SB-700 AF Speedlight

I got this flash the other day and right out of the box it worked and gave me amazing results. i bought this flash for a project I´ve been working on and i think it should be perfect. this flash is a must buy for anyone who is doing portraits in a studio

This is an amazing speedlight...It works wireless with the D. Very happy with it.5100

After using my Nikon 18-35 mm lens and getting a shadow I knew I had to purchase a quality external flash. I chose Nikon because I know the flash will be forward compatible with the D800 when it is introduced. The SB-700 fits my needs perfectly. It was easy to use out of the box. The bounce and swivel features give me the coverage I need. I used the flash this week on a trip. My only complaint is with the Incandescent filter. My wife has olive skin. The filter gave her an unnatural hue. I used Photoshop to give her more nature skin tonalities. The florescent filter did a good job under harsh lighting conditions. I did not have any problem with the battery compartment or navigating thru the on-board menus. This is my third Nikon upgrade in the last 12 months. It was a good purchase.

I am a long time Nikon user and am quite familiar with most all Nikon gear. I could kick myself for not buying 2 more SB-600 when it was available. Right now, I would buy 1,000 units of SB-600 in a heartbeat at its original price ($180) over SB-700 ($330) and make money hand over fist. BandH is selling used SB-600 for almost $100 more than its original price. I for one do not find SB-700 to be more intuitive than SB-600 and I particularly dislike the new on/off switch. And, it has slightly less flash output than SB-600; I do not consider this an improvement.

Aside from this griping, it´s a fine flash and not a big drop-off for most users from SB-900, which have been known to have over-active protection circuitry problem issue for heavy users. A luke-warm recommendation.

Simple to use, everything is in the menu, and full information is in the manual provided.

Works brilliantly with my D7000 with my camera as the commander. The commander built-in option at e3 could control 2 groups on flashes, and it could adjust the power settings, even use TTL for one group and Manual for the other for the SB700. That is very versatile.

Interestingly though, there are options for 3 groups on the SB700. Which means that either a SU-800 is needed if one wants to control each group individually. Or, a firmware upgrade for either the D700 or D7000 will finally allow the camera to control each of the 3 groups individually. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

As mentioned by previous commenter, the lock switch to the Remote and Master might be a bit redundant. I imagine only very careless users will turn all the way to the Remote or Master without realizing.

The control dial is nice with a gorgeous clicking sound when it is spun, but the groves are a bit painful for me if I spin it a lot. Maybe I have tender skin for a guy.

Nevertheless, I like it so much until I bought a 2nd and a 3rd one, now contemplating whether should I get a 4th one..........

I was excited at first by the intuitive arrangement of buttons, and the new screen and menu system of the SB-700, which promised a vast interface improvement over my trusty SB-600. However, in practice, I found myself frustrated with my new flash.

My biggest 3 complaints are:

1) The battery compartment did not properly tighten itself, forcing me to press in on it when I turned the power on for the unit to actually power about half the times I went to turn it on. Minor defect in my unit? Maybe.

2) The power button itself. While the idea of a switch between Off>On>Remote On>Master On is great, the switch itself is thin/small and difficult for my big fingers to use. To get to Remote or Master, a button in the middle of the switch must be pressed, which was tricky at best, annoyingly difficult at worst. Major turn off in my mind.

3) The rotating dial with OK button in the middle for selecting things was, again, a good idea. However, I found it´s operation tricky and difficult to control, and button pushes were difficult to consistently make.

Controls aside, the menu selections, options, etc. were all quite intuitive and easy to understand. It was the difficulty in executing the options which frustrated me, and led me to return the unit and stick with my SB-600´s.

I am a passionate amateur photographer. I do not suffer sub-standard equipment very long. While I can´t afford the very best equipment, the equipment I buy had better be worth my hard earned money. I originally was going to buy an SB-600, but they were discontinued, so I bought the SB-700. After reviewing the specs, I found that the SB-700 actually has slightly less flash power than the SB-600, and some other minor differences, that would seem to make it a lesser flash for more money. I wasn´t too happy, but I needed a flash, and didn´t want to go high-end, because the more expensive flashes were quite costly, and had functions I really didn´t need. I got the flash out of the box, loaded the batteries, hooked it to my D7000, and started to shoot. I was frankly amazed. The shots looked like natural light shots. I used a snap-on diffuser to soften the light, and angled the flash head at 45 degrees, and the pictures came out really, really well. My first real test of the flash was at a friend´s birthday party. No matter if the subject was back-lit by a window, or in shadows, or with a dark wall, the photos were balanced and crisp. None of the usual flash pictures where the foreground is blown out and the background dark. The flash filled in when it should, and fully illuminated when it should. Nikon has figured out how to get their cameras and flashes to work together with perfection. You may need to adjust FV or EV for personal taste, and pay attention to WB (2 colored filters come with the flash to compensate for artificial light spectrums), but the flash really works very well. The only thing I would suggest is to READ THE MANUAL. There are some important settings that make the flash work much better if you pay attention. I have not tried the flash in slave mode, but I would expect it to work as well. It´s very well thought out and easy to use. I only have one small gripe. The battery door is rather flimsy, and doesn´t open in the way you´d expect it to open, so it could easily break if you get all macho with it. Other than that, this thing rocks!

Using the flash unit as a Auto Focus Assist is great but there are AF differences between the SB-700 and SB-900. The 700 has only 2 AF lamps while the 900 has 3 for help in very low light. Also, the 900 has an added feature .... the ability to use the AF-Lamps from the flash withOUT the flash unit firing. The 700 does NOT have this feature. Of course the 700 costs much less than the 900. Overall I love using the 700 on my D7000 with my Nikon CPU lenses. This combo is a joy to use.

I RECENTLY WENT TO THE PHOTO SHOP WHERE I LIVE TO PURCHASE THE SB-600 ; ONLY TO BO TOLD IT WAS DISCONTINUED AND REPLACED BY THE SB-700 . SO HAVEING BEEN TOLD THAT I WENT AND PURCHASED IT , OWNING SEVERAL NIKON DSLR´S I WAS HAPPY TO HAVE A GOOD QUALITY FLASH THAT I COULD USE ON ALL; PLUS THE ABILTY TO DO MANY CREATIVE FLASH TECHNIQUES I WAS SATISFIED OVER-ALL.