SB-800 Speedlight i-TTL Shoe Mount Flash

9 out of 10 - Spectacular
Excellent flash
This is not a beginner flash - I've owned it for 6 months and still have yet to learn ...
This is not a beginner flash - I've owned it for 6 months and still have yet to learn all the functions.

What I do know is that it's lighting quality is excellent, even with the supplied diffuser shroud attached. Works great with my D80. The angle of the head is easliy adjustable to the side or vertically.

Dial reponse is immediate except for powering the unit off after the camera has been powered off. The flash will go into a Standby mode which requires you to hold the 'On/Off' button down to come out of standby, then hold it down again to power off. Read more
by turnerman (see profile) - April 26, 2007

15 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.

10 out of 10 - Perfect
Great Flash!!
This is the best flash I've ever owned. I use it mostly in iTTL or iTTL BL modes with ...
This is the best flash I've ever owned. I use it mostly in iTTL or iTTL BL modes with my Nikon DSLRs. The Nikon automatic system works extremely well.

Like with any automatic flash system, light colored scenes (like the bride in her white dress) will cause the flash to underexpose and dark scenes (like the groom in his black suit) will cause the flash to overexpose. The photographer has to realize this and set the flash ev accordingly. The Nikon matrix metering reduces this problem a lot.

I use two of these flashes in reflective umbrellas to shoot the formals at weddings. They put out plenty of light to evenly expose groups of up to 50 people.

These flashes will also work as either a remote slave flash or the commander for several other slaves. There is also a built-in commander in many of the Nikon DSLRs that will control the SB800. This is an infrared optical wireless system that works well as long as you keep the small IR window in the flash pointed toward the commander. Since the head rotates 360 degrees, it's easy to turn it to keep the IR window pointed correctly. I have used these flashes up to 50 feet from the commander.

Lastly these flashes are rugged. Although I don't recommend it, I have dropped both of them several times from three feet or less onto concrete, and they have not been damaged yet! Read more
by rkmacdonald (see profile) - December 10, 2007

11 out of 11 users found this user opinion helpful.

8 out of 10 - Excellent
great flash difficult manual
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September 1, 2004

10 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.