Flash or not to Flash

April 25th, 2016
Hi all,
I'm in the market for my first flash, for my Nikon D3300 and my hubby has done some research on flashes (because that’s his thing). We are looking at the Nikon SB-500 or SB-700. Which are a bit expensive ($300+ CDN) compared to generic products like Neewer or Yongnuo ($100 CDN).
Would it be best stick with Nikon or take a chance on a generic flash? Currently I do not use my camera flash often, but look forward to learning some new techniques.
Any advice, recommendations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
April 25th, 2016
If you aren't going to use it a lot, you might worth trying the Yongnuo. I'm a Canon shooter and have both a top of the range Canon and a Yongnuo, and the Yongnuo's fine. It's not as well built, eats batteries a bit quicker, but works just fine. If you start using it more, then like me you can think about upgrading, but you haven't lost a lot.

Just have a look at the range available. I use High Speed Sync quite a lot as I shoot action shots - HSS lets you shoot above 1/200th of a second or so, to which you are otherwise limited. If you don't need this, i.e. shooting protraits and the like, you can keep the costs down. Get a decent diffuser while you're at it. :-)
@snaggy
April 25th, 2016
Hi Nova. The Neewer or Yongnuo or Meike should work for you. Make sure they are for Nikon cameras with iTTL (intelligent Through the Lens means the camera and the flashes cooperate for exposure calculations, CLS - Creative Lighting System - is another Nikon acronym that is used). They are typically 1/4 the price of the "equivalent" Nikon products.

This way you could buy two (or more!) for less than the price of one, and thus get into the world of moving the flashes off-camera, mounting one on the camera as commander and then one off the camera as your main light. Your D3300 built in flash, unfortunately, cannot function as a "commander" as on more advanced Nikon cameras. You are into a whole new creative environment, portraits especially, if you are not restricted to that "straight down the barrel of the lens" light from the built-in flash.

I use the Meike MK910. They have 80% of the function of the Nikon SB-910 for less than 1/4 the price. All the function I need, and certainly more than the SB-700.
http://www.amazon.com/Meike%C2%AE-MK-910-MK910-Speedlight-Camera/dp/B00HIVXYZ2
Think about powering them with rechargeable AA batteries for convenience.

You will not be able to use High Speed Synch (shutter speeds faster than the synch speed of your camera, I think it is 1/200) with your Nikon D3300 and iTTL, as suggested by PTP above. That shouldn't matter too much unless you want to totally drive the backgrounds black. Unlike continuous light shooting, the shutter speed does not control "action stop" (even main subject exposure) in low light at all, rather just the amount of ambient background light that gets into your shot. It's the duration (and power) of the flash pulse that does all that, and that is typically very short, way faster than 1/4,000. Indeed, many "creative" flash shots come from mixing background and flash light, and you are in to the whole world of "slow synch" creativity.

Good luck with your purchases.
April 25th, 2016
@frankhymus great info as usual. Always look forward to your advice!
April 25th, 2016
Sorry, didn't realise the D3300 couldn't shoot High Speed Sync...

@frankhymus is right on another thing - get that flash off camera, so much better than shooting on camera, light and shadow work so much better. Easily done with a single flash and a off-camera flash cord or Yongnuo do some great relatively cheap triggers if you don't want to buy a second flash. Just make sure they are iTTL.
@snaggy
April 25th, 2016
@novab I've been using a Nikon SB-800 for quite some time. I don't believe it is still available new from Nikon. I've been very pleased with the functionality of it; although the cameras that I have used with it all had / have the ability to use the the built in flash in the commander mode that Frank talks about.
April 25th, 2016
@pasttheirprime @frankhymus @bill_fe

I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and suggestions with me. I see that I've got a lot to learn and your advice will help me make the decision. Thanks!
April 28th, 2016
I have four SB-800 and two SB-600 units, and while they are nice to have (and now discontinued so there are newer and higher priced models out) I do not know that it is worth the extra money to get the Nikon flash units. Several shooter I know that use flash have started using the Yongnuo units with good success. If you want to go with a third party unit that has a longer history you can also look at SunPak units. Some models, like the PZ42X (which we use for my students) are Nikon iTTL compatible and run $140 (US).
April 29th, 2016
@jeffjones Thanks Jeff for the info. I'm not sure what I'm going to get, but we are leaning away from the Nikon brand. Thanks, it's always great to get another opinion. :)
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.