I am a photojournalism student and work for the student paper at my university. Money is pretty short so I don't want to spend $400 each on a 580exII or SB-900, I just can't afford it. Right now I have one vivitar 285HV which does the job but it is really crappy... cheap plastic, bad recycle times, missing power levels etc. (you get what you pay for I guess).
I generally end up doing most of the sportraits (we do a lot of athlete features) and portraits for the paper and I like to use lights. Whenever I have to do something I would generally borrow the paper's one SB-80DX, a friends Sunpak 383 and use my Vivitar 285 as a three light setup (I've never used more than three, all I can trigger with one set of PWs, a 15ft sync cable and the SB-80s optical slave mode). It is a little sketchy but does the job.
Anyway, I am tired of borrowing stuff and have some money saved up to get my own flashes. I shoot Canon but use all my flashes on the manual settings so the brand doesn't really matter, though I really do prefer the Nikon speedlights (I've used most of both brands here and there from the top of the line down). Right now I am looking to get two more flashes and have been looking at getting SB-80DXs on ebay, they're around $150 each. Then I started thinking "Is this the best option for the money?" I researched a bit and found nothing conclusive, so I thought I'd post here and get some other opinions.
Should I go with the SB-80DXs? Do you know of any other options that are better for the money?
I have a Nikon SB-24 and SB-26 I picked up used and cheap ($70 to $80 range for each I think), both work great and are pretty solid, built in sync port..sometimes they can be trickier to find at a good price though...
SB-24 only goes down to 1/16th, SB-26 goes down to 1/64 and has built-in optical trigger, although I've never used it...
I've got several SB-28s, and I paid under a hundred bucks for all of them...great little lights. No optical trigger, but you can easily add one if it's an issue.
Keep your eye open for used SB-80DX's. They can be found for good prices. I am Canon shooter but am always looking for good SB-80DXs and SB-800s as they work great, have built in optical slaves, and will even work with the Canon ST-E transmitter.
Strobist.com is a good resource for gear ideas and inspiration.
For more power I would look at the Alien Bee/White Lightning option. I have three Ultra 1200s and two Ultra 1800's and year after year they never fail me.
Building a kit for a studio is one thing. Building a kit for location work or travel is another. I find having several carrying bag options is very useful: I can pack for the job at hand while mixing up the bags, lighting gear and other paraphernalia.
PhotoMaximum wrote:
Keep your eye open for used SB-80DX's. They can be found for good prices. I am Canon shooter but am always looking for good SB-80DXs and SB-800s as they work great, have built in optical slaves, and will even work with the Canon ST-E transmitter.
Strobist.com is a good resource for gear ideas and inspiration.
For more power I would look at the Alien Bee/White Lightning option. I have three Ultra 1200s and two Ultra 1800's and year after year they never fail me.
Building a kit for a studio is one thing. Building a kit for location work or travel is another. I find having several carrying bag options is very useful: I can pack for the job at hand while mixing up the bags, lighting gear and other paraphernalia. ...Show more →
I will move up to monoblocks and other studio lights eventually, which is one of the reasons why I have a problem spending $400 on an SB-900 or 580exII. Why spend the money on a small flash when you spend the same on bigger, more powerful lights. Another reason is that, being a big sports shooter, I want to wait until I can afford lights that I can use for both lighting an arena and in the studio... I could be dead wrong there though.
I found this http://www.bythom.com/flashcompare.htm which has been really useful. So I think now I might just stick with trying to find a deal on an SB-80 and grab a BGN SB-28 or two off of KEH or ebay.
bacilonur wrote:
Really? Under SU-4 mode while the ST-E2 is acting as an ETTL master?
I used to use a bunch of the Canon strobes with the ST-E. Works great in ETTL. But there are many instances I want to trigger the strobes in full manual mode: not possible with the Canons. I now have five SB-80's and SB-800's. I use the SU-4 setting and set the flash power on each strobe on a manual setting of MY choosing. I then use the ST-E2 as the trigger. Works great. I also find the Nikon strobes have a "longer reach" when triggered with the ST-E2. I am a dedicated Canon user but from now all the strobes I buy will be Nikons as I like the manual control this combo gives me. I also have about six or so Pocket Wizards and the Nikons have built-in PC connectors which the Canon's(except the latest 580EX II) do not have. Only certain Nikon strobes will work like this...
