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01/07/2010 12:59:50 PM · #1 |
What's the major differences between the two?
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01/07/2010 01:01:20 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by SEG:
What's the major differences between the two? |
Off the top of my head...
Size of the flash
Power of the flash
Ability to serve as a CLS master (as opposed to slave)
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01/07/2010 01:07:02 PM · #3 |
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01/07/2010 01:33:02 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by SEG:
CLS master? |
You can use it to control your other flashes.
Other difference is that SB800 is no longer being made, so you would have to buy it used (or get the SB900 new); the SB600 is still being made (and quite a bit cheaper than the SB900). |
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01/07/2010 03:32:01 PM · #5 |
Can the 600 be triggered off camera?
How much does the 900 sell for?
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01/07/2010 03:34:15 PM · #6 |
| The 600 can be triggered by your D70's flash. In your menu there are options for controlling the power output for both the onboard flash and any slave flashes like the 600. |
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01/07/2010 07:46:08 PM · #7 |
| The other difference is that the SB-800 has a PC port allowing you to fire that strobe via wireless triggers such as Pocket Wizards or some other radio based transmitter/receiver. The Nikon CLS system works very well, but has limitations of range and I've had mixed results in broad daylight. That's where having a radio transmitter on the camera and a receiver plugged into the PC port on the SB-800 is nice. It's doesn't care how sunny it is and has long range operability. If money was no option, get the SB-800 or 900. If this is your first advance into off camera flash, the SB-600 is a nice strobe. I have two 600s and two 800s. I started with the 600 and learned a lot from it. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. |
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01/07/2010 08:52:17 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by jahoward:
The other difference is that the SB-800 has a PC port allowing you to fire that strobe via wireless triggers such as Pocket Wizards or some other radio based transmitter/receiver. The Nikon CLS system works very well, but has limitations of range and I've had mixed results in broad daylight. That's where having a radio transmitter on the camera and a receiver plugged into the PC port on the SB-800 is nice. It's doesn't care how sunny it is and has long range operability. If money was no option, get the SB-800 or 900. If this is your first advance into off camera flash, the SB-600 is a nice strobe. I have two 600s and two 800s. I started with the 600 and learned a lot from it. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. |
This mirrors my experience with CLS: very good system, particularly indoors with lots of bouncing of the command flash. In general, I think the built in flash on the camera is just not powerful/omni directional enough to command well outdoors or in full sunlight sometimes. McNally uses an 800 to command all the other strobes in many of his setups.
I started with an 800, used CLS, and then when I wanted to do outdoor fill, found it misfired as often as not. Bought a set of Cybersyncs, problem solved. Then got a 600, works nicely, but had to buy and adapter mount to allow it to be triggered with a receiver.
The CLS system is very nice, though, and a powerful tool in the right circumstances. I agree that if you can swing it, buy a new 900 first, which will give you all the options. Your second speedlight can be a 600 no problem. But you may not want to spend those bucks, so a 600 with an adaptor also gets you CLS and radio trigger capability. Cybersync triggers are affordable AND reliable--highly recommended.
Worth noting here: CLS gives you TTL options as well as full manual control of the speedlights. If you opt for radio triggers, you'll lose the TTL control--it will be a full manual setting of your speedlights situation. This works for me, cuz I don't care much for TTL most of the time.
Message edited by author 2010-01-07 20:55:20. |
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01/07/2010 09:55:14 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by chromeydome:
The CLS system is very nice, though, and a powerful tool in the right circumstances. I agree that if you can swing it, buy a new 900 first, which will give you all the options. Your second speedlight can be a 600 no problem. But you may not want to spend those bucks, so a 600 with an adaptor also gets you CLS and radio trigger capability. Cybersync triggers are affordable AND reliable--highly recommended.
Worth noting here: CLS gives you TTL options as well as full manual control of the speedlights. If you opt for radio triggers, you'll lose the TTL control--it will be a full manual setting of your speedlights situation. This works for me, cuz I don't care much for TTL most of the time. |
The 900 is also far more user-friendly when it comes to navigating the menus and altering things. That's the reason I went with it over the 800. I think it zooms more too. It's also ridiculously gigantic, so portability has suffered in the evolution. I figured working some overtime was better than getting pissed at my flash all the time.
Also, there are iTTL radio triggers now. Radiopoppers and the newest iteration of PocketWizards both support it. |
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01/07/2010 10:37:33 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by spiritualspatula:
Originally posted by chromeydome:
The CLS system is very nice, though, and a powerful tool in the right circumstances. I agree that if you can swing it, buy a new 900 first, which will give you all the options. Your second speedlight can be a 600 no problem. But you may not want to spend those bucks, so a 600 with an adaptor also gets you CLS and radio trigger capability. Cybersync triggers are affordable AND reliable--highly recommended.
Worth noting here: CLS gives you TTL options as well as full manual control of the speedlights. If you opt for radio triggers, you'll lose the TTL control--it will be a full manual setting of your speedlights situation. This works for me, cuz I don't care much for TTL most of the time. |
The 900 is also far more user-friendly when it comes to navigating the menus and altering things. That's the reason I went with it over the 800. I think it zooms more too. It's also ridiculously gigantic, so portability has suffered in the evolution. I figured working some overtime was better than getting pissed at my flash all the time.
Also, there are iTTL radio triggers now. Radiopoppers and the newest iteration of PocketWizards both support it. |
Yes, you are correct that there are radio trigger options for TTL--I was referring to the affordable cybersyncs. At least we are talking nikon speedlights here--went to a workshop recently put on by Pocket Wizard where they were giving away free EMI shield hotshoe adapters and EMI Shield Cloth "Condoms" to cover the entire Canon speedlight, so that the emi from them would stop interfering with the PW. They hinted that Canon will do an inline upgrade to speedlights sometime in the future to fix the emi problem (but will never admit it, and won't announce when they do it). Canons Require Condoms To Protect Other Gear. Nikon should run an ad..... |
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01/07/2010 11:19:53 PM · #11 |
| Yeah, I thought that was interesting when they released it that they didn't figure out there was a problem prior to release. Makes me think the whole product was horribly rushed. And yeah, the Cybersyncs are very affordable. I don't really feel the need to get high quality triggers at the moment, but they were on my shortlist until I found the Radiopoppers. I figured, for some things, iTTL is nice to just fire things off fast and I might as well buy one product that can do that as well should I want to. But I'm not at the point that I require them yet (nor will I necessarily ever require them). But yeah, all the Buff stuff seems pretty sweet. |
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