Thinking of buying a flash unit for my Nikon D5000. I hear they can make a world of difference over the built-in. Any recommendations / advice?

SB-900.

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ok… what about if I’m not made of money?

S/H Nikon Speedlight?

Sigma do some really good flashguns too. As do a few other companies, but only the Nikon ones offer all the possible functions.

I think you can get Nissin or Yongnuo flashes for Nikon that will do TTL etc. Just make sure you get one that you can tilt and swivel in order to bounce it.

Second hand SB600. Or SB800 as its much more powerfull and probably not much more 2nd hand.
I have one of each.
The new SB900 is lovely and easier to use, but the “old” flashes are fine.
To really get the best out of them you need to get them off camera and use wireless TTL, not sure if the D5000 can act as a flash commander (my ageing D80 can). The SB800 and SB900 can act as master/control flashes, but this only matters when you have a second flash!

I tend to use both my SB600 and SB800 wirelessley and use the cameras onboard flash to control them.

Need to be careful with second hand ones, charliemungus. If your “flash” were to go “bang” your whole thread may disappear in a cloud of smoke…

I was always happy with my Marumi at £60sih:

http://www.parkcameras.com/7835/Marumi-D728AFN-Flashgun—Nikon.html

With a range of others from the same place:

http://www.parkcameras.com/c/41/Nikon-Compatible-Flashguns.html

HTH
Alan.

SB-400 is a good option – TTL compatible and good enough for 99% of applications, unless you’re doing commercial stuff e.g. I had to get a more powerful one for doing conferences as you can’t get near enough to the stage (as you’d get in the way of the audience).

Off-camera is a whole nother level of faff though, to which the casual photographer probably is not prepared to go 🙂

What do you want to do with it?? Do you want to run it off camera?

I looked into this recently, and although it’s a bit more money, decided that getting a proper Nikon flash that will work with the Nikon CLS was worth the extra money.

I looked at the SB-600, but it wasn’t that much cheaper than the SB-700. Had the SB-600 been a lot cheaper than the newer SB-700 then I would have gone for that one, but in the end I got the SB-700.

Am really pleased with it so far. I haven’t had the chance to use it much, but it is very adjustable, easy to set-up and adjust, easy to use in master/remote mode and comes with a few decent accessories.
It has filters for incandescent & fluorescent to match the colour balance, & I think the latest cameras will detect these filters (via micro switches on the flash) and automatically adjust the white balance accordingly). It also comes with a diffusion cap.

I was going to get mine from Bristol Cameras as they were doing it for £250, but Jessops budged on their price & did me it for £260 so I got it from there instead.

EDIT – Oh yeah. Check whether your camera can work as a master for the flash. SB600 can’t work as a master, whereas the SB700 can.

Another D5000 user here who’s been loking into the same thing.

Of the Nikon stuff, the SB700 seems to be the one to go for. Pokey enough and has most of the features of the 900. SB600s are available s/hand from people like Mifsuds or Ffordes I’ve also been recommended the new Metz range – stuff like the 44 AF-1.

As far as doing off-camera stuff goes – some of the higher end Nikons can trigger Speedlights remotely, but the D5000 doesn’t have that facility. Not hi tech, but just getting a long TTL lead will be simple and pretty foolproof. Cheap remote triggers may well work, but you won’t be able to take advantage of the TTL metering from the camera.

Ah yeah…..just looked & the D5100 can’t control a speedlight remotely. BUM.
Although, if you get the SB-700 and decide in the future you want to get into wireless flash stuff, then you can use the SB-700 as the master. Then you just have the expense of buying more Speedlights to act as slaves!

Ah yeah…..just looked & the D5100 can’t control a speedlight remotely. BUM.

Doesn’t matter- just get a £25 set of RF-602 or similar triggers off of ebay and bob’s your uncle.

Budget might help. Or is that being too sensible?

Probably up to £200 but the full range of options presented here is really useful.

vinnyeh – Member
Ah yeah…..just looked & the D5100 can’t control a speedlight remotely. BUM.
Doesn’t matter- just get a £25 set of RF-602 or similar triggers off of ebay and bob’s your uncle.

True, but won’t that only allow an SB700 run in manual? It won’t tie in with the iTTL metering, I don’t think. And that being the case, the OP might as well buy a cheaper flash in the first place along with some remote triggers.

One of the things to consider is do you fancy using flash for high speed synch. I think only the dedicated high-end Nikon units are able to do this.

One of the things to consider is do you fancy using flash for high speed synch

I hadn’t. In fact i hadn’t even heard of it. But now you mentioned it, it sounds so exciting that I am considering it!! What is it?

A little ‘light’ reading for you

I hadn’t. In fact i hadn’t even heard of it. But now you mentioned it, it sounds so exciting that I am considering it!! What is it?

Most flashes will only allow you to use shutter speeds of up to 1/200sec or 1/250sec. High speed sync will allow you to use the flash at whatever speed you want. AWESOME.

It’s of no help to you at all but I got a non-wireless Olympus FL36 for £100 from eBay which is comparable to the SB700 I think. I think someone was upgrading to the FL36R so it was inexpensive.

Howver I do wish I had a remote flash just for the hell of it 🙂

Re high speed sync, people only ever talk about it for the purpose of fill-in on sunny days. But can you also use it to capture high speed action in darker conditions?

I’m a happy SB-600 user – got it S/H for £150 about six months ago. Works great for me but my SLR can act as a commander so that helps. Looked at the 700 and 900 but can’t justify the cost for what I do.

I don’t know much about the nikon options (canon user myself) but I’ve got the top end sigma flash, and its very nice. The one thing I’d say is get one with proper remote firing – I’ve got cables to extend the distance from teh flash to the body but it’s a major hassle, a proper remote control setup would be much better. I know some canon bodies have the ‘host’ for the remote built it – you nikkon may be the same (so all you’d need is the right flash, vs the flash and a host hotshoe)

H