When NOT to use the Nikon SB-900

The Nikon SB-900 is an excellent flash, which I reviewed here a couple of months back.  However, I ran into an issue with the flash during a critical moment at a recent Bat Mitzvah shoot.

Here’s the scenario:  There I am, happily snapping away at the family of the day as they dance around, interlocked, in circles on the dance floor.  Next thing you know, the circle of people becomes ever-increasing as more family and friends join in the revelry, culminating with the hoisting up of the mitzvah-ed young lady above the crowd on her chair for the hora.  So, I get up on my step stool to get a better shooting angle, she is hoisted up…and I begin to take photographs only to find out that my flash is no longer firing.  Now, you might be thinking already, “What a dummy he is.  Everybody knows that the weaker your batteries get, the longer the flash takes to recycle.”  Yes, I am aware of that, much more so than most photographers out there.  That is why I shoot with a Quantum Turbo battery pack attached to my flash, and that is why I use Energizer Lithium batteries inside my flash units.  When I looked at the back of the flash screen, the only thing I saw was a symbol that I had never seen before and didn’t really have time to concern myself with.  So, what did I do?  Kerry obviously noticed something was wrong, so she ran over to start shooting from my angle – I threw down the D3 and swung the the D700 around from my other shoulder and relied on my Nikon 50mm f/1.4, 6400 ISO, and the RAW file format.   We are pleased to say, the photographs came out just fine.  In fact, they had a feel to them that may not have been possible if shot with flash.   But, here’s what happened:

After five minutes or so, the flash was working fine again.  I was really confused, because my Quantum Battery Pack was nowhere near below 75% juice and these Energizer Lithium were fresh for this shoot.  However, a little while later when I found myself taking repetitive photographs once again for a particular portion of the action, the same damn thing happened.  Swung the D700 around again and kept shooting.  This was very frustrating.  I had about a 10 minute break, so I went over to my Pelican transport case in the other rooom and switched out the SB-900 for another SB-800 (I’m so glad I have three flashes, as Kerry was using the other SB-800).  My configuration for the SB-800 is always to use the additional clip for a 5th battery.  This option greatly improves recycle time, something that is not available for the SB-900.  Anyway, I was able to shoot unencumbered for the rest of the day.  A little bit later though, it finally clicked in my mind what happened with the SB-900.  I remembered something I wrote about in my review on the flash when talking about the new features on the flash – it has an internal temperature gauge!  When the flash senses that it might be overheating, it automatically shuts itself down.  Now, I suppose that is fine and it will prevent the flash from being damaged, but this means that it can [obviously] cause problems and screw you up right when you are about to photograph some of the most important action at a particular event.  I don’t know about you, but I know that for each subsequent wedding or event we shoot, we’ll only have SB-800s mounted on the cameras and we’ll keep the SB-900 for outdoor fill-in flash and studio usage.

Anyway, enjoy a photograph produced from the failure of the SB-900.  This photograph was taken with the D700, ISO 6400 with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4

D700, Hand-held, natural light