CTO would do wanders to warm up the image.
One trick for on the go portraits is to point the flash towards the ceiling and to have someone hold at a 45 degree angle one of those "flexfill" type colapsible reflectors, a piece of white cardboard works too, pretty much the effect of an umbrella in a studio beauty lighting setup.
Got a buddy that.does a lot of travelling shooting surfing, travel and sports, he does wonders with a trio of old Vivitar 283's and softboxes for them.
Biggest drawback on the "hot shoe" flashes is that you can't scream at them, well you can but you get funny looks from those around you.
Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk 2
How thing change, I still love my Profotos but I also learned to love the camera mounted flash, as any other tool, there is a right place and way to make use of them. They have limited power compared to the hefty powerpacks + crew of assistants but can also do wonders in the right setup.
I had this Nikon SB-27 that was a dream for a long time, simple but just great! Nikon could not fix it and believe me they tried so many times and failed at fixing it that they just gave up and sent me a new SB-800 which is a nice unit but I guess I am quite unlucky with this.type flashes, it went bad eventually, they "fixed it" 3-4 times, it worked for a while and it went bad again... Was really nice when it worked.
I prefer to use them as a "fill in" to complement available light, somewhere dialed in about half a stop under ambient light, also in a muggy day a warming gel as the ones used in cinema over the flash, about a half CTO would do wanders to warm up the image.
One trick for on the go portraits is to point the flash towards the ceiling and to have someone hold at a 45 degree angle one of those "flexfill" type colapsible reflectors, a piece of white cardboard works too, pretty much the effect of an umbrella in a studio beauty lighting setup.
Got a buddy that.does a lot of travelling shooting surfing, travel and sports, he does wonders with a trio of old Vivitar 283's and softboxes for them.
Biggest drawback on the "hot shoe" flashes is that you can't scream at them, well you can but you get funny looks from those around you.
Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk 2
Last edited:
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