help with nikon speedlight choice

johncook

johncook

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Hi guys,

am venturing into the world of flash photography and wanted some advice from Nikon users on which speedlight to go for.

I was looking at the nikon speedlights SB-700 and SB-910. what would people recommend. I understand the SB-910 is more advance but also seems to be more versatile in terms of rotating the flash head for bounce flash etc..

Its just going to be for home use, am just an amateur photographer, do I need an SB-910 or is the SB-700 good enough for me?

thanks
 
SB700 is a fine, fine speedlight. I got one to replace an SB800 that went for a swim and other than a few annoying quirks particular to the new Nikon design (such as the control wheel isn't 'always on' to change power settings), I love it. It has oodles of power, works flawlessly with my SU-800 for CLS control, and it's built to last. I'll be buying another shortly and for outdoor use, I've had no issues, even when it's been tipping down.
 
Hiya

I've got two SB900's and two nissin di6122 mk II's. The sb700 is supposed to be excellent. The sb900 is really good, available at decent prices. The nissin is a good alternative if wanting TTL and not using too many strobes via the CLS (nissin only operates on one channel!)

Have a few on my flickr page using the strobes.

S
 
Nowt wrong with the SB-700. You shouldn't require anything fancier for amateur purposes and it's £100 cheaper than the SB-910 on Amazon.
 
thanks guys, appreciate the help.

does the SB700 head rotate as much as the SB910?
 
johncook said:
thanks guys, appreciate the help.

does the SB700 head rotate as much as the SB910?
Click to expand...

I think the SB910 fully rotates whereas the SB700 doesn't, at least not in one full 360 swivel.

Cheers.
 
johncook said:
thanks guys, appreciate the help.

does the SB700 head rotate as much as the SB910?
Click to expand...

The SB-700 does rotate through a full 360 degrees at about 30 degree intervals. It won't travel full circle in one move though but does 180 degrees each way.
 
The SB-700 is down on power by about one stop on the SB-910 - which is irrelevant if you are starting out in small-ish rooms. The flash head is just as versatile as the SB-910 - it just needs to be turned back through itself.

The main difference is the SB-910 is considerably larger than the SB-700 and the important difference is: the SB-700 has no sync port.

I have three SB-700's which I mix and match with studio strobes and they have performed flawlessly during the past year.
 
Hi John, sorry to resurrect an old thread. Can I ask what you ended up going for? I'm considering the same thing. Having saved up for quite a while for an sb910 - I'm starting to think its over kill for a first flash and wondering if the saving on an sb700 would give me further options later.
 
I just got a 700 as a start to flash mostly because my 5100 can't act as a commander and I wanted something TTL for the body that I can grow into until I know what im doing.

First time I took it out was too a bowling alley (in that irritating disco "glow" mode) and had some awesome photos out of the process just using my 35mm prime doing a basic ceiling bounce and adjusting the shutter in Rear Mode.
 
I have the sb900 and 700 and I prefer the 700, it does pretty much all the 900 and910 does but with out the long whinded menu. At least the 700 has the option to alter the flash spread with a switch on the back, on the 900 you have to go into a crazy menu system.
One thing I just cant get my head around is why nikon refuse to put a battery meter on the top end flashguns, a battery meter pops up when its completely dead, usually when i,m in the middle of a wedding shoot.
Chris
 
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