Nikon 4794 SU-800 Wireless Speedlight

Simply marvelous:Provided your expectations are in the right place, the Nikon SU-800 is a great accessory to use with your other slave-capable Nikon speedlights. You can have a decent, portable, low-power, studio flash system, using a 100% battery system with no AC power chords and no sync cables.IR works in many environments:With indoor, modest, medium-size, portable studio setups, I never once saw a flash not fire even with no direct line of site between camera and flash. I suppose the IR signal from the SU-800 bounces around enough to close the link between master and slave(s). All I can say is it works well for me. In my portable studio use I can summarize the utility and operation of this Nikon system with one word... transparent. I can set it and forget it and do so without power or sync wires.Be realistic:While reviewing the SU-800 on Amazon and elsewhere, I heeded the concerns of many who saw misfires in bright light situations like direct sunlight. In time I may well experiment with this to see just what the limitations are with this IR system. The big takeaway from the findings of many is don't expect too much from this IR approach to flash control in situations that are not conducive to using infrared (or maybe deep red) as a communications scheme. My take is the IR sensors in the Nikon flashes are quite sensitive, but can be saturated with other sources such as a star (our sun).Fills a "narrow" niche:Speedlights of many brands have come a very long way and the Nikon offerings are no exception. As many of you know, a speedlight can be used as a master controller instead of the dedicated SU-800. As well, some Nikon built-in flashes can control slaves. I looked into all this very seriously. In the end, the SU-800 and its control panel, its three control channels, the "way it looks" to customers on top of the camera, and the desire to not have a center-flash light source all led me to the SU-800. At the end of the day, what I'm suggesting here is the SU-800 helps make the most of the speedlight system. All that said, it's important to understand this "maxed out" Nikon Speedlight control system, IMO, fills a very narrow niche between on camera flash and a full-up portable strobe lighting system. Let's examine...1 - Speedlight on top of camera with bounce card or whatever.2 - Speedlight(s) in your umbrella(s) controlled by internal flash or another speedlight.3 - Speedlight(s) in your umbrella(s) controlled by SU-800.4 - Speedlight(s) in your umbrella(s) controlled by SU-800, but with IR to radio converters.5 - Speedlight(s) in your umbrella(s) controlled by radio triggers.6 - A real, full-bore, studio lighting system with model lights, lots of power, etc.Option 5 is very popular... radio triggers are "it" it seems. Option 4 is an odd hybrid. You can purchase devices that translate the IR signal between your SU-800 and slave speedlights into an RF signal with conversion at both ends. This allegedly provides all the nice iTTL and other functionality, but without the inherent limitations of the IR signal survivability in some situations. Interesting idea, it actually exists as a product, but more money and more kludge than I think is prudent IMO. If you are considering this hybrid approach for a portable studio, option 6 looks more sane money wise.If you are honest and you look at the differential costs for options 3 and 6, it won't take much more money to get a very decent studio-class, strobe system that's portable enough to take places. If you already own a bunch of speedlights great. If you don't plan to own speedlights, but need a studio system, the better bang for the buck is a low-end AC powered studio flash kit.Nikon's intended use:One final note concerns the intended use of the SU-800 in Nikon's mind. If you read the manual for the SU-800 you will see it is part of a larger macro-photography light system. Indeed the SU-800 is just one cog of this larger system and get's second billing to all the wonders of the other components. If you are like me, you won't really get a cozy feeling about using the SU-800 in other ways in their documentation. The instructions to use it in non-macro ways are there, but buried deep. Rest assured it really does function pretty darn well in a small studio environment.Conclusion:For me, I'm beginning to love the no-frills wireless, battery powered approach. I have studio strobes as well, but am taking this speedlight, SU-800 system on more and more jobs. The small, but real, sting of the SU-800's price is long forgotten. The oddball A123 battery requirement is a reminder that life's not perfect. It works. I'm glad to own it.Viva la choice.

This thing is great!First off, if you have a Nikon D70s, D90, and maybe a D80 not sure, dont even bother with this thing. They all have internal flash commanders built in and they use the flash.Also, you can set the flash on the camera so it wont fire when the exposure is taken. So this is only really useful with the D40, D60, and i believe the D5000 also lacks the built in commander.This is only really handy on the D70s, D80, and D90 if you plan to have the flashes behind you, as you can put it on the remote ittl cable and point it to the rear, or bounce it off the cieling and such to control the flashes. It MAY be helpful with portrait work if your subject is prone to blinking.Ive always had the humerous notion of somebody being thrown into seizures with the built in pop up flash remote commanders.THAT ASIDE, this thing works pretty good! I have a D40, and i have the SC-29 ITTL cable and that works great but im stuck with an arms length distance on that coiled cable.it did NOT come with a battery as advertized. Buy these on amazon, they are about 10 bucks at walgreens or walmart. you can get 4 of them for that price on Amazon.it has 2 plugs on the side. I couldnt find any literature of what they did. They are for Nikon TTL cables. Not PC sync cables.A co worker let me borrow his SB-900 for the weekend, coupled with the SB-600 i have they worked fantastic together. The CLS system really came through and it was easy as hell to get the right correct and not overexpose the image. it all just kind of falls together.This would not be a great deal if the SB-800 had not been discontinued and shot up to 700-800 per unit.im glad i got this, i cant wait to pick up a couple more SB-600's. I have not tried to shoot it over 50 feet away, but so far i have not missed a flash yet.great toy!=========UPDATED=========Still works like a champ!I have since upgraded to a Nikon D90 with the built in commander. The built in commanders control the on-camera flash plus 2 more groups, The SU-800 controlls 3 seperate groups.even with the Nikon D90 i still find myself using the SU-800 most of the time unless i really need to have the pop up flash included in. Its very convenient having the extra display with the flash control information directly on top of the camera and not having to dig through the menus (which isnt all THAT bad but why not save a step)About a week ago i put my 2 Nikon SB-600's on stands and used the SU-800 on top of the camera outside, i positioned the SB-600s about 15 feet apart and stood about 1 foot back from being completly dead center between the flashes and they still triggered, Line of Site seems to work about 170 degrees left and right which suprised me. Plus i was outside there was nothing for the commander to bounce off of.The remote commander's range is almost identical if not a tiny bit further than the SU-800 from other peoples testing i have read of, it is still very handy to have even if it is not required.Five Stars!!!!!!!!

Nikon hasn’t updated its flash products in ages, but this SU800 works exactly as advertised, even if it could be two thirds smaller, using newer tech.

It was hard for me to decide whether to get this SU 800 remote or not. I have 4 pocket wizards that can do off camera shoots but there are several limitations and shortcomings with the pocket wiz....all it does is trigger the flash off camera with the output being manually set. Sometimes you would even miss to trigger when your flash is on standby mode.When I saw this SU 800 remote I was intrigued to try it since it can do TTL wirelessly and sure it works....very very nice. No more missed shots and no more overexposed shoots because the output adjusts automatically. This is really one great addition to my gear!! Great work nikon....great work...I am really happy with this unit!!It can remotely control as many as 4 groups of off camera flashes as you wish...no limits and you can even control the flash output of each flash unit, isn't it amazing?? This will be good for location shoots for small groups and will really come handy for all commercial photographers outdoor who thinks pocket wiz is all there is to work with!The only caveat is that you have to be in the line of sight with the with camera which is not a big deal....great work nikon, great work and keep innovating!