Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlight Flash for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

As many others have pointed out, just get this one! It is an investment for the future if you are serious about photography...

I won't repeat what many other reviews have already said, other than the flash is great... its ueber powerful...great built in features...slave capable...and yes, you probably want to read the manual if you are not familar with how to use a powerful flash on flesh tones. I use this flash typically with bounce when in doors. It creates some great natural-looking lighting when the real thing is not available.

HOWEVER, on more than one occasion I have used the 5th battery pack for faster recharge times during high usage events (think: awards banquet), only to find that after about 20 minutes my recharge time has slowed down anyways. I've then opened the battery compartment only to find that my Lithium Energizer batteries looked like they were about to explode from their contact ends! They were literally bubbled out. This has happened on more than one occasion using numerous different packs of batteries. So I have to assume that they weren't 'bad' batteries. Perhaps I received a faulty unit... but I figured it would be safer to send out a warning. Again, this has only happened when using the 5th battery pack...which is supposed to give the unit more voltage to allow it to recharge faster.

It's the most expensive speedlight Nikon makes. It's got a million and one options, a significant number of them fairly useful. Highly adjustable, from 1/1 to 1/128 in 1/3ev steps.

There's plenty of reviews that will give you all sorts of statistics and features, so I'll just comment on the user experience.

You can't get a better speedlight. It works amazingly well.

If you're wavering between this and the SB-600, ask yourself if you need a PC synch port or a few of the other high end options. If the answer is no, save your $ and get a SB-600. If you need something impressive, get this.

If you need a lot of light? Get some Alien Bees.

The Nikon SB-800 I would have to say is the best flash for the money, I have friends that are pro photographers and they have this flash, I am just starting out doing photography and I was not hot on spending alot of money on a flash, but I can say this was worth it when you start using this SB-800 you will know, it was worth getting. I am still learning all the things I can do with this and the one thing I have to say I love this flash.....

Having been in photography less than a year, it still took me about 45 minutes to figure out the SB-800. This includes using it in full off camera iTTL CLS mode as well as Remote and SU-4 mode on my D200.

While on a recent vacation, I set the flash manually to 1/2 power and was able to clearly light and see people in my pictures. This would not be impressive, except that it was in a totally dark arena and the people that I lit and clearly captured were on the OTHER FAR SIDE of the arena (mind you, this is width, not length-wise. NO flash can do this distance the long way on 1/2 power!). The SB-800 is extremely powerful as a flash.

This strobe is still as of today (April 2008), the STRONGEST on camera flash available on the market, it is also the most versatile. I've used it in conjunction as a bounce flash, fill flash and trigger flash for 120v studio strobes that have integrated optical triggers. I have used it as a remote flash to create amazingly well lit and professional looking portraits of family and friends. I am adding a second (possibly third as well) SB-800 to my collection to be able to have an extremely versatile and powerful portable flash setup.

I've put my SB-800 through hell and back, and it has never let me down. If you are a serious professional or an enthusiastic amateur like myself with a Nikon camera, you cannot make a better choice of flash than Nikon's SB-800.