Flash Review

[greenwing]

I was looking forward to this review, wondering if the Creative Lighting System abilities of the various guns on test would be at least listed, if not tested for effectiveness. Mostly, I have to say, I'm quite happy with the test. But then... we get to the SB-700, and are told that to swap between TTL and TTL-BL you must change metering modes on the camera? That's just a bit silly - the manual doesn't say that, and the flash doesn't act that way. The NPhoto team have a number of SB-700s between them, so it can't be a lack of experience (can it?) and you'd think any tester should notice that both settings are there when the camera's in matrix or CW metering - even if to observe that's not what they were expecting.. And the SB-700 gets marked down for it, too.

One good reason to have an add-on flash is to be able to use straight TTL with matrix metering, and that's a good reason to choose a Nikon unit (not the SB-400) over others, but you tell us it's not possible with the SB-700.

Chris

[greenwing]

And why do you keep plugging the SC-29 cable? Its USP is the focus assist lamp, but that only works with the Nikon SB-600 and up. You never seem to mention the more affordable (and more 'cloned') SC-17 and SC-28.

[beatnik69]

They are right about the metering mode. I have a D7000 and SB-700. Here's what the manual says.

"tCamera’s metering mode and i-TTL mode
• When the camera’s metering mode is changed to spot metering
while i-TTL balanced fill-flash is in use, the i-TTL mode automatically
changes to the standard i-TTL mode.
• The i-TTL mode automatically changes to i-TTL balanced fill-flash,
after changing the camera’s metering mode to matrix or centerweighted."

It makes sense. If you are metering off the small area in the centre the camera isn't going to be able to balance the exposure for the background.

[greenwing]

Not sure what planet I was on when I wrote that. I'm getting confused in my old age., sorry for the rant.

It makes sense that only standard TTL is available in spot metering, but no sense at all that it's not available in Matrix or CW. The SB-600 worked that way, as do the SB-900 and SB-910. I guess the SB-800 did too, but I don't have one anymore so can't check. Why Nikon would do that with a flash that's an upgrade from the SB-600 in almost every other way is baffling.

Chris

[beatnik69]

I would imagine the rationale is that if you are exposing in matrix or centre weighted mode you want to expose for the background as well as the subject therefore balanced ttl will be the better option, but I suppose it would be nice if they gave you the option.

[beatnik69]

I do agree about the cables though. I have a third-party cable which works just as well and only cost a fraction of the price (around £20 iirc). I don't tend to use it now though as I use CLS with the pop-up as commander.