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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.