Nikon SB-800 Speedlight

The flash itself is powerful, compact and very efficient on the batteries. In the box you get a little stand to hold the flash off-camera, and a very useful soft-diffusion head to reduce harshness of shadows. You also get a clip to hold an additional battery that boosts recycle times if needed. Personally, I've found the recycle time to be excellent for general use. There's also a coloured filter to colour-balance the flash with tungsten light (regular light bulbs).

The flash swivels and rotates in all directions which means it's great for indirect or bounce flash on the camera. It also has a built in zoom head which is motorised and automatically controlled by the camera. It also has a built-in (so you won't lose it) extra wide-angle diffuser, and a clever mini reflector that adds highlights to the eyes when you are using the flash in bounce mode. Clever stuff.

Another nice touch is the built-in modelling light – press a button and it acts a bit like a torch so you can see how the various lights will balance out. Less crucial with digital cameras where you get instant results, but still helpful.

Nikon's sophisticated iTTL flash system means you can use multiple flashguns simultaneously and the camera will sort out the exposure superbly. You can have an unlimited number of compatible additional flashguns (at this price?!) managed in up to 3 groups, with each group having separate power levels and other settings. It’s not the most intuitive system to setup, but reasonably straightforward if you have the manual handy.

One word of warning, I assumed that by having the SB-800 off camera, and using my D70 as the 'commander' flash (ie the one that coordinates all the others), I'd get nice bi-directional lighting. Wrong. If you use the inbuilt flash on the camera as commander, it does not contribute any light to the photo. It flashes away when you take the shot, but that's all pre-shot to sort out exposure levels and synchronisation of the flash guns. So, if you want multiple light-sources, you need multiple flashguns.

If you're a serious pro, you may want to kit yourself out with multiple SB-800s or their less powerful siblings, the SB-600. Alternatively, from Dec05 you should be able to pickup the new Nikon SB-200 which is a "clever slave" flash that is for exclusively non-hotshoe use (ie remotely mounted or macro mount to side of lens). It's still not cheap (£160ish but should come down) but worth a look, particularly in the guise of their macro-kit which will have 2 flash units + accessories.

Overall, given the choice of SB-600 or 800, it's generally worth getting the latter for the extra power and command mode (missing on 600). Bear in mind that the real benefits of the system (iTTL flash with multiple flash units) means you'll effectively need at least 1x SB-800 plus another 800,600 or 200.

That can all add up to a lot of money. The built-in flash on the Nikon dSLRs gives excellent results but the lighting is still relatively harsh and unflattering as it is a single point source aimed directly at the subject. It’s fantastic for fill-in during daylight, but means all pictures where flash is the main light source are reduced to ‘snapshot’ standard. A single SB-800 introduces more power, the ability to bounce light off ceilings or walls, and noticeably improves the lighting. However, for really superb lighting to deliver top quality images, you need a minimum of two flashguns. This permits backlighting of the subject and will deliver much improved highlights and modelling.

Is the SB-800 worth the money? Well it's state of the art and clearly part of a very well thought-out flash system - Nikon lead the world in the sophistication of this technology. A single additional flash will give some useful benefits, but for studio-grade shots you’ll need the SB-800 plus at least one other. That isn’t cheap, but them neither is going to a studio. If you’re a keen amateur, perhaps with children that you’ll want regular top-quality photos of, it’s well worth considering.