Impressive lighting with all the bells and whistles

I finally broke down and upgraded my flash unit to match the new Nikon camera systems. I don't usually use an on-camera flash since most of my photography is either existing light or big studio units, but I thought this would be better than the little pop-up flash on my D70 and would be handy to have for the D2X. Wow, did I underestimate the usefulness and versatility of the SB-800. Not only does it work as expected for true TTL operation with all my digital cameras, it's powerful enough for most situations and has a few tricks that I am only just beginning to toy with.

One of the most useful features for me is the wireless remote mode. This allows me to use the on-camera pop-up flash of the D70 as a master unit and the SB-800 as the slave. I can position the flash anywhere in front of the camera to achieve various lighting effects. With multiple SB-800's or SB-600's, I can get multiple flash lighting on location without bulky battery packs or expensive lighting units. Each unit can be set to differing flash output levels. And to confirm that the lighting was sufficient, it will beep a confirmation tone. Plus, if I leave the flash in remote mode and attach it to the camera's hot shoe, it automatically switches to normal TTL mode. One less thing to worry about. I love it.

The SB-800 does great bounce flash photography provided you have a neutral colored ceiling. It has a built-in bounce card to add a highlight in your subject's eyes and also includes a diffusion dome to get an even softer lighting effect. For most situations, including fill-flash, when I'm within 8 feet of the subject, I just keep the diffusion dome attached, position the head at 60 degrees and I get great results.

Another useful accessory that is included with the unit is the gel filters. One to balance the flash output for incandescent and the other for fluorescent. Just place the filter on the flash, set the camera's white balance for whichever filter you are using and the flash's light will match the background lighting giving a more consistent color to your photo. You can buy other filters for the flash and combine them with the complementary color over the lens and get some very unique effects.

There are other useful features on the SB-800 that I use. The red eye reduction will fire three pre-flashes. Slow and rear-curtain sync will expose for both subject and background--for example, shooting against a sunset--the difference being whether the flash fires at the beginning or the end of the exposure. The modeling illuminator repeatedly fires the flash at low output to allow a preview of the lighting effect. It even works in wireless remote mode and will fire all the flash units at once at the proper flash levels. The LCD panel on the flash unit clearly shows which mode is set along with other exposure information and can be set to automatically backlight whenever it is on or only when the camera's backlighting is turned on. For shooting in dim light, the infrared illuminator will light to assist with autofocusing.

The SB-800 works best with rechargeable NiMH batteries. It recycles faster and lasts longer with these than with standard alkaline batteries. A fresh set of batteries should recycle in less than 4 seconds for a full power flash and last for at least 150 pops. In TTL mode, it usually recycles almost instantly and gets more flashes on a set of batteries. The SB-800 can use 4 or 5 AA batteries--the fifth speeds up recycle times but makes it difficult to recharge 5 batteries at once--by replacing the battery compartment door with the included fifth battery holder. There is also a convenient connector on the front of the flash that will accept external power from Nikon or other newer battery packs. And to conserve battery power, the flash unit automatically goes into standby mode when I switch off the camera.