This night Nikon released a new product, the Speedlight SB-910 flash unit. We were all waiting for the D800, but it seems as it will be next year before the camera is announced. Instead Nikon announced an updated version of the SB-900 Speedlight. I did a side-by-side comparison. Let’s spot the differences.
Right. Differences….. let’s see…. the buttons are now back-illuminated. The box on the back stating “. OK – MENU” has vanished. There is now a dedicated menu button, which was she “ZOOM”-Button on the SB-900.
Apart from that I am having trouble finding differences. But hey, who am I to judge. Equipment is just like a person – it’s the inside that matters 😉 Here are the features which have been overhauled / improved according to Nikon:
- Menus and user interface reworked
- illuminated buttons
- dedicated menu button
- Thermal Cut-Out function which delays the flash recycling time when the flash overheats
- three standard illumination patterns (standard, center-weighted and even)
So far the improvements seem to be minimal and from the specs I do not see any necessity to throw the SB-900 overboard if you have one. But hey, a flash is a flash, they make great light already and I am lacking the fantasy about which revolution in flash technology is waiting.
That is, unless we exclude video. There were speculations about an LED panel on the underside of the flash head. When the flash is pointed upwards this LED panel could be used to illuminate the scene which is filmed. But it seems as if we have to wait for video illumination (if it is to be included in a Speedlight unit at all) until the next version of the SB.
Until then we are still expecting the D800 to be announced…
