Sunpak versus Nikon...

[sween]

Nice to see a lengthy thread on "brand snobbery" here, which encouraged me to toss this out for discussion: Anyone using a third-party flash, like Sunpak or Metz, on their Nikon dSLRs?

I know Speedlights are terrific pieces of gear, but for those inclined to spend less, maybe half, how about we get some pros and cons out in the open here.

One bit of info I can bring to this discussion is that B&H, arguably the best in the biz, is forever out of Sunpak and Metz models, while never out of their Nikon counterparts. My point is, even though they might lack bragging rights, photogs are buying and using these brands.

Thoughts? Thanks...

 

[yinwu]

Dunno about the flashguns but I have used Sunpak filters (oh the shame) and they were quarter the price and just as good.

 

[usayit]

Not a Nikon shooter but in my experience, Metz is pretty good and many circles consider them high end. They are not exactly priced appropriately to be the bargain alternative to Nikon branded flashes though. The popular 54MZ is going to run you about the same if not more than the SB-600 or SB-800.

 

[JerryPH]

I'm a Nikon user, but I have Nikon, Metz, Vivitar and no name generic studio strobes currently... and an Elinchrome D-Lite 4 Set to go are in my near future.

 

[Garbz]

Thoughts, pricing. Photographers are buying these because they are jumping on the strobist bandwagon and the world is running out of SB-28s to buy. They would make a perfectly good flash for manual lighting setups triggered remotely, but not a good on camera flash because of a lack of features.

By features I mean CLS. For Nikon the flashes aren't simply dumb units. I would gladly pay several hundred dollars more for the ability to remotely trigger my units while controlling their bias from the camera menu and retaining full iTTL compatibility, and I did.

There is nothing brand snobing here. The aftermarket flashes just lack the features. Also don't take stock levels as an indicator. Lack of supply does not imply high demand. The demand very well may be low, but their production may be even smaller, or simply the stock on hand at B&H may be low. After all Photocontinental is always out of 200-400mm f/4 stock and it's not because people are buying them in droves I assure you.