SB-700 AF Speedlight

Read the instructions and tested the flash around the house. It can work in a simple mode or handle any complicated task. Seems bullet proof. Exposures are great right out of the box. Will handle wedding receptions and darkly lit areas very well. Great middle weight contender.

I didn´t want to spend the money on the speed flash but should have done it long ago. I was thinking of buying a new camera because of poor quality in low light. I now use this flash all the time. It has increased the quality of
all my pictures. I never thought a speed flash could do so much. It was well worth the money. My pictures are beautiful in all lighting conditions. I have used this product for 4 months now and love it. Thanks for a great product.

I see some of the complaints where the review´s have been skewed towards the negative (i.e. 2-3 stars) and considering others have recorded their own thoughts here as to the ´´pro´s´´ of this item, I will only touch on the negatives that have been reported here. The smallish button to both power the unit and put it into its certain ´´remote´´ and other modes certainly isn´t very big, and if you suffer from say a debilitating disease where your hands or fingers have trouble with somewhat precise tangible adjustments, well then they are justified, otherwise if the button were any larger, or easier to accidentally maneuver to the wrong setting, this would be a detriment to most others, including myself, and I have severe carpal tunnel, and for the very direct movement to put this into say ´´remote´´ I personally want it to stay there and not be easily knocked about and changed because I quickly reached down and moved it a little.
My battery compartment door is... awesome, I dont treat my $350 flash like a toy or a piece of garbage, I am not saying it doesn´t get abused a little here and there, but the door itself seals tightly, is easy enough to open and close, thus does the job very well in my case.
The ´´jog´´ dial, again this is another caveat I have with those negative reviews, there are a finite number of settings on this unit, with that said it rather small in the scheme of most programming options considering what you can adjust and NEED to very often, for the normal purchaser of this unit, where I personally feel the professional´s either opt for the SB-910, or older SB-800 even.
I want to give it 4.5 stars as I feel almost everything could be improved or made better, but having to choose between a 4 and 5, Ill go with the 5 due to me not having one issue in over two years of ownership.
With all that said, you can see I actually agree with the others as far as size and operation of the buttons and minimal programming intuitive features, but its at a cost, durability, reducing accidental changes, and overall simplicity and actual needs of the users. There will always be those who are the extremest and want to have total control of even things 95% of features the vast majority wouldn´t use or want, and thats OK really, I just feel in this unit decisions were made to keep it simple, elegant and completely capable, even in a novice environment, and enough power for the enthusiast/professional

I really love this flash...
...when it works.

I started out with an SB-600, then after a lot of heavy use that cut out on me and I figured it was the two years of use in bad weather, being dropped, thrown around, etc. So I got an SB-700 to replace it and have treated that flash much more kindly, using it very gently and indoors 98% of the time. Since then I have sent that SB-700 back to Nikon 5 times to be fixed because while shooting it will randomly stop working. The menu functions, I can turn it on/off, I can do absolutely everything with the flash except actually have light come out of it. It breaks this way every 2-3 months so it´s always still been under either the original warranty or the 6 months from being ´´fixed´´ warranty, but it´s very frustrating and Nikon has not replaced it even after ´´fixing´´ the problem has proven to be only a temporary solution.
After the first time my SB-700 broke, I bought another 700 to have on hand as a backup. Today it completely stopped working while shooting--no menu, no light, no nothing even after trying multiple sets of fresh batteries.
Suffice it to say I will not be purchasing another SB-700 and am going to look into other manufacturers for future flash purchases as reliability is important to me.

i can only say one word... SUPERB!!! would recommend to anybody.

Granted I´m not a Flash expert but I found myself at a quandry when taking more vertical photos after getting my D7000 grip and the SB-400 doesn´t swivel. My main concern was eliminating shadows of which I needed to do bounce fill flash from the ceiling. The 400 does tilt unless you are taking a vertical in which case you need it to swivel too, which the SB-400 does not do.

I really wanted to buy a SB-600 but ended up getting a SB-700 at a refurbished unit. I´m glad I did. The 360degree swivel has come in handy (versus I know the 600 would get me annoyed) when working on bounce flash technique. I also love the features that are handy by the buttons versus traversing a menu on the 600. The 600 supposedly has more power but the 700 is a much better choice though $100 more in the used / refurbished market but well worth the extra.

I´m just learning more how to use the flash and I´m a ´´newbie´´ in regards to flash technique. But the flash operates really easily, iTTL seems to work really well (in basic settings) and I recommend this for anyone that starts taking more vertical shots and needs to continue bouncing the light. I also looked at the contraptions to keep the flash unit above the camera (it stays vertical) versus being sideways and needing the swivel. That may still be needed in the future if I start doing paid photo shoots of people, but for my ´´advanced´´ hobbyist means it is the perfect as is.

I should mention, I attempted to use the SB-700 as a remote with the built-in D7000 flash or the SB-400 as the master, this seems not capable. I was just hoping to see if it worked (I think the manual stated it would not). As I wouldn´t mind having some back fill flash in addition to front flash. It may be able to do this, I just wasn´t able to do it fiddling around. Adding a second SB-600/700 flash unit is expensive for just a hobbyist.

I just picked up this unit today with another SB910 3-28-2012 and tried it out as a Hair Light and also as back fill on a backdrop, for the price this is a great flash to have in the arsenal, I also want to use it as a subtle not so over powering fill light for when I shoot outdoor night photography coupled to my PocketWizard Flex5´s, I see this as a great fill light behind pillars and out of frame fill flash in conjunction with my SB 910´S and 900´s on my architectural night shots.

I think this would be a perfect flash for entry level shooters to use in tandem with built in flash bodies to add more unique lighting challenges as well as a great tool for more experienced shooters as well as perfect studio uses.

The reason I didn´t give it a full 5 stars is the slide switches on both sides (Mode selector) and (Illumination Pattern) I my self would rather have these in sub menus using the dial to select to eliminate 2 potential locations for contaminants from entering the flash body like moisture and dust that in time could render the switches inoperative? also from reviews from other people not necessarily here but they have complained about the battery door being flimsy and break off real easy, I have to agree that yes it could be beefed up a little more but if you miss handle the equipment or rush trying to load batteries or are just a gorilla when handling the flash that you shouldn´t break the battery cover off, one other complaint I read was that it was to thin and the contacts didn´t make contact with the batteries? well here again if it was within the first year take it back! Nikon will fix or replace the unit, I think that issue was a small isolated instance that things made by man can be faulty and do slip by quality control once in awhile but that is a case I think that someone just wanted to whine and complain for something I don´t believe should be used to give the SB700 a bad grade.

Overall it is a pretty good flash, I haven´t had enough time to run it through it´s paces but the 6 hours I have used it today I think Nikon has a winner.

I recently got this flash. Overall I think it is a good flash, especailly since you can use this flash in Commander mode or Remote mode. However I very much miss the ´´TTL´´ or ´´i-TTL´´ option on the flash.
I truly think this is a basic standard control that should be on a Nikon flash of this calibler and price range. The flash displays good illumination and the contols are ok, much better in fact than on the (old but very good) SB800.

i use SB-700 AF Speed light more than 1 year.. its perfect... and its also have master slave mode... so that´s very helpful for covering a occasions with ttl balance... by the way, its so cheep with its functions...