Nikon SB900

The new Nikon SB-900 Speedlight Flash has been crowned the king of flashes and it isn’t just because it’s the most expensive. I found that this is a great flash for shooting things like weddings because you can control the zoom and also set the light distribution pattern. The only downside is a big flash like this can overheat easier than others so you have to watch the thermal or you might find yourself without a flash for a couple minutes. That said, I really couldn’t find any other downsides to this flash. It’s features are very innovative with a lot of settings it can set itself by automatically detecting things like the camera you are using as well as any filters. This is an essential tool for a professional photographer (unless you are shooting things like nature where flashes aren’t really essential). Zoom, Rotation & Recycle Improvements over SB-800 Flash This flash has a 17-200mm zoom range and I found you can zoom right from one end to the other in almost one second flat. Not only is the zoom really fast but the recycle time on the SB-900 is noticeably improved over what the SB-800 could do. If [...]

S. Charlston has reviewed the Nikon SB900 and has given it a perfect rating of 5. The review talks about Nikon’s superiority with some comparisons versus the Canon Speedlite 580EX II

Review of the Nikon SB 900 by M. Penelton: “Nikon’s SB-900 Speedlight Flash is much better than SB-800: I bought the Nikon Speedlight SB 900 because I really liked my SB 800 but needed a second flash. I’m amazed at how much more I like this new Speedlight over the old one. I hated the controls on the 800, absolutely hated them. For me the new control scheme was worth the switch. Another big part of the move to the SB900 was not having that annoying fifth battery. I can’t say it was the worst thing in the world but boy is it nice that Nikon was able to not only decrease recycle time but do it with four batteries. I’m still wondering where Nikon thought we’d get these Ni-MH five packs. I’m also wondering why on the SB800 they thought turning 180 degrees was only necessary in one direction. This was a pain in the ass and having the SB900 spin 180 degrees left and right is much nicer. 110+ More ReviewsFrom Customers See Today’s SaleEnds

I. Herdman Reviews the Nikon SB-900 Flash: “Replaced my SB600 & Is great compared to SB-600:” I shoot weddings for a living and bought myself a Nikon SB-900 Speedlight Flash to replace my SB-600. It was a difficult decision between the 800 and the 900 but what really got me with the SB900 compared to the SB600 is how it can concentrate the beam into a smaller area with the zoom. For outdoor portraits it alone makes this flash absolutely worth it. It also has the light patterns thing which changes the flash tube to either concentrate the light further or even it out almost perfectly. I don’t really use more than one flash at a time in general but I like how easy it is to just pull out my SB600 and just turn the dial on the Nikon SB900 Flash to master, much easier than getting the 600 into remote mode. Also the SU-4 mode is a very interesting feature over the SB 600 although the SB 800 had this too, apparently it was quite difficult to find from what I heard. 110+ More ReviewsFrom Customers See Today’s SaleEnds

I bought myself a SB-900 to replace my SB-800 as my master flash. I find it has a much better menu system with the dial to change modes. The flash lives up to it’s Speedlight name. The recycle time is incredibly low which makes it easier to overheat but Nikon has added a new safety mode to prevent this. It is a little annoying if you actually get it to go into thermal shutdown but it really isn’t easy. I don’t find it any worse than my SB-800. When working in the studio it is nice still having my 800 as a remote along with the two 600′s I was already using as remotes with the 800. There is lots of experimentation to do with this flash. It has some awesome light pattern settings when using as your only flash. I’d call the menu system… Extensive. It does take some time to learn but once you have it mastered there is lots you can do, I like how it works with my D3 and can update my firmware. If you really get into it you can program your own menus in. It seems like a lot of hassle but in [...]