Nikon’s SB-900 Flash Review

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 you play with the settings a bit you can actually get this flash to work at distances over 60 feet. Just make sure nobody close is looking at it because boy is it bright. Another setting to play with in working at a distance is the light patterns. This camera can flash the standard light, a centered light which creates a hot-spot in the middle which is great for shooting people, and then an even pattern which is great for shooting large groups. This flash works great for bouncing the light; it can rotate down 11 degrees, up a full 90 degrees, and left or right a full 180 degrees.

Surprisingly good auto adjustments on Nikon SB900

As for the settings that this camera automatically sets depending on what other equipment you are using there is the detection on which camera you are using. Depending if it is a FX or a DX it will adjust the light distribution appropriately. I used a D3 and really loved the auto settings, there were no adjustments needed. It also detects color gel filters and adjusts the white-balance appropriately. Not only this, but my D3 can also detect the filter which makes settings even more autonomic. I unfortunately only had an amber filter I could find so I tested it out and I couldn’t improve the picture quality at all over the automatic settings it used. I would have liked to test a few more colors but that will have to be another day.

New menu system of the Speedlight SB 900:

I really like the new menu system on here. I was a bit skeptical at first because there is a lot of features on here that can make changing them a bit more complex than a camera with just the basics but they did a good job with the dial which can quickly set the key functions. I can actually update the firmware for my camera and the flash through my flash. It can also control up to three other Speedlights remotely which I obviously haven’t gotten to try due to an equipment shortage but I did get to use the Nikon SB 900 as a master to wirelessly control my SB 800 and SB 600 flashes. There are four wireless channels which means four separate environments can be set up so I could have my SB 900, SB-800, and SB-600 all on different channels with different settings. There is an unlimited number of flashes that can be put on each channel though.

Nikon SB-900 an all around awesome choice for your Nikon DSLR!!

Works well with the D70/x, D50, D40/x, D60, D80, D200, D300, D700, D2/H/X and D3 for digital cameras but only the F6 if you aren’t shooting digital. The SB-900 is listed as a i-TTL flash but what Nikon doesn’t say is it doesn’t work with the traditional TTL mode or the older d-TTL. For all the cameras that use these modes it only operates in a non-TTL auto mode which is very basic.

Check out some more SB900 review comments before you purchase, or click the reviews link to the right hand side to read from over 100 customer reports.