Nikon Commander unit or sb900

munchycarrot

munchycarrot

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Given that the price is pretty similar, would you use a 900 or a commander to get 3 channels in CLS

I guess the toss up is worrying about an extra catch light, or havin an extra flash at hand.

I really need to use 3 channels for 3 seperate off cam flashes, main/bg/and fill or hair light, and with the d300 built in commander mode can only control the power of 2 groups.
Are there any major disadvantages of using another sb900 as the commander that im missing, just seems to make more sense so we have an extra spare flash if needed in emergency.
 
to me it is a no brainer, go for the sb900 ! It gives you a more flexible setup.
 
thanks, thats what i thought, just checking i wasnt missing something clever the commander unit does that id forgot about.
 
Most of the intelligent stuff is shared between the two items anyway so there would not be much of a price difference. What about a 2nd hand SB800 does that not do 3 channels?

Do you REALLY need 3 channels though? - Can you not just use a cheap flash in slave mode and set the power manually for the rear flash? That way you can dump the commander completely and save a lot of cash. I bought a set of three studio flashes for the price of a commander, yes they were cheap ones but they are really rather good.
 
i guess thats a pretty sensible option. i was just really getting into cls, i know alot of people dont like it, but i do a lot of stroby stuff when not doing portraits and the cls is handy.
 
nope, 2 groups off cam, 3 if you use a commander unit or a sb900 as a commander, 4 if you include the commander flash itself. groups can contain lots of guns, but only the groups can be controlled.
 
You can get the SU-800 for less than £200 new, so there's also quite a big price difference to consider, plus no preflash from the SU-800 - tried taking a shot of my cat a few weeks back using onboard flash as commander - 30-40 shots and her eyes closed on every single one due to the preflash... an SU-800 coming my way shortly, as the ability to control 3 groups is a real bonus as well as the no preflash.

An extra flash is great, but having to have it mounted on the hotshoe to trigger other flashes (two, not three as you want) makes it a waste of money...
 
can you point me in the direction on the under £200?

ive seen £250, and the sb900 for £300, thats why i said similar price.
if under £200 then id go the other way.
 
awww ok, not a bad price for the r1c1 on there either.

just never bought kit of that value from hk before, just reading the reviews on here about it now. thanks
 
Joe McNally wrote that he felt that the SU-800 gave a better range of signal than using an SB800 or 900 in Commander mode - if I get a chance (and it doesn't rain :lol:) I'll see if I can test the theory later today...
 
I bought one from digitalrev when i was out there. works great with two sb-800s.

Now i'm looking for a third reasonably priced flash. But I'm still learning how to use it.
 
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