Resources for Nikon's SB-800 Speedlight
This is a team effort -- please send comments/contributions to me at ron at hiner.net
Special thanks to Doug Urner, Thomas England, Michal Pilla and Tom Bullard for lots of contributions!
Nikon
- Nikon's full color booklet showing various SB-800 portrait setups. (Download and save this file - Nikon could take it away at any time.) Nikon's SB-800 Collection of Sample Photos (PDF)
- Nikon's SB-800 Instruction Manual. I hated this book at first-- and it took me a long time to actually make sense out of it. It is so laced with acronyms and product codes that it is not very approachable at all. I downloaded the PDF version of the manual and printed it on letter sized paper and put it in a binder. That helped.
- Nikon SB-800 knowledgebase
- Nikon School Guide to Creative Lighting. This is a 58 page booklet that has some interesting things... including some details on Joe McNally's shot for National Geographic that utilized 18 SB-800s! I got my copy free by attending Nikon School.
- Joe McNally's The Speed of Light This is an excellent DVD. I saw one review of it that dismissed it as a marketing piece for Nikon -- I couldn't disagree more. It's very high level -- you won't get into the technical nitty gritty here. It's about vision -- visioning what you can do with the system by traveling light and working fast. In one section he stares right at the camera and says that you have to read the manual -- and that he always carries it with him in his bag. My take is that this DVD is for people like me that need a broad understanding to give context to the minutiae. The details without context are next to impossible to learn well without that. (It's also fun to watch a master at work!)
- Nikon Imaging's See What Speedlights Can Do. Looks like a new promotional flash presentation -- and some clever how-to virtual setups to demonstrate light ratios.
- Nikon's SB-800 sales flyer
The Strobist -- David Hobby's incredible site
- This is a tresasure-trove of constantly updated information about using small shoe-mount flashes. It's a "lighting idea bank, run by and for photjournalists."
D1scussion Mailing List
- Juergen Specht's Nikon D-SLR email discussion listis a tremendous professional mailing list resource for all things Nikon. As of this writing - Juregen's email list is where the most active SB-800's discussions are running. The mailing list arcives are available on a web page for list members.
ProPhotoCommunity.com
- This site has a great searchable database of SB-800 stuff -- and nearly everything else digital. The site is under new ownership, and we wish the new owners best of luck in working out the growing pains. It differs from all the other photography forum sites in two ways -- the signal to noise ratio on the site has been great -- and the design of the site just works. It scores near 100% for both content and design. (The new owner, however, stated that a redesign is coming soon.) Search the forums for answers -- but you can no longer post a question unless you pay the newly instated annual fee. For SB-800 information, search both the Nikon forum and the Lighting equipment forum.
- Many of the regular contributors to the former site of this forum have made themselves available elsewhere -- you can tap into their expertise in the forums at OutbackPhoto.com and Juergen Specht's list mentioned above.
Dave Black Workshops:
Sportshooter.com
Important SB-800 things to know
- Beware of the SB-800 in commander mode. It can be hard to tell
when the batteries are low -- first thing that happens is that
communication goes haywire and remotes misfire (or don't fire at all). The
first step in troubleshooting is to replace the batteries in the
commander.
- It would be great if we could put together a table the shows what features of CLS are supported by different cameras. The D70/D70s, for
example doesn't support the modeling light function. The D50
probably doesn't either. The D2H/D2Hs/D2X do support it and it
appears that the D200 will as well. Also... the D70 only supports one wireless group - the D2x supports three. The D70 does not support FP sync. The D2x does........... If anyone wants to research these sort of details... let me know and I'll either link to it or host the page.
Nikonians
Photo.net
Moose Petersen
Oleg Novikov
Thom Hogan
About.com
NikonLinks.com
Important accessories
(Important note... there are direct links below to specific dealers. That's really for my web-page building convenience -- not necessarily the best place from which to buy. These are not sponsored links.) I buy all my stuff from dealers I know -- and that know me. I suggest you do the same. I used to buy on price -- but I've found that the five minute phone call with someone truly knowledgeable about the equipment is more than worth a few extra dollars on the retail price. So... don't shop on price. Shop on service. It's just worth more. )
Nikon Accessories
- Nikon's SB-800 -- The best accessory for your SB-800 is a another SB-800. If you have two, then get another. As many as I have already, I really just need one more! (and that will always be the case no matter how many I have.)
- SU-800 Remote Commander -- It's on my wish list. Smaller & lighter, longer range and IR communication. Better than using SB-800 as a controller. Sweet!
- Remote battery pack -- when 5 batteries are not enough.
- SC-28 / SC-29 remote cable. Allows you to move the commander flash off the camera. - The SC-28 is an upgraded SC-17 with a 1/4 female thread and sockets
for two extension sync cables. The SC-29 is similar, but with a focus assist lamp on the camera end and no extension sockets. If
you've got an SC-17 it still works fine. Paramount makes
extended length SC-17 (and probably 28 and 29) cables.
- Nikon SB-600. A reader submitted this as an good thing to have -- but I'm not convinced. It's got a somewhat different interface than the SB-800. And yes, it's less expensive. But aside from cost, I'm not sure it provides any real advantages over an SB-800. I prefer minimizing the number of different things I have to learn. Here is a Photo.net discussion on choosing between SB-600 and SB-800. Here is another.
- Nikon SC-200 -- this is the new lens mount flash. I haven't tried one. In addition to the obvious macro use, it it might be great for small accents.
The Justin Clamp
- If you use multiple SB-800's, then you need a Justin Clamp of these for each flash. There is a picture of it here... as well as contact info for Jeff Snyder. Call him... he's a great guy and very knowledgeable. It's technically known as a Bogen-Manfrotto 175F clamp. But Justin invented it for Joe. He deserves credit. (Yeah, Joe -- the guy that takes 18 speedlights to location shoots -- if anyone needs Justin Clamps, Joe does.)
- Notes from Doug:
- A word of warning about the Justin clamp. It is almost big enough
to work on the lower section of an Autopole -- but not quite. An SB-800 will hang there for a while and then
it will pop off. It could be very expensive . . . you have been warned.
- A SuperClamp with a Bogen 2932 flash shoe and a 3113 female stud
also makes a nice mount for an SB-800. The Bogen 2896 flex arm is
too light to hold an SB-800, but the 2896HD might work (haven't tried
one yet).
Light Modifiers
- Chimera makes a couple of speedrings that will work with SB-800s.
The 2790 holds one speedlight with a small "on camera" softbox. The
2785M will mount two and includes a Lite-Tite bracket for stand
mounting. Neither one will allow the softbox to rotate. The 2785M
is a larger ring and may require shorter rods.
- Photoflex makes a softbox set up for the SB-800... and I'm not really wild about it. I bought their 2'x3' soft box and I find the weight of the softbox is just too much for the photo flex mount. It works, but its too wobbly for my taste. The softbox is hard to set up and it doesn't travel well. Here is a picture of it. (A 2x3 soft box is too small anyway -- I like 'em BIG).
- My current favorite set up for soft light is a Westcott diffuser panel held up on a stand with a Westcott illuminator arm. I put an SB-800 on another stand about two feet behind the first stand and shoot the flash right through the panel.
The shot here is done with that setup: my model is about 3 feet away from the diffuser panel -- on her left. On her right is a white painted wall to fill in the other side of her face. The background is lit by a second SB-800 and a halogen lamp over the sheet music. (And I brightened up her eyes a bit in Photoshop.) The whole kit - two light stands, a collapsible panel, and a couple SB-800s is easy to travel with and easy to setup.
PocketWizard
- The range of remotely controlling the SB-800 is sometimes unfortunately too short. I've got a pair of PocketWizards on my wish list to solve that problem once and for all. The next thing I'm going to need is a cord that will connect two SB-800's to one PocketWizard. For that, there is Paramount Cords.
- If you run an SB-800 with PocketWizards you loose all the cool CLS
stuff, but when you have to, you have to.
Color Filters
- I use the incandescent filters all the time that came with the Speed lights. But it doesn't come with enough, and don't even want to think about how much Nikon wants to charge for replacements. With $6.25 and a pair of scissors, you can make dozens and dozens if you buy a sheet of Lee CT Orange filter. Rosco makes great filters too -- I'm sure they have the same color as Lee CT Orange (is it Rosco #3411??) . Get the Rosco Swatch book here -- Lee also has a swatch book too available from Glazer's, The swatch books and gels are probably available from any theater or film supply house. The swatch book filters are the perfect size to tape over the front of the SB-800. But if you need one color in quantity - like I do with CT Orange, then buy the sheet.
- . B&H has Rosco swatch books for one cent. Go nuts. Order two. (They could double their price anytime.)
Cases
- This is a problem I haven't solved. I hate the SB-800 cases that Nikon provides. My LowePro Novo Mini AW bag holds three SB-800s perfectly. I'd like to find something that holds more -- but holds just them just as well. When you scatter SB-800s all over your location setup, you want your case to hold exactly the number of SB-800s that your brought - so you know you have them all when you are packing up.
- I keep my Justin Clamps and a half dozen A-clamps in a sheetrock compound-style bucket. I can flip it over and stand on it if I need to.
- Michael Pilla reports he's having good luck with a Domke bags with this Domke insert for a 4-light kit that he can drop into any of several cases he has.. (And now his Dynalites don't see much use anymore.) Check out his portfolio -- Michael is a guy that knows location lighting! More from Michael: "My small Speedlight kit fits into a Tenba car case CC14 or a
Lightware Z5020 soft side case. The Domke insert holds 4 Speedlights and occupies about half the
case. The other half of the case holds a Nikon High-Speed Battery
Pack, 2 Chimera Speedrings already mounted on Bogen umbrella
adapters, 2 Bogen Justin Clamps, one or two more Bogen umbrella
adapters."
Review/Previews/Press Releases
Batteries
- Thomas Distributing - great source for batteries & chargers. They have a charger that will handle 8 batteries at a
time with a pretty fast charge (the MAHA CH-C801D).
- Here is a 10-bay smart charger that Thomas England uses with success. I use AA batteries in my SB-800s in multiples of 5 -- but until Thomas reported this one, all the chargers I knew about come in multiples of 4. (If you have only a 4 or 8 bay charger, you might want to shoot with 4 batteries in your SB-800 if you don't need the faster recycling time of 5 batteries).
- Doug uses 4 batteries because the cycle time difference doesn't matter that much and it is easier to deal with
multiples of 4 batteries than 5 and the light is a bit less clumsy
and heavy with 4. Still it's cool to have the option of 5. If you
only have 4 lights that works out OK (4 SB-800s x 4 batteries x 2
(for spares) + 8 for extra spares or fast cycling = 40 batteries.
Two 8 position chargers, plus a 4 that fits in my camera case means
that it only takes two charging cycles to get everything back up and
he's never run out of battery.)
- If you have a bunch of SB-800's and you have a policy of fresh batteries for every shoot, you had better learn some things about batteries. Here's a comprehensive article from Nikonians. They know their stuff about batteries... and about fashion, they knowthis. I'm going to order one right now!
- My local Radio Shack has the best deal I've found for AA alkaline batteries. They are currently about 50cents each in a nice container of 40 batteries.
- Doug carries 8 Duracells as an ultimate backup. The down side of NiMH
batteries is that they self-discharge at the rate of about 3% per
day. The Duracells have a very long shelf life and acceptable
recycle times.
- Other battery resources: the Digital Camera Battery and the UnderDog Battery. Both are external packs.
- Can you power an SB-800 with AC? ... umm... probably not.
- Steve's Digicam's reviews of battery chargers
Google's latest on SB-800
What's on eBay?
Here is the most consise set of intructions for the SB-800 that I've ever seen.. (thanks Gordon of NikonCafe.com)
Hi Chris, I will give you a few tips to practice on and you will come away from that with a better appreciation for how to control the SB800. First let me say that the manual is almost unintelligible so we agree on that right out of the chute. OK, here is what I would do:
1. Put your camera on manual and your flash on TTL (no BL following it).
2. Walk around your house (school) and pick out a subject where the background has some light. The subject could be a lamp shade, your girlfriend, etc., and have a background as light as or lighter than the subject.
3. Pick an aperture that will accomplish what you want from a DOF perspective.
4. Place your camera on center weighted metering.
5. Meter the background and set your through the viewfinder meter reading at -1 using your shutter speed dial.
6. Your flash should be on TTL and with no + or - compensation.
7. Recompose your shot focusing on your subject and take the exposure.
8. OK, here is where the learning comes in. If you are happy with the background, leave it where it is. If not and you want your background darker, set your meter at -2. If too dark, set it at zero.
9. If your subject is overexposed, use the onboard flash adjustment to decrease the flash exposure to -.3 or -.7. Do not use the on camera EV compensation dial for this purpose. Retake the exposure and see what you think now.
10. Now sit down and think about this for a minute or two. Background exposure is controlled by the camera meter, flash controls the subject exposure.
After you have assimilated this information, go outside and do the same thing. Keep at this until you feel comfortable that you are in control and can make the background and subject be at any value that you want. With knowledge comes power.
Don't forget the flash sync speed of your camera, you have to work around that. Now practice, practice, practice and you will feel great about the SB800. Just FYI, if you shoot in program with the flash on TTL-BL, the camera/flash is doing automatically what you have been doing manually (but not as well IMHO). The difference is they are in control and not you. Which would you rather have in control???
See also J. Aluns field notes: Good stuff here!
Please email comments about this page to ron AT hiner DOT net.
