Nikon Speedlights vs Off Brand??

[eevoh]

Sorry for all these questions guys and i really appreciate your help. i promise this will be the last thread for the month... hopefully

so my question is whats the difference between a nikon speedlight and the off brands? if i was to buy a nikon speedlight it would most likely be the sb-600 bc its not too expensive but should there be anything thats stopping me from buying the off brand ones?

 

[TJ K]

Get the SB600. You know it was built to work with that Nikon camera and if you can afford it no reason to kick yourself in the butt later saying you wish you would have just bought the nikon flash. GL
TJ

 

[eevoh]

btw is "off brand" the correct term?...

 

[mdtusz]

If it's your first speedlight, get the sb600. The features between the 600 and 900 probably aren't used to their full potential by 70% of the people who use them. The 600 is cheap, reliable, and if it breaks, so what. Buy a new one.

 

[camhabib]

I would without a doubt go with Nikon as apposed to 3rd party. They offer a lot of features when combined with a Nikon camera that you can't really get with other brands. As to which model, I would stick with the SB-600. the SB-900 isn't going to really offer you anything extra at this point, as you're only controlling one flash on camera and not an several off camera. Should you pick up a few more SB-600's and need to control them, I would get a 900 at that point, but until now, not worth the extra cost.

 

[eevoh]

i have a feeling everyone is just gonna say sb 600 so my next question is what are these accessories that are included in the package for?

if i dont need them i'm just gonna buy the speedlight itself.

 

[TJ K]

Just go for the speedlight itself. You don't need any of that other stuff and chances are you won't ever use it. Do you plan on using the flash off camera? Most likely you will so you will want to pick up a speed light adapter for the SB600 so you can use a pc sync cable with it. This is a very crucial piece of equipment if you plan on off camera work. GL
TJ

 

[AliasPros]

I wish I had bought a full kit when I bought my speed light, had to pick the stuff up later and had to pay more $$$ in the long run, but it depends what you need right now.

 

[PhotoXopher]

History:
1 Nikon SB400
2 Nikon SB600's
1 Nissin Di866

I love the SB400 for it's size and how well it works around the house, battery lasts a long time and it's easy to operate.

SB600's are nice, I never had any issues with them but the menus were awkward and I could never remember what key press combos did what.

My new flash is the Nissin Di866 and so far I absolutely love this thing! It's a wireless master, slave, wireless, PC port, USB port for firmware upgrades, power pack capable, auto mode, TTL mode, manual mode, aperture priority mode, color display that auto rotates, sub flash (adjustable power), diffuser with bounce card, stand and tons of power! Best of all it's $249 shipped at Adorama, I'm very impressed with it so far.

And yes, it can control Nikon flash units as well as be controlled by an SU800, SB800, SB900.

Definitely worth looking into... check out the reviews from others who own this flash.

http://www.adorama.com/NIDI866N.html?searchinfo=di866

 

[eevoh]

History:
1 Nikon SB400
2 Nikon SB600's
1 Nissin Di866

I love the SB400 for it's size and how well it works around the house, battery lasts a long time and it's easy to operate.

SB600's are nice, I never had any issues with them but the menus were awkward and I could never remember what key press combos did what.

My new flash is the Nissin Di866 and so far I absolutely love this thing! It's a wireless master, slave, wireless, PC port, USB port for firmware upgrades, power pack capable, auto mode, TTL mode, manual mode, aperture priority mode, color display that auto rotates, sub flash (adjustable power), diffuser with bounce card, stand and tons of power! Best of all it's $249 shipped at Adorama, I'm very impressed with it so far.

And yes, it can control Nikon flash units as well as be controlled by an SU800, SB800, SB900.

Definitely worth looking into... check out the reviews from others who own this flash.

ND866N Nissin Di866 Digital Flash for Nikon Digital SLR & Coolpix Hotshoe Cameras, Guide #198, with Zoom, Bounce & Power Ratio Features

thanks for your input and i will definitely look into the Nissin Di866. so i guess im down to the Nissin Di866 and sb 600.

are there any other users here who have experience with the Nissin Di866?

 

[Felix0890]

Here's what I'm doing. I bought one big brand flash (Canon for me, Nikon for you) and will buy the off-brand $85 ones to be used as fill, slaves, etc.

Why? The Canon 430ex (the Canon version of the sb600) can be used with Canon's TTL system so when I just need general snapshots, I can pop it on the camera hotshoe, set it to ETTL mode and shoot while the camera and lens do all the work for me. I wouldn't be able to do this with the cheap flash. But I don't need every flash to have ETTL since they'll be off-camera anyway, so the rest can be offbrands.

So basically, get one good one for when you want TTL but if you want more, get offbrands that will work fine in manual.

EDIT: To answer your future question (it will pop up once you receive the flash), get the cheap yet effective Cactus V4 wireless trigger system to sync the flash wirelessly. Trust me when I say that after a week of having the flash on the camera, you'll want to explore the opportunities that come from using the flash off camera.

 

[PhotoXopher]

Actually Felix, with the Nissin you could.

 

[Felix0890]

Actually Felix, with the Nissin you could.

Yeah but those are basically the same price as the Canon/Nikon ones. I'm talking about the cheap <$100 flashes (Vivitar, Precision, Opteka, etc) that are just good for slaves and backups.

 

[PhotoXopher]

Aha, gotcha... :thumbup:

Depends though, feature wise you're comparing a $249 flash to a $450 flash in the Nikon world, and is compared to the 530ex in the Canon world - but I see what you're saying.

 

[mdtusz]

The sb600 works with CLS doesn't it?