Nikon SB-700 or 900

[Antully]

Hi, Im looking to buy a flash because I want to start doing portraits. I go to school for photography where I can take out a lot of stuff for whatever assignment that I need to do but Ive been starting to save up so I can have my own gear. I already have a 35mm Nikor lens, I think my next step would be a flash. My goal would be to eventually have 2 flashes and three pocket wizards so I can set up the flashes off camera and set them off with the pocket wizard from my camera without using the flash from the on-camera flash. The problem I am facing is that the Nikon SB-700 is really cheap and Im thinking of buying but it doesnt have a port to plug a pocket wizard in. Is there anything that someone could suggest that would allow me to use the SB700 off camera without using the flash on my camera? Or should I just get the SB900?

[westernlights]

I'd be tempted to go and find a couple of good second hand SB800 's - they can be used off camera and will do what you need them to do just fine.

Here's a great article that goes into some detail about what you are trying to do.

Nikon Sb800 remote firing - Photo.net Nikon Forum

Good luck!

[sk66]

There are a lot of ADAPTERS available for cheap.

The SB 800 is a very nice unit with port and SU-4 mode (optical slave) built in.
I've used it with my canon G10 as an optical slave.

[Matthias099]

I personally have a SB-900 and it's a very good unit. I have read in the past that it tends to overheat in extreme situations, where you are shooting constantly on 100% etc. But I have not had this problem yet (and I did a wedding shoot with it).

So if you have the money to spend on it go for it.
If you want a cheaper solution check for a used SB-800 as master (if you still can find them) and one or two SB-600 as slaves. They work perfectly together and you have all the manipulation options in the world to get great shots IMHO.

[gfinlayson]

Can I ask why you don't want to use the on-camera flash to trigger the external strobes?

If it's because you don't want light from the on-camera flash to interfere with the exposure, do you know can dial down it's output so that it won't interfere?

In the flash set-up menu, you just set the in-camera flash to Commander mode, and select its output mode to - -. It fires, but only the PCM pulses needed for the CLS control system and doesn't noticeably contribute to the exposure.

The SB-900 is a great unit - despite horror stories about overheating. It will shut down if you overwork it, but that's a safety feature to stop you burning out the flash tube. It's best to only use it with high-capacity rechargeable batteries too. Output-wise, it's similar to the SB-800, but the menus are easier to use and the selctor switch makes it easy to go between standard and master/remote modes. It doesn't work with some older bodies.

The SB-800 is great too, only available second-hand now. Menus are a little trickier to navigate than the SB-900, but otherwise I can't fault it. It also works on older bodies - it'll TTL meter on my F5 whereas the SB-900 won't!

I've never used the SB-700, but from what I've seen, it's basically the SB-900's little brother, with a slightly differet layout.

If you're on a budget, second hand SB-800(s) might be your cheapest option.

[inkista]

This is just me, but ask yourself two questions.

1) Are you going to be using these flashes off-camera all the time?

2) Do you really need i-TTL?

The SB-700/-800/-900 are terrific flashes, and if you plan on using them on-camera more or as much as off-camera, then you definitely want them for the capability of doing iTTL, high-speed sync, CLS, etc. etc.

But if you're on a budget, and you're planning on using those flashes off-camera the majority of the time with radio triggers, are you actually going to be in a run'n'gun environment where you're going to need iTTL and remote commanding or high-speed sync? Or could you get away with (much) cheaper all-manual gear?

An Lumopro LP-160 is about $160. A Yongnuo YN-560 is about $65 on Amazon. Both of these flashes have the same power output as an SB-700. They have PC sync ports. They also have built in "dumb" optical triggers that can ignore a pre-flash (SU-4 mode, last I heard can't actually do that trick). The LP-160 has a built-in 1/8" minijack sync port (i.e., you could buy sync cables from Radio Shack). And they've got manual control and zoom--in short everything you need for off-camera work with manual radio triggers.

And Cactus V5s, Cybersyncs, or Yongnuo RF-602s are going to cost you a buttload less than PocketWizards. Do you need TTL PocketWizards? And if you can only afford manual-only Plus IIs, then why get iTTL-capable flashes? True, the Plus IIs can be more reliable, and can interoperate with the TTL-capable triggers if you can afford them. But the V5s can connect directly to the flash hotshoe, as well as via a sync port, and they're cheap. As in $30 per unit cheap.

For the price of an SB-900 alone, you could probably get three YN-560s, V5s, stands, swivels, umbrellas, a softbox, and a bag to carry everything in. Just saying. There are reasons a lot of starving students do the Strobist thing.

Also, an AlienBee can cost less than an SB-900 and give you a lot more light to play with, were you thinking of doing mostly studio shooting.