Flash Gun advice pelase

[paddy27]

Am looking tog et a SB-800 to go with my Nikon D200. Keep seeing Nissin & Sunpak flash guns advertised saying as good as Nikon & canon own flashes. Have only had Nikon own brand flashes before.
Has anyone got any experiance or adice about these other brands please?
Yes i know the sb-800 is only avliable second hand but i can't really afford the sb-900.

Thanks

[Simpo Two]

paddy27 said:

Am looking tog et a SB-800 to go with my Nikon D200. Keep seeing Nissin & Sunpak flash guns advertised saying as good as Nikon & canon own flashes. Have only had Nikon own brand flashes before.
Has anyone got any experiance or adice about these other brands please?
Yes i know the sb-800 is only avliable second hand but i can't really afford the sb-900.

Thanks

I can't help with the other brands, but can recommend the SB-800. I bought the first one a few years ago when faced with my first wedding, and later bought another as backup. I didn't get the SB-900 as it was much bulkier but not significantly more powerful, and I'd heard stories about it overheating (it has a very fast recycle time). Personally I would always stay with Nikon - peace of mind and guaranteed compatibility is more important to me than a few £ saved.

The SB-800 is a very complex beast - the manual is tougher than the D200 - but unless you want to do any clever stuff like off-camera work and CLS (I don't) then you can work very well with just a few favourite settings.

In about 30,000 shots an SB-800 has only failed me once - it simply stopped working and seemed to need a 'reboot'. The battery hatch can get a bit loose with time and is probably the weakest link - a good reason for not taking it on and off to fit the fifth battery option (which I don't use because AAs and chargers seem to come in multiples of 4!)

[jon-]

Simpo Two said:

I didn't get the SB-900 as it was much bulkier but not significantly more powerful

200mm zoom though. Mmmm, something us Canon strobists can only dream of.

[paddy27]

Cheers Simpo. I think your right, i'll probably stay with Nikon anyway, just thought i would see what others thought.
I dont do anything complex with flashes so think i'll be alright.

Thanks for the help.

[Simpo Two]

jon- said:

200mm zoom though. Mmmm, something us Canon strobists can only dream of.

In fact I often use mine with a 70-200mm lens - although I agree the light will overspill the field of view and therefore be a little less bright, it seems that the rest of the system allows for this (TTL metering I suspect, but once you put a Speedlight onto a Nikon quite what they talk about between them is still a mystery to me... as long as they reach an amicable agreement I'm happy!)

[jon-]

You suspect correctly. The only advantage the 200mm zoom will bring you is a touch more reach.

I want a 200mm zoom as it's like an inbuilt snoot

[Simpo Two]

You can buy them - I think they're called flash extenders.

For myself I slap the lens on f2.8, increase ISO as much as I dare and crank up the EV until the pips squeak. If that's still not enough (large church for example) then I fix the rest in RAW processing