Creative and business resources for photographers – ProPhotoNut

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• 1. Gareth  |  February 11th, 2009 at 7:00 am

  This has been the perfect article and has come at the right time for me. I have been in two minds on what flash to get as a first flash for my D60. I am wanting wireless functionality so the SU-800 is needed. I understand the type of photography will determine my flash model to get but could you advise the best Flash without loosing to much functionality due to Camera Model limitations.

  Thanks
  Gareth

• 2. Dave Clements  |  February 11th, 2009 at 6:31 pm

  Hi Damien,

  I had two SB-800 and both worked very well, that was until I got myself a D300 (I had two D200 before, now I have one of each). All was well until I tried to use the D300 with the SB-800 at a wedding on the dance floor. It was quite dark and relying on the IR on the SB-800 for the auto focus…. To cut a long story short and after speaking to Nikon, the SB-800 IR pattern for the D300 (D800, D3 and D3x) is not compatible, ie does not work. Bottom line I sold one of the SB-800 and got a SB-900, now all is well. Must admit I am loving the SB-900 and the new menu and all the new features.

  It was just something to remember if anyone is having the same problem. Oh, and I did check with Nikon and the SB-900 is fine on the D200

  Dave

• 3. damien  |  February 11th, 2009 at 8:41 pm

  Hi Gareth,

  Well as I can see, Nikon are recommending the SB-800 flash for use with the D60. The situation you are in is that the flash and the SB-800 will cost far more than your camera. Now this isn’t a problem because the Nikon D60 is a very capable bit of kit. My hunch would be to try the SB-900 with your camera by visiting Calumet or another decent trader and give it a go. It may be that Nikon’s page here was written before the SB-900 was released. I think Dave’s comments are very valid too about compatibility. If you do decide to upgrade your camera at some time in the future it would be wise to purchase the SB-900 flash.

  Kindest regards, Damien.

  PS: The SU-800 is way better than the CLS system in camera because the controls for flash power are one touch away rather than buried in menus.

• 4. damien  |  February 11th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

  Hi Dave,

  Thanks for your valuable contribution to this thread. Wise words indeed.

  Damien.

• 5. Paul Hurst  |  February 12th, 2009 at 10:06 am

  Gareth / Damien – the issue you are talking about with the D300 and SB-800 – I have also noticed that the IR was not illuminating on the SB-800 on a D300 during low light, but eventually found (stumbled across) that if the focus point is centered then the SB-800 IR illuminator will work. I thought that this was an undocumented feature. Will the SB-900 IR illuminater work no matter which focus point is set ?

• 6. Dave Clements  |  February 12th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

  Paul,

  Most of the time I use spot focus, the IR did illuminate but it would not focus all the time and spent most of the time hunting. Not the best time for the equipment to “not play ball”…..

  The answer I got from Nikon was it was more hit and miss and does not always work, which is what I was getting.

  Solved with the SB-900

  Also I think Nikon have stopped shipping the SB-800 now.

• 7. Rob  |  February 22nd, 2009 at 3:57 pm

  Hi Damien

  I beg to differ on the SB-900 foot thickness debate. Although I don’t have an SB 800 to compare it to, I have just tried to put my new SB900 into a Lastolite tilt head with hot shoe (which I just got at the Focus on Imaging show) and I couldn’t get it more than 1-2mm on and then it was wedged so tight I thought I would damage the flash taking it off. The flash fits fine on my camera (D700) but I simply can’t get it into what looks like a standard hot shoe accessory. I suspect the difference in thickness is so slight you can’t see it in a visual comparsion with the SB800 but its enough to stop it fitting my accessory. I’m now trying a bodge by taking the hot shoe off and using the plastic hot shoe stand that came with the flash and attaching that to the tilt-head instead.

  Regards

  Rob

• 8. damien  |  February 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 am

  Hi Rob,

  The SB900 foot of the unit I had is identical thickness to my SB800s. Both Nikon the flash guns have a far thicker foot than my Canon flash guns. The problem you are experiencing is due to the plastic accessory shoe attachment on the Lastolite tilt bracket. They work with Metz and Canon no problem but not with Nikon. The Hama cold shoe is the one I use because it works with all flash guns. The Quantum one is good too. Any of the round design plastic cold shoes are no good for Nikon SB 800 or 900 either. The SB900 fits easily on all the Nikon accessories old and new as you would expect. I hope this helps.

  Damien.

• 9. Rob  |  February 23rd, 2009 at 6:48 pm

  Hi Damien

  Ah! That makes more sense. I got a Manfrotto Lite Tite Swivel and Umbrella adaptor which basically screws into the bottom of the plastic foot/base plate that comes with the SB900 for remote use. Seems to work fine so now to get my money back on the lastolite attachment!

  Thanks for the tips.

  Regards

  Rob

• 10. Ben  |  February 25th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

  I have measured the thickness of the plates on the SB-800 and SB-900. I have both. They are the same.

  HOWEVER, the width of the mounting channel is smaller on the SB-900. I have mounts that work fine with the SB-800 that will NOT work with the SB-900.

  Regards,

  Ben

• 11. damien  |  March 11th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

  There’s a factory somewhere in the world that is flooding the market with round plastic cold shoes. Avoid these and any accessories that use them because they only fit some flash guns. All Nikon, Canon and Hama ones work fine with all the flash guns I’ve used.

  I used Hama cold shoes for the set up in the pictures above and the fit of the 2 flash guns was identical. Certainly not a firm push needed with either the SB-800 or SB-900.

  Damien.

• 12. John Pitman  |  March 13th, 2009 at 1:26 am

  Hi Damien

  I have a Nikon D60 and have just purchased the SB 900 flash. I don’t appear to be able to use the 900 off the camera and using the in built flash as the command unit. Am I doing something wrong or is it not possible?

  Regards

  John

• 13. Joseph  |  April 29th, 2009 at 3:16 pm

  Hello,

  I had the same problem with my lastolite eazybox. I sent an email to lastolite complaining about the problem and they sent me a new hotshow adapter free of charges which fits Nikon flashguns with no problems.

• 14. Lord Beau  |  June 18th, 2009 at 10:37 am

  Attention, John: You can’t use the SB900 off-camera with the D60, as the D60’s inbuilt flash does not have wireless capability. However, you can use the SB900 (or SB800) on the D60 to trigger another flash (such as the SB600 or another SB900) wirelessly.

• 15. damien  |  June 18th, 2009 at 11:08 am

  Hi Lord Beau and John,

  You can use off camera flash with the D60 in conjunction with the SU-800 commander or for close proximity work you can always use the SC29 lead.

  The pop up flash system for remote triggering has a couple of slight disadvantages: 1. It causes blinks when the pre-flash goes off. 2. In some shots I have seen a feint amount of light coming from the built in flash even when it is set to non firing.

  It is still a good value add on though and I will be using it from time to time on my Nikon D700.

  Damien.

• 16. neal laver  |  October 1st, 2009 at 7:17 pm

  Hi Damien,

  Now that you have been using the SB900 for some length of time, can you please comment on the much reported overheating issue that keeps appearing on various forums?

  I’d like to invest in a second speedlight but the continued threads bemoaning the 900 unit are really bothering me. Some users are reporting unbelievable horror stories, even with the “thermal cut-off” turned off. Can you share your experiences so far please?

  Thanks for your help.

  Neal.

• 17. Chris  |  October 3rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm

  Hi Neal,
  I use the SB-900 on the cherish the dress workshops and my own work and haven’t had any issue with overheating.
  The batteries can get quite warm with constant use, but so do the batteries in the SB800

  http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/cherish.aspx

• 18. Richard King  |  June 6th, 2010 at 4:50 pm

  Re-overheating

  You can pretty much hammer both the SB800 and the batteries will get warm, but never to the point they are overheating. If you are taking a shot every few seconds, the first thing you will worry about is the speed you get through a set of batteries. I run my sb800’s with the 5th battery in place, and TBH, apart from eating batteries, the units are faultlless

• 19. Richard King  |  June 6th, 2010 at 4:53 pm

  Thanks for showing the image at 200mm. it does show a flaw to avoid

  I cant realy see the point of the SB900, and it certainly doesnt look like an ugrade to the 800

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