City: KW, Pasadena
Works great for most normal usage. I bought this when I upgraded my D810 with a built-in flash, to a D850 with no built-in flash. I also have the SB-5000, but this SB-500 is much smaller and far more convenient to travel with.
Exactly as I thought it would be. Thank you!
The SB900/SB910 has given birth! Love the tiny-ness of this speedlight! Sorry, cant give any detailed review, just excited and really love this flash! **12hr update. I got some sleep in. Sorry, let me try again: This speed light has two ... three great things going for it. The first is the most obvious and I dont think Ill get over it for some time, is its size, its small... The second thing is that it has these LEDs for video. Because its on-camera, you may not want a large lens on it though (youll see a lens shadow). The third thing is simplification of the speed light controls. No LED screen in the back, no buttons galore and no combo-buttons. Its simple: Flash on, LED on, A or B, and I think it only uses Channel 3. Oh, and the LED has 3 levels of intensity. There may be a fourth thing going for it and its that it requires only 2 AA batteries. May not be such a "big thing", but talking about small, light, efficient and very usable... Yes, its a big deal... A fifth item to note is that it does not have a "press to tilt or swivel". You just man-handle it and tilt and swivel it. Obviously, there are many pros and cons to the SB-500. For every pro, it can be a con. Ill have to assume that there is some kind of lack in power compared to the SB-900/SB-910. This flash cannot zoom 200mm nor does it have a built in white-card and wide-angle light spreader thinger. No cool glowing LED screen when dark but then its so simple to use you dont need to see to know what youre doing. Theres no input/output jack to old-school wire-connect multiple flashes nor is there an external battery booster thing either. I havent used it in a wedding situation yet so I cant say how the battery lasts or if theres enough umpf in power to have light bouncing far walls or high ceilings. Will update as I know. Or someone else may say so... This speed light is so tiny!... Its pocketable sized! I think I can do a lot with this as a remote flash. There are three modes to the flash: TTL, M and CMD modes. Nothing is controllable on-flash, but all is controlled on-camera. People that like old-school will not like this, but this simplifies things A LOT! No more trying to figure things out whether on-camera or on-flash... I hope this at-first-glance review helped somewhat. Real world testing would probably reveal its limitations. But as I see it, if youre not using flash to blast someone far away, I think its small-ness would make this a very lively and well used flash. Update: Ive been comparing this with my SB600. Its bare bulb design is like that of the sb600 with the wide-angle modifier down. Having it at 1/1 power and fast shooting will obviously show loss of power in consecutive shots, HOWEVER, it still flashes and is more more reliable (faster) than the SB600 (will not fire). Because of the 4 battery design of the SB600, it will last longer, but not by much. The SB500 is efficient and very capable of shooting an event such as a wedding. If you are used to Nikon Speedlights giving off a beep sound when its ready to fire again, this Speedlight dont have it. Ive designated that Ill not fire at full power (1/1) unless really required but then allow a second or two for the Speedlight to be ready, or Ill just use at 1/4 power or below. If Im firing continuously in instance of an action shot (bouquet or garter belt toss), Ill set it at 1/16 or below and at 3fps and fire away. Very impressive.... The LEDs are great! however again, no big lenses (lens shadow)! Shooting video, then quickly switching to shoot photo is a matter of a switch on-camera, and another switch on-flash... easy peasy... This flash is so small and easy to operate, Im getting two more of them... ;) Another thing to note: This speed light will rotate 180 degrees in BOTH directions. Some speed lights will rotate 180 in one direction and 90 in the other. Also this speed light I believe is designed to work most completely with the D750. All menu controls of this speed light is there.
Superb. Does everything I expected and more. Easy to use and the output is moire than sufficient for everything but the most professional tasks. On my Nikon it works just fine in all modes, i.e., Auto, P, S, A, and M.
I used this flash twice, each time I used it I had to put in new batteries. The third time I went to use it it didnt work, even if there were new batteries. Unfortunately at that time I was out of the return window so I paid $250 for a flash that worked twice. Do yourself a favor and buy it through B & H Photo
I’ve been using this flash for a while and it works as expected, I tought that the light will be completely useless until I had to film when a guy proposed and without enough light the flash led light made the work I need to have a good footage
It’s not top of the line but it’s great for triggering old Nikon flashes that are no longer compatible with new Nikon cameras.
Good speedlight. Works well with Nikons CLS (Creative lighting system). Is more expensive than non-Nikon brands as a result. You cannot set the output level of this flash manually without a Nikon camera as the master.
I love this flash unit, works great on a Nikon D5600. Also liked the LEDs to film video, recommended!
Very nice little flash. Works perfectly with my nikon D7100. Docked 1 star because it cannot be triggered by non-nikon flashes or cameras, reducing its usefulness slightly (it has i-TTL modes and on-camera manual mode, but no remote trigger manual mode)
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