Digital Home Thoughts: Nikon SB900: Flash forward?

The SB900 In Use
Out in the field, the SB900 did not feel any different in practice to the SB800. Nikon's iTTL system by now is mature and reliable. I got good exposures in just about any situation, and for fill-light in the daytime, applying the usual flash compensation settings got the results I wanted. The ability of the flash in TTL mode is greatly determined by the camera it is attached to, since the flash's exposure is determined by the camera. Note the flash doesn't support the older DTTL.

One of the big improvements in the SB900 that was felt immediately was in the flash recycle times. I found not needing to wait for the flash ready light to come on as much after some sustained shooting. I also conducted a simple test of firing the SB900 and SB800 with the fifth battery multiple times at full power and timing how long it took for the ready light to come on. Sanyo Eneloops were used in all the tests. The SB900 consistently was ready in under 2.5 seconds; in comparison the SB800 would take another 0.4 to 0.5 seconds. In addition to the increased speed, the logistics of having to prepare batteries in sets of four are much simpler compared to that in sets of five.

The new flash head, touted by Nikon as giving greater creative control. It has zoom settings that let it cover, in FX full-frame terms, a focal length of 17mm to 200mm, a very wide range. A neat trick is that the flash now recognises whether it's attached to a DX camera or FX camera and adjusts the flash covereage accordingly. The new flash head also allows the flash to shape the light projected in the following three ways: Centre Weigted (a tight beam of light that only covers the centre of the frame), Standard (the usual beam coverage as in previous flashes), and Even (for extreme even flash coverage over the frame; best for photographing flat white walls). In theory, the new 200mm coverage setting with the new beam patterns could increase the range of the flash, thus rendering flash extenders useless for wildlife photographers, not to mention all the creative applications of shaping the light.

In practice though, the guide number of the SB900 isn't that different from the SB800. In fact, with the zoom head set to mid-range focal lengths, the SB900 has a smaller GN than the SB800. At 200mm, the SB900 has a GN of 57 metres at ISO 100, barely an increase over the SB800's 56 metre GN with the zoomhead set to 105mm at ISO 100.

As for shaping the light, there are some problems with the concept. Firstly, to engage the feature that does that one needs to delve into the custom function to set a light pattern of either Centre Weighted, Standard, or Even. If you were in a situation where changing the light pattern was needed every few minutes, it would grow tiresome very quickly.

The second thing is that, at the heart of it all, it seems that all that this accomplishes is to move the flash head's zoom setting a little bit forward or backward. Basically it is the same sort of thing one can get with a little nudge of the manual zoom feature. Setting a beam pattern in this manner will be more useful to those in event and wedding photography wielding a medium zoom with focal lengths going from wide angle to telephoto in seconds (as setting a beam pattern is less annoying than constantly mucking around with the manual zoom), but Nikon is promoting the new feature in more measured photosoots as well, such as portrait photography, both on-camera or off-camera.

Figure Figure 6: The first row of photos, from left to right, show beam patterns of Centre Weighted, Standard, and Even respectively with the flash head set to 50mm DX coverage. The second row of photos, from left to right, show the flash head to 35mm DX, 50mm DX, and 70mm DX respectively with the beam pattern set to Standard.

As the photos show, the coverage difference is not too great. In fact, using the zoom head manually will yield a greater control of the beam pattern, since this allows manual tuning of how tight or wide a beam is desired.

Final note: In the Centre Weighted beam pattern, the flash will not set a zoom head position to cover narrower than 135mm; conversely, in the Even beam pattern, the flash will not set a zoom head to cover wider than 24mm. All-in-all, this particular feature feels very much like a gimmick.

Conclusion
At the end of it, the SB900 is indeed a capable flash, with even better recycle times and packing plenty of power for a hotshoe flash. The problem, however, is that compared to the SB800, it offers just two new features I consider great, as well as one that is minor at best and gimmicky at worst. All this comes at the expense of a flash that has dramatically increased in size. There's an unsatisfied feeling overall, like that of getting totally stuffed with a meal yet not quite fully satiated.

With the SB800 still available, and for much less in many countries, it represents the SB900's greatest weakness; why get a bigger, heavier and more expensive flash when a cheaper one that is almost as good is still around? If you can live without the two main improvements of faster recycle times (the SB800 still is no slouch) and the revamped UI, grab the SB800 before they go out of stock. Only if you're certain you need the improvements the SB900 has should you purchase it. As of this article's writing, the SB900 is not quite the must-have flash for all Nikon SLR users. Perhaps there will be additional improvements to the flash in future firmware updates, or drops in the pricing as it gets discounted. For now, it is quite close between the SB800 and SB900, with the SB900 favourable for more extreme or specific shooting situations.

Lee Yuan Sheng has been involved in photography since 12, starting with his father's Olympus OM-1. Since then he has used a wide range of equipment, from folding 6x6's to Leica's and Japanese plastik wunderkits. He writes the occasional article when he feels up to it, and can be seen lugging around his current Nikon kit on weekends in an unspecified Asian country.