Gift

Bought as a gift for entry level SLR fan. He says it is a little difficult to master but gives goos results. Note it has a built in diffuser so there is no need to purchase and external diffuser.

Essential tool for professional use of flash!

As you'd want and expect, this flash sync cord allows you a greater degree of flexibility when using your Speedlight. Instead of being stuck on top of your camera, you're free to position your flash wherever you like in relation to your subject. This not only gives you control of which direction your shadows will go. It also lets you position the Speedlight closer or further away as well as making bounce flash much quicker and easier, no holding in buttons to rotate that flash head anymore! Just point it where you need it.

Although the SC-28 does everything that I would expect of it; I have to admit that it is quite expensive. A fair bit more than I would expect to pay for a cord to be honest. But you do get quality for your money.

The only other downside is that by holding your flash in one hand, you only have one hand left for your camera, which can cause problems with operating your cameras controls. If you're handholding, it can also make holding the camera still quite difficult.

One last thing that you may be wondering is: is it worth my money to go for the SC-29 instead of the SC-28? The difference being that the SC-29 has a built in AutoFocus Illuminator. I have both sync cords and I would say no. If you shoot subjects that frequently give your cameras AF problems then you may benefit from the AF illuminator but personally my D300 has never had any such problems and I rarely use the AF assist when on camera or off so I would say: save yourself the slight difference in price.

Just a flash - until you go multi. Then it's amazing

The SB-800 is easily the coolest flashgun that you can put on your camera's hotshoe. But the amazing control of the Nikon creative lighting system only becomes apparent when you add a second or even third flash. A word of caution, though -- the best features only work on Nikon's most recent cameras.

As a flash in itself, this is well-specified. The Guide Number is 38 at ISO 100 -- not far short of the GN45 of the classic (and enormous) Metz MecaBlitz flashes that were virtually compulsory on professional cameras in the 80s and 90s. It neatly compensates for digital's inability to do TTL flash metering with i-TTL, as well as providing useful features like Flash-Value lock and auto-high FP, for synchronising at any speed. Like its predecessors, it has built in zooming, and modelling flash.

The SB-800 comes with a nice set of accessories -- a stand, gel filters, a diffuser (in addition to the on-flash wide adaptor), and a neat extra battery add-on, which improves recycle time. It also comes with a smart, velcro close bag, which has nice compartments for all the accessories. Neat.

Although it will function on virtually any Nikon camera, the SB-800 is designed to solve the problems created by digital cameras. The biggest of these problems is that Through-the-Lens flash metering, where the light bounces off the film and is measured by the light meter, will not work on digital because -- to put it simply -- digital sensors are not shiny enough to reflect sufficient light. Nikon's original solution was D-TTL, which is found on the SB-80 DX. It was not a winner. The SB-800's solution is called i-TTL, and works by pre-firing the flash so that the camera can measure the light. The exposure is nigh-on perfect, although it naturally slows down the whole process. If you don't like it, you can always select Auto-Aperture, or fully manual. i-TTL works on the D2 cameras and the D200.

The SB-800 really comes into its own when you match it with one, two, or even three other SB-800s or SB-600s. In remote mode, you set the flash to one of four frequencies, and to one of three groups, A, B or C. In master mode (the one actually attached to your camera), you can then change the ratios of each group, and the master flash, from -3 to +3. When you take the picture, all the flashes pre-fire for i-TTL, if that's the mode you selected (you set mode per flash), and you get a perfectly exposed picture. Of course, getting the ratios right is the real trick -- the exposure can be 'right' and it can still look dreadful. You can keep playing with the ratios on the master flash without having to touch the remote flashes. On one of the D2 or D200 cameras, you can keep checking until you're happy.

If this sounds like studio-flash, it is. And it isn't. Once you've shot off 15 flashes at full intensity at the maximum burst rate, you have to let the unit cool down for ten minutes. Compared to mains-powered studio flash, the recycle time is slow, and even powerful NIMH batteries discharge after a couple of hundred exposures. And, powerful as it is for a flash-gun, the SB-800 is weak compared to most studio flash. Nonetheless, for something that you can stick into four big pockets and take with you up a mountain, this is something extraordinary. Add to that the tight integration with the Nikon cameras, and the result is nothing short of revolutionary.

Nikon slave flash

The Su-4 is most useful where a full studio lighting rig is unavailable. It is easy to use and well built - the only problem is do I require another!

Flashbar Nikon

Given that it is a strip of metal with holes and fixings for the flash and camera it is a bit difficult to get too excited;however it does exactly what it is supposed to,and the off camera flash is definitely much better.

Dont buy a Nikon Flash without this battery pack

I do celebrity shoots of footballers and its a pain when your flash dies on you after an hour. I bought this after reading a few reviews which recommended it and lo and behold its worth every penny. Its purely a 6 battery pack but it gives a speedier recharge rate and it lasts for ages. buy it and improve your flash photography.

Expensive eh?

Let's face it - this is an expensive item just for a 1m sync cord - but it does what is says on the tin - so in that sense you get what you pay for.

Less, is more

A tad expensive for what is essentially a spartan piece of bent metal, a base screw and a flash mount but you must remember, it's a piece of Nikon bent metal with a precision base screw and quality flash mount... now that makes all the difference! In conclusion, it's the only way to get a dedicated flash to work with the 4500, 995's, et al, The SK-E900 including the AS-E900 is as you would expect from the house of Nikon, a well made and practical piece of kit.

WOW - Does what is says - excellent product

I use this for medical photography, but it sometimes come home for other close up work or portriats of the family. The flash is natural and correcty exposed. The range of controls and the creative possibilities are the best there is. It's not something that you would have with you all the time, but the pictures are very good. I use it with the 105mm macro and the detail of the pictures is quite outstanding. Not a toy and quite expensive, but if you want the best then this it it.

Essential piece of kit for any Nikon dSLR owner

Nikon's entry level flash is a fantastic offering and lives up to the quality name you'd expect from a Nikon product.

The biggest reason to buy this flash is to be able bounce the light for indoor shots. This redirection of the light eliminates the directional lighting effects produced by a normal built in flash and creates photos that look like they were taken in natural light. Cast shadows and over exposure will be a thing of the past.

A second reason is that you'll need a high mounted flash if you use a fatter lens - my 18-200mm lens will cast a shadow with the built in flash because it's too close to the lens mounting.

For an amateur photographer the SB400 offers almost everything you could need for shooting in low light conditions, the only fault is that for portrait shots (the orientation, not the subject matter) the flash does not swivel in the required axis to bounce the light off the ceiling. A flash extension cable would fix this problem (product SC-28), or some ingenious home made device could do the trick too.

Aside from that fault, the flash produces fantastic colours and lighting indoors. On my D50 it's simply"plug in and go". I do not need to adjust the levels unless I am being very fussy (I shoot on high saturation as a default, as advised by many professionals regarding the Nikon cameras). The power offered by the small unit exceeds anything I'd need indoors, and one of the biggest plus points is that it takes AA batteries so my Uniross rechargeable batteries slot straight in. The flash also recycles quickly enough for normal use.

Battery life is great - the unit switches itself off if you're not using it so I can make a set of batteries (2000maH) last a good two hundred shots. Another benefit is you take the power consumption away from the battery on the camera that you would be consuming if you were shooting with the built-in flash.

Finally, the small size of the SB400 means greater portability, it's constructed extremely well and the locking mechanism secures everything in place in case you'd ever worry about the flash dropping off the camera body.

Worth every penny.