Nikon has 6 speedlights in their lineup as of today, the SB-400, SB-600, SB-700, SB-800, SB-900 and the new SB-910 which is available on pre-order from Amazon. It’s quite a strenous decisson on which speedlights to buy, with the different features they offer. I shall try my best to give a quick peek of these Nikon Speedlights and hope you can make a right decission on your purchase. Listed below are in order of their production date.
SB-400:
- Outdated.
- Entry level speedlight. Compact, simple and affordable.
- Designed to be on the camera and inability to bounce light sideways.
- i-TTL (intelligent through-the-lens) only with cameras compatible with Nikon CLS (creative lighting system).
- Not compatible on film cameras.
- Not compatible with Advanced wireless lighting.
SB-600:
- Quite a decent capable compact unit with plenty of features.
- Can be used as a slave when activated by the camera pop-up flash as a commander.
- Compatible with i-TTL, D-TTL and TTL (film based).
- Decent flash coverage, including Wide area AF Assist Illuminator.
- i-TTL (intelligent through-the-lens) only with cameras compatible with Nikon CLS.
- Advanced wireless lighting only when used as a remote unit.
SB-800: I wouldn’t discuss this model, simply since these are no more in production and discontinued from Nikon. Nevertheless you may find cheaper in ebay and if you want to buy it’s quite a upgrade from the SB-600 and a great power horse.
SB-900:
- High end top of the line unit with advanced speedlight range, a replacement to the SB-800.
- Large illuminated LCD panel.
- Distance and Aperture priority mode helps shooting wedding and product shots by giving maximum power output.
- Compatible and auto-detects the Nikon FX and DX format and select suitable light distribution angles and pattern (standard, centre & even)
- AF-assist illuminator for multi-point AF with wide 20-105mm focal range.
- Auto Zoom range of 17-200mm.
- Multiple flash exposure modes (i-TTL, AA, A, M).
- Repeating flash for creating stroboscopic multi-exposure effect.
- Compatible with i-TTL optimized for use with Nikon CLS and Advanced wireless lighting upto 3 remote flash group.
- Dedicated color gel filters to correct white balance.
- Heavy and expensive (price to drop with the release of SB-700 and SB-910).
- Allows firmware updates with select Nikon DSLR.
SB-700:
- Recently introduced unit with plenty of features and designed for ease and intutive operation.
- Major improvement over the SB-600 and almost challenging the SB-900 (tackling the issue of automatic shut-off on over-heating).
- Compatible and auto-detects the Nikon FX and DX format and select suitable light distribution angles and pattern (standard, centre & even).
- Automatic temperature regulation via slow recycling time.
- AF-assist illuminator for multi-point AF with wide 24-135mm focal range.
- Compatible with i-TTL optimized for use with Nikon CLS and Advanced wireless lighting upto 2 remote flash group.
- Assortment of accessories (more than the SB-900) right out of the box.
- Dedicated hard color filters, these are actually better than color gel filters which fades with time.
- Automatically identifies hard type color filters (tungsten and fluorescent) and corrects white balance.
- Light and affordable.
SB-910:
- High end unit with a slight improvement over the SB-900 on tackling the issue of automatic shut-off on over-heating and out of box accessories.
- Slight technical improvement over the SB-700.
- Major improvement over the SB-600 and almost challenging the SB-900 (tackling the issue of automatic shut-off on over-heating).
- Compatible and auto-detects the Nikon FX and DX format and select suitable light distribution angles and pattern (standard, centre & even).
- Automatic temperature regulation via slow recycling time.
- AF-assist illuminator for multi-point AF with wide 24-135mm focal range.
- Auto Zoom range of 17-200mm.
- Multiple flash exposure modes (i-TTL, AA, A, M).
- Compatible with i-TTL optimized for use with Nikon CLS and Advanced wireless lighting upto 3 remote flash group.
- Assortment of accessories (more than the SB-900) right out of the box.
- Dedicated color gel filters to correct white balance.
- Lighter than SB-900.
- Allows firmware updates with select Nikon DSLR.
- Expensive then the SB-900 and SB-700, price in Amazon is $585.
- Available on pre-order (expected to ship in the 3rd week of December 2011).
