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I'm looking to buy a flashgun for my Nikon D40 and wondered if anyone could recommend any. I'm on a budget and if I had the money I would go for the SB900, but is there a similar one for a smaller price?

thank you

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  • If you are on a Budget, then you should go with DB-400. As owner of SB-600, I can say it's good, but more than $100 expensive of SB-400. So you decide.... – garikapati Jan 20 '11 at 21:30
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Nikon SB-600 is an excellent flash for the price (much cheaper than a SB-900) and I've been very happy with the performance of mine.

If you're looking for TTL capabilties, then I've had decent luck with the Yongnou products and would probably recommend a YN-465 which is extremely reasonably priced (available on Ebay and Amazon typically).

If you're fine with a manual flash, try a YN-462, the more powerful YN-560, or the highly reputed Lumopro 160 (sold only through Midwest Photo Exchange I believe).

Edit: I only have personal experience with the SB-600 and the YN-462.

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  • I'm not very clued up about flashguns if I'm honest, I'm just after one that has good power and one that I can use both as an attachment on my camera and one that I can use on stands with wireless triggers, hope that makes sense! – Podge Porritt Jan 20 '11 at 19:05
  • @Podge Porritt: feel free to update your comment with more detail on what you're looking for and what you want to do with it; it'll help get you more helpful answers. – Craig Walker Jan 20 '11 at 19:14
  • Note that, if you want to use 3rd-party wireless (radio) triggers with the SB-600, you'll have to get a hotshoe-based solution. The SB-600 doesn't have a PC jack for a wired trigger, unlike the SB-800 and up. – Craig Walker Jan 20 '11 at 19:15
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    All of the ones listed there can be used as such, on or off camera, but some (the SB-600 or YN-465) when they're attached to the camera will function in a more automatic mode. – rfusca Jan 20 '11 at 19:15
  • I'm currently doing environmental portraits and as I dont dive I cant really be lugging a full lighting kit around, so I'm after one that rotates and one that I can control well power wise, as I said I'm not too clued up on flashes, and the only flash I've used is the S* 900 and that was a courtesy of my university, I think they're really good, but £300 is way above what I can afford sadly. – Podge Porritt Jan 20 '11 at 19:20
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I have and like the SB-600 that @rfusca mentions, but if you're really on a budget then you should also consider the SB-400 as well. It's smaller, which may be good or bad depending on your circumstances. (Ken Rockwell raves about it, make of that what you will.)

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  • After having a SB-600 that swivels around, I can't imagine how boring it would be to have one that doesn't turn like the SB 400. Just my two cents. – rfusca Jan 20 '11 at 19:13
  • Always take what Ken says with a grain of salt...he also says on his site that the kit lens "is all you'll ever need" for most people... – rfusca Jan 20 '11 at 19:15
  • @rfusca I'm with you on both points. I only (and hesitantly) linked to KR because he does have one of the most informative and clear pages on that flash. And I'm definitely more a fan of the SB-600; it's way more flexible & useful IMO. – Craig Walker Jan 20 '11 at 19:19
  • Indeed. – rfusca Jan 20 '11 at 19:19
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I have the SB-400 and a couple of older SB-24's (won't TTL with any Nikon DSLR, but can be used in manual and A-mode). One thing that I appreciate with the older speedlights is the ability to rotate and tilt the head. The SB-400, while compact, can only tilt up.

So I'd go with a SB-600 (if you can find it, it's been discontinued recently) or the new SB-700 or a used SB-800.

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I think it depends if you want an on-camera or off-camera flash. If on-camera then I can recommend the Nissin DI-622 which I was given for Christmas (~£100 from Amazon). I was able to take some lovely casual portraits with my D60 and the flash in i-TTL mode. I believe a new version ("mk II") has just been released with wireless capabilities which will cost about 50% more, but may come in handy in the future should you decide that you want more than one flash.

If you already know you want off-camera flash then I would probably start with http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-start-here.html.

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I'm using the Nissin Di866 with my D60, its supposed to be a cheaper version of the SB900 I think, and unlike the Di622 can be used with wireless triggers (although I've not yet found the best (cheap) trigger to use with it!)

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