Finally it’s here, my new Nikon SB-600 Speedlight!!
Like what I mentioned here, I hate direct flash (built-in on most camera), and had always been in need for an external flash. I decided to get a Speedlight after my cousin told me that she’s coming back to Brunei from Singapore. I did quite some researching, to make sure that I really need it (and would not under utilize it), and comparing SB-600 and SB-800. SB-600 and SB-800 are two models of Nikon Speedlights (there are 3 latest version of them, SB-400 doesn’t worth the money, I think, so I ruled out that option), the former retailed at B$350-450 while the latter is almost twice as expensive.
Many ‘professional’ photographers in various forums swear by their SB-800, which is very nice, yes, but is way over my budget. Before I lost my wallet, I do have enough cash for a SB-800 but yea, now I couldn’t afford it anymore, plus I am very sure the modest SB-600 is enough to cover what I need. Ah well, I’ll talk more about SB-600 VS SB-800 on another post, this post is merely to show off my new toy and share my excitement with you guys, hehe. =)
Some open-box shots, enjoy people! (ChiHo, poison ah.. hehe)
^ The accessory which comes with the speedlight. Very well designed and useful when using the SB-600 as a slave unit (meaning it’s not the master flash, it’s controlled by other flash in the system).
^ A close up view of the flash head.
^ A close-up view of the hot-shoe contact of the flash, this part would be connected to the top of my camera. =)
^ Rear view of the flash, where the control lies. Hmm, I think I need some time to digest the SB-600 manual guide, lol.
^ I really like the one-touch locking mechanism of Nikon Speedlight. It’s so much better and easier to use, compared to Canon Speedlites. (Canon Speedlites required you to rotate a plastic thing to tighten it to the hot shoe, I tend to over tighten it due to fear of dropping the Speedlite, which belongs to my friend’s dad)
^ A very ‘leng cai’ (handsome) flash huh? Hehe (Yeap, it says Made In China, but who cares, hehe)
^ SS-600, the nylon bag which comes with the flash. Not as well padded as my Lowepro bag (lol, of course) but it’s very well made, very high quality. =) (I couldn’t fit the flash with this bag into my Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW tho’, I have to remove the flash from this bag to squash it into my bag, lol)
^ A small additional purchase - Nikon ML-13. A very cheap kit (B$16) but yet very useful, especially when use along with tripods. (and it’s fun to shock people by triggering your camera with touching the shutter button, lol) It comes with a slim, nylon bag too (the black one in the background).
Reviews and test shots coming soon (well, not really, school work sucks). =p Congrats me, yea? =D Another step closer to complete my n00bish Nikon gear setup. And almost completed my ultimate plan to built a system which enables anyone to take my camera and shoot, without worrying about low-light situation and such. =p Finally, nice photos for myself, hahahahahaha! =D
Uh, homework time, see you! =D
P.S: Forgot to lower down the ISO, lol, these are taken as ISO 1600, blehz, kind of noisy, sorry! =p
March 10th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
seems cool. u finally got the flash u want n u’ll never complain about bright flashes anymore. well except in other people’s pics anyway. lol. congrats!
March 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
congrats. now you have to sayang your son jua. haha.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Eh, here got congrats oso? LOL. Bet u gonna be having fun indoors now =p
Tho, one more thing u hv to consider.. wat do you do if there’s no ceiling to bounce wit =p bet u know the answer~
Wat type of diffuser u planning to get?
March 11th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
jason: Always remember one thing: photographer never stop complaining.. =D Hehe.
Mable: of course! =p If we give birth to another daughter, we might need a bigger house, xD
Mirez: Hahahaha, not really, will toy with it during the coming holiday, muaahahahaha. =D
Just started my research on DIY diffusers, gonna try a flip-it or garyfong-like one. =p Flip-it is so far my fav. and easier to diy one (IMO), lol..
March 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
the bouncing thing. i saw people attach paper on their flashes before. diy bouncer? or is that called diffuser?
March 11th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
It’s called bounce card. Check out this website > http://abetterbouncecard.com/
Diffuser usually refers to some semi-transparent plastics which diffuse light, they comes in different type.=)
March 11th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Arm race, lol…
March 12th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Lovely new flash! I don’t know much about cameras, so I shall refrain from saying more. Hahaha. (Though, I am getting quite interested in photography. Let’s just see if that interest will materialize into the Canon A590 IS and then we’ll see if I’m really interested.)
On a side note, thanks for visiting my site. I’ve been meaning to return your comment but have been unable to access your site for a while. I just got to a blank page. Seems like it’s fine now though! :)
March 12th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Ivy: Hey, thanks for dropping by! =) Admire your blog’s design, and your css and etc knowledge, =p I used to be really into web development and stuffs, until the shutter bug bite me, =p
Haha, most photographer today (digital age) starts with a humble point & shoot, =p I will be waiting. =D
And hey, sorry about my server side problem, I am not sure what happened, sigh. I am hosting with asmallorange.com, they’re suppose to be very good, I wonder what’s wrong.=S
And probably my wordpress installation is screw up? I don’t know, I am not really that savvy with php, so yea, used to mess around a lot till my blog all screw up, lol. Maybe I’ll take a this coming wordpress upgrade as a chance to clean up and re-do my blog a bit, haha. Mind lending a hand? =p
March 12th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I made a DIY bounce card today, jus in time to shoot indoors =p inspired by IngSiang LOL
1 - My old headlamp punya black garther (the strecthable type) cut and sew together according to flash unit punya width
2 - A piece of white paper 6cm by 11cm (a plain white folder is better recommend)
Looks cool too, if no garther use rubber band as temporary =p
Thnx.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Why inspired by me? LoL. xD I did nothing, =p
I already got a full idea of what I am going to do, gonna gather materials, and probably do it next friday, I hope, hahahaha. =D
March 14th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Hey! Thanks a lot! :) Web development is quite fun actually. I used to be much more into the design aspect of it - the layout, graphics, colors and so forth. But I find myself more into code these days. Hahaha.
Yeah, that’s why the Canon A590IS is the best choice, it has pretty good quality (or so it seems) and it has manual controls, so I can slowly figure out how to use it. But I’ll think about that when I’m done with school (just 3 more weeks!)
I’m not sure what the problem with entering your site. Even right now, I can’t enter the main domain vrien-den. I can only enter your subdomain. Strange, huh? How is asmallorange? I went to check them out; they’re really expensive and their plans seem a little old school. I guess they must have good servers and support for their prices. :)
I doubt that it’s a Wordpress problem though. It seems like a DNS problem - somehow not propagating to the other side of the world properly. Hahaha. Let’s see how WP 2.5 goes. I’m not good a coder, I know very little PHP and Javascript (for AJAX). I know XHTML and CSS like the back of my hand though, so feel free to ask me if you have any XHTML/CSS questions. :)
March 24th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[...] Taken weeks ago. I was producing some product shot of my new flash outside my house, before I realize the beautiful sunset - the amazing transition of blue and golden [...]