Product Review: Nikon SB-900 Flash

Nikon SB-900 Flash Unit

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With Nikon’s announcement of their new D700 last month (which is now available in stores) they also released an updated flash model which looks like it will eventually replace the SB-800.  I say eventually because Nikon always follows a similar pattern.  They announce that a new product with slightly different specifications will run along in the product line-up side-by-side a similar product – not replace it.  However, what they really mean to say is “the other item is out of production, but we still have a bunch, so until we run out of them in the warehouse, it is yet to be replaced.” Of course they have to say this.  Who would purchase ‘old’ or ‘replaced’ technology in this day and age?  Nikon did the same exact thing for the D200 and D50 when the D300 and D40 came out respectively (even though the D40 is a crippled D50).  Each stood in the product line-up next to their companion model for a short period of time, and then the older model fizzled.  But, circling back to my point here about the SB-900 – it appears to be both an improved model one level up, but yet also a replacement for when the SB-800s are all gone from the warehouse.  Below I will outline the major improvements of this flash over its predecessor and why one would consider purchasing it.  I will say right now – if you are not a professional and only use a flash recreationally – then you do NOT need to purchase this unit.  Even an SB-600 or after market flash is fine.  Also, the upgrade points I will talk about on this flash are real features that can make a difference when shooting, not just technical garble that they spit out at you.

# 1 ) The flash unit is taller than the SB-800.  In fact, it is considerably taller.  The flash sits an entire one-inch higher when mounted atop the camera’s hotshoe.  Why is this important?  Two reasons:  The higher the flash or the greater the angle at which it is from the front of the lens, the less chance of red-eye you will have in your people photos.  Secondly, when you raise the flash up to bounce the light off of the ceiling, the flash is now an entire inch closer to the ceiling than with the SB-800.  Yes, even one inch matters.

# 2 ) The flash head is nearly 40% larger on the SB-900 than on the SB-800.  This means the newer flash is able to spread the light in a broader stroke than the previous unit.  Why is this important?  It can provide more even lighting across the image frame instead of concentrating a beam of light to a certain region of the photograph.  Also, when bouncing the flash off of a ceiling or wall, a broader stroke of light will then fan out into an even, wide splash of light after reflecting off the wall or ceiling.  This creates more natural-looking lighting effects.

# 3 ) Swivels nearly 360 degrees.  Why is this important?  The last thing I want to do is fire my flash unit directly at my subject.  Creates awful shadows, harsh light, chance of red-eye, and possibly unpleasant and unflattering body sculpting (brides hate this!).  I use a method that I call ‘foofing’.  I know it sounds silly, but it’s the sound I imagine the beam of light making as it’s bouncing off of a wall and hitting my subject from different angles.  The limitation that the SB-800 had was that it could not swivel its head past 90 degrees to the right, which cuts you off from light sculpting the left-hand side of your subject when the camera is in the horizontal position.  It can swivel further in the left-direction, but you don’t always have a wall on your left.  Sometimes the wall is camera right!  Then what?  Well, the SB-900 swivels nearly 360 degrees so that you can ‘foof’ from any direction to get the lighting you are looking for.  More on ‘foofing’ in a future article!

# 4 ) Larger LED readout than the SB-800.  This is important because this screen can support the display of more information than the SB-800 can.  It allows you to see more of the settings that are enabled instead of wondering…’do I have function set?’….in addition to of course just allowing you to see larger letters, numbers, and symbols than you could on the older, smaller screen.

# 5 ) Quicker remote / master switching.  With the SB-800 you have to hold down the SEL button for two seconds in order to get into the back menu so that you could enable & disable the flash’s settings for remote setup – whether it was a slave, master, or to deactivate it to just a regular hotshoe flash again.  This was very annoying in fast-paced environments.  If you scroll back up to the top of this article and take a look around the power switch for the unit, you will see that remote and master are easily accessible on the outside as click-stops on the power switch.  Brilliant!

# 6 ) Better battery performance.  The SB-800 came supplied in the box with a clip for an extra (5th) AA battery to power the flash unit.  This battery is necessary when shooting in fast-paced situations so that the flash can recycle its power quicker to be able to shoot again when you need it.  It is amazing how much faster this 5th AA battery can make the unit operate.  The SB-900 however does not require the use of this fifth battery slot.  The power parameters of the flash have been reprogrammed so that it recycles faster actually, with just four AA batteries (use AA Lithiums or AA NiMH of course, for best performance).

# 7 ) Better locking mechanism.  The SB-800 and all Nikon SLRs were notorious for having loose connections at their weakest link with each other: the Flash Shoe.  After some time (as little as 3 months) the connection point for the flash unit to the body would be become a little jiggly, wobbley, however you wish to say it.  The SB-800 was an improvement of previous models, but it was still faulty.  All I can say is that it has been improved once again with the SB-900, but I’m sure through serious use something will eventually begin to wear.  But this is OK.  This part is the weakest link between flash and camera body, and every other manufacturer’s system has the same problem.  You just have to keep an eye out.

The SB-900 has an estimated retail price of about $499, which is about $120 higher than what the SB-800 sold for.  So, as you can see, it is introduced at a higher initial price, but don’t be surprised if SB-800s start drying up about this time next year or even earlier since they are such a deal right now.

What do I have in my bag?  I do have an SB-900, however I use it only when I am using a single flash on-camera set up.  If I am doing multi-unit wireless flash, I will continue to use my SB-800s and fire them into umbrellas.  It’s too costly to replace an entire lighting system with new SB-900s @ $499 each.  The 900 just offers more options when hot-shoe mounted as noted in reason # 3 outlined above.