Speedlights are EXPENSIVE!

I get a lot of questions where people ask me what flash I recommend for them. Now I am a Nikon shooter so I will be using their speedlight models while getting my point across to you all.

The most popular choices for Nikon shooters are the SB-600 and the SB-800 / SB-900 models. If you are a Canon shooter then many or all of these bells and whistles also differ between Canon’s 430EX and 580EX speedlights.

First, let’s address the most important thing… PRICE. The SB-600 is around $200 while the latest SB-900 comes in at around $450 and up. So far so good?

Next, the SB-600 is much smaller in both size and weight (10.6 oz. to be exact). That can be nice especially if you do not have a battery grip attached to your camera or if you have a more compact D-SLR (a la the D40, D90, etc..). The SB-900 weights in at just under a pound (14.6 oz.) and it is big! It is more solid and rugged and the hot shoe is more robust.

Now for what’s under the hood. The SB-600 does have less power but not enough to be a deal breaker. Flash power is rated in what’s called a guide number. The SB-600 rates in at 98 while the SB-900 rates in at 111.5 at ISO 100.

Since the SB-600 outputs less power, you get more shots with your AA batteries than with the SB-900. It is almost a 2 to 1 difference so it is pretty considerable!

The SB-600 is an older model so it supports both new and old TTL modes (i.e. i-TTL, D-TTL and Auto TTL) while the SB-900 supports only i-TTL. No biggie here unless you have an older camera model like the D100.

So far the SB-600 seems to be kicking some butt right? Now for where the SB-900 excels.

First, the lens coverage is pretty substantial. You can zoom your SB-900 all the way up to 200mm and that means you have yourself a nice range to do some creative lighting. I know that I have used the 200mm zoom to get more reach or to give the effect of having a snoot attached. To contrast, the SB-600 can only zoom to 85mm. This isn’t a big deal if you don’t use flashes for creative lighting or off camera flash too much.

Next, the SB-900 has the ability for the flash head to turn a complete 180 degrees left and right where the SB-600 can rotate 180 to the left but only 90 degrees to the right. This can be a pain for you bounce flash shooters like me.

You also cannot hook up an external battery pack to the SB-600 while you can use the SB-8 or 9 battery pack for more oomph and faster recycling.

In wireless TTL mode, the SB-600 can only act as a remote / slave while the SB-900 can also be a master / commander flash. If you use manual mode then you can go all the way down to 1/128 power with the SB-900 while the SB-600 only goes down to 1/64 power.

Other features that are pretty nice on the SB-900 is the ability for it to receive firmware updates, has overheat protection (which you should immediately disable), adjustable light patterns and gel filter identification.

Nikon is also nice enough to include a diffusion dome, gel filters and a built-in bounce card with the SB-900.

So what is my suggestion??? Eventually get both!

Start with the SB-600 and then keep it and get the SB-900 when you get more into advanced flash techniques. Now this suggestion goes for anyone who shoots a camera other than a flagship model like the D3s. All other models have a built in flash and many of which allow for it to act as a commander flash. D3s users do not have that built-in flash so the SB-900 is really needed simply for that commander mode feature.

As photographers and business owners, you have to know that your gear WILL eventually fail you. It is just a matter of WHEN will it fail…

I cannot stress the importance of having backup gear and having insurance for your equipment. I have had cameras and lenses fail on me numerous times and have always ensured that I have something to fall back on.

My general rule of thumb is to keep your old camera when you upgrade. A decent D-SLR averages around $2500 but its resale value drops considerably over time. Camera lenses on the other hand, tend to retain their value much better. I have taken huge losses on D-SLRs when selling them and upgrading. Thinking back, I would much have been much better off keeping an older camera for those “just in case” moments.

So what happens if a camera acts erratically on the job?
My Nikon D700s have been great to me. However, I have had hot shoe mount issues on two different bodies. This means that my speedlight, when mounted, sometimes misfired or doesn’t fire at all. In both these cases, I had to resort to alternative measures on the fly in order to finish the job. the first thing is to try and fix the equipment on site. This meant bending the hot shoe prongs or wedging something in between the flash and the hot shoe for a more “snug” fit. This got me through the day but afterwords it was off to Nikon for repair. I had this just happen to me on the New Year’s Eve wedding that I shot. My flash kept popping in my face and was acting up. So I ended up using my pop up flash in commander mode and shot the rest of the day with my speedlight on a light stand with the CLS system. If I had line of sight issues then I just threw some Pocket Wizards on there and I was all set to finish off the night.

Now what happens if your equipment flat out breaks, or gets stolen on the job? I have had two lenses break on me from being dropped. It wasn’t fun and I had to send them off to get repaired which can be quite costly. My most recent “oops” was my Nikkor 24-70mm which fell from about 3 feet onto carpet and literally cracked in half. It is times like this where having insurance comes into play. Because I have insurance, I now have a brand new 24-70mm sitting in front of me.

My rule of thumb here is that if you cannot afford to immediately replace something then get it insured.

If your gear is stolen then that is a really bad thing and can really be a downer. Once again the show must go on so you better have backup equipment in the car to keep things going. In order to still have your client’s images at least backup your images regularly or get multiple cards that are smaller in size and keep swapping them out. The full cards can then be kept on you or in a safe spot somewhere else.

Preventative measures can be taken to prevent things from getting swiped. My personal favorite is to take a bike lock and chain up my camera bag to the DJ’s table or PA system. Not going anywhere there!

Canon and Nikon shooters have certain professional services that you have to apply for which can really help for those who need gear to be repaired in a hurry. It is a pretty long process to get yourself registered with them and they do ask for a lot of info to ensure that you are a professional photographer but it is well worth it! Your gear gets top priority and that means that they can get it back into your hands faster.

Canon has their CPS: Application Here (membership fee required)
Nikon has the NPS: www.nikonpro.com (free service)

Now let me start off by saying that I used to shoot Nikon back in the day. I show with Nikon from 2001 to 2006 and had myself a D100 and a D200 DSLR bodies. I simply made the switch to Canon as a business decision. I was intrigued by their CMOS sensors and full frame technology and that they kept releasing new stuff for the professional. Meanwhile, Nikon stuff was always back ordered and hard to find and they kept releasing stuff for the beginner photographer.

I can say that when Nikon does something, they do it right! After all that time, they finally released a full frame body, the D3. What an amazing camera that made Canon do a double take. I have to admit, it made me wish I still shot Nikon. To top things, off, they wait about 6 months and then release the mini D3, the D700 for $2000 less! WOW!!!

Now where do I fit in all of this? My Canon equipment has been a bit flaky all the time and the images I got were what I thought were ideal for being digital. My 20 and 30D bodies had some issues. I had some Err messages and one of my 30D’s would mess up when I filled up the buffer. It would require the batteries to be taken out to get rid of the BuF message. My 5D was decent and I only had issues with having 9 focus points all in the center (the outer 8 being pointless and had a horrible time acquiring focus). I also would have battery issues saying that it was drained when it was in fact full and stuff like that. I figured a Mark III would be the “say all-be all” camera but that has proved to cause me more grief than I can say. The current state of the camera is that it currently “thinks” it acquired focus when in fact the focus is a good 6-12 inches back from where it should be. It thus has to go in for repair. I also had intermittent IS issues with my lenses and so on…
The final straw was that my CPS membership meant nothing to them and they couldn’t loan me a new body until this one got fixed or anything. All I got was 7-10 business days for the repair.

Well, being a professional, I have to have equipment that I can rely on and trust. I don’t want to fear that every time I press the shutter it could be my last.

I picked up a Nikon D700 last week because I never had issues with Nikon equipment before. They are hard to come by yes, but they have proven to be very reliable systems from my use and abuse when I owned them.

I shot a wedding on Saturday with inLIGHTin member Scott and this camera just blew me away. No more machine gun shooting to hope for a shot that was in focus, no low light focusing issues, no fear of using ISO 3200 or 6400. IT WAS GREAT!

The only issues I had was the fact that the camera “feel” was still new to me so I would be looking for the shutter in the wrong spot and little stupid things like that which will go away after more use.

The camera had no issues whatsoever and the files out of the camera were literally better than what I got out of a Mark III. And that is taking into consideration the 4 hour lens micro adjustment spiel and post processing / sharpening I would have to do to the Mark III file…

Needless to say, I am a very happy camper and these lenses are so sharp they could cut you…

I will post some pics when I get a second.

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.