Customer Reviews

SU-800 Wireless Speedlight

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all if you want a general purpose, reliable, long distance remote trigger, you really should look into Radio Popper, Cactus, PovertyWizard, and such. Don't get me wrong, there's a place and time to use RP, Cactus, PW, and the SU-800. They all have their niches. For example when I go shoot outdoors where I place the flash units far away from the camera, I'll use the PW-- you get superior range over the SU-800, and good reliability. However it is very expensive, and the older PW units don't have TTL so if you don't set your power setting correctly the first time you end up having to walk to/from different flash units to change their power setting. I've not used Radio Popper myself but I've heard good things about it since it preserves TTL functionality. As for Cactus, it's very cheap, but also has limited range and is not as reliable as the other alternatives. In all cases, these are 3rd party vendor solutions with yet one more piece of equipment (battery, configuration, etc) to worry about, and one more point of failure in your day-to-day shoot.

On the other hand... if you're shooting indoors, or doing on-site portrait work, this is THE remote unit to use. In the literature, the range of this commander unit is 66 feet. However, in practice, I've seen it vary between 30-50 feet, and almost always line of sight. If I'm indoors, I prefer this unit because it is very light and you will not feel any extra weight on your camera. So despite the lack of range, I still love the SU800. It offers a fully integrated Nikon CLS solution, and is simply easy to use when you do portrait work. i-TTL is built in with 3 channels so you can adjust power (or not have to think about power at all when you do portrait work). Sure, the built in commander flash in D80/90/200/300/D700 is nice, but they only have 2 channels, and frequently the pre-flash from those cameras makes people blink excessively. On the SU-800 there is no preflash so you can take pictures of people and pets without bothering them with the preflash, and you end up having more usable shots. In addition, this is a must have accessory if you're doing very low light, no flash, walk-around shooting using SU-800's discrete red light focus beam. Yes you can achieve the same on the SB-800/900 by turning off flash and only enabling the red AF-assist, but they weigh a lot more, and make the camera very bulky. Lastly, this is a nice item to have with the R1C1 kit, though not absolutely necessary since you can use the on-camera flash, and macros aren't usually affected by the on-camera flash.

The SB-800 and SB-900 have commander units too, and when you point them towards other flashes in the commander mode, the range is about 50% greater than that of SU-800: I've gotten about 50 feet of range with the SU-800, and about 75-80 feet of range with the SB-800 and SB-900. Clear line of sight (from the commander to the optical receiver) is the key. The down-side to using SB-800/900 as commanders is that they weigh a lot more, and they emit pre-flash making people blink more than necessary.

I'm giving it 4 stars because it does extremely well for what it was designed and built for-- indoor portrait commander device. If Nikon came out with a longer range radio unit, I'd give it 5 stars, but that was not what the SU-800 was originally designed for. For outdoor strobists, I still recommend radio signal commander/receiver alternatives, at a price of course.

The SU-800 is lightweight and very easy to maneuver flash settings from. The range in outdoor sun light can be limiting due to the I/R signal. The cost compared to Radios Poppers, Pocket Wizards and other triggering devices is justifiable for what it does, you get TTL flash capability for about $250.00 and you don't need a receiver for every flash like the other devices. You can control a host of units in 3 separate groups with 4 different channels The thing I really like about the SU800 is the fact it doesn't emit a flash from the camera that contributes light to the exposure/subject. No cables are involved and it's rather seamless on the camera hot shoe. The screen is easy to see and as I said it's very easy to maneuver flash settings from while on your camera. All in all it's a great device, is it perfect? No not really, it would be nice if it operated off of a Radio Frequency signal rather than a Infra-Red signal and allowed higher sync speed up to 1/8000 like the Radio Poppers do.
I've had very few misfires because I work through the obstacles and know the limitations of this unit, is it worth the money? Well..... I think it is:-)

The pluses:
It's true TTL
it's light weight
easy to adjust settings while on camera
doesn't contribute to the exposure of your subject
you don't need cables
doesn't need a receiver like Pocket Wizards and other triggers

The minuses are:
you will need direct line of sight to your off camera flash units, SB600, SB800 or SB900.
Range is some what limited (you have to learn how to work around obstacles)
It's doesn't always fire.
I/R signal vs RF

The SU-800 works great, performs as advertised, except that the light is not purely ir, as I had been led to believe. There is a small amount of red light when you take the shot, and my ever-blinking wife reacts even to that. i-TTL preflash never works, of course, but this happens even when on manual. My solution has been to turn the AF-illuminator mode on, which uses a brighter red light to assist focus. Her eyes adjust to the red light, so then the trigger light doesn't cause a blink. The catch there is that once the camera achieves focus the light turns off, so I can't focus-recompose, because in the time it takes to reframe her eyes have adjusted back to no light, and she blinks again. Sigh. Oh, and this still has to be done in manual. I'm thinking a different body with FV lock (my D40 lacks this) might be able to work around this, but I'm not sure. Pocket Wizards would definitely work, but having to walk over to the flashes and set levels manually would be much less convenient.

It is a good product otherwise, but be aware that if you are hoping for a completely invisible trigger, you will be disappointed.

The Nikon SU-800 commander is such a great way for me to create light
from wherever I want. I do not like flash especially from the camera.
This is a very portable way of doing amazing photo's anywhere, even at
night in the dark and form any angle with a few small flashes on stands
or just hand held.
Opens up a new world of photo opportunities. Highly recommended.

ray kennedy

I just got the SU-800. It seems to work exactly as expected, except not on the page for the product nor in any of the reviews I read did someone feel like mentioning that this thing doesn't use AA batteries. I had to go out and buy some CR123 batteries. Apparently, the flashes on the macro system use these too and that's why, but I only plan to use them with my SB 800 an SB 600 units, which all use AA's. Now, not only do I have a mix in battery types, but I have to either go get a new charger or keep buying new batteries. That's a bit of a pain.

The SU-800 is an essential item when using flash photography. I know the SB-800 can also be used as a 'Master' unit to fire additional flashes, but it can prove to make the camera top heavy. The SU-800 is light and compact. So when you don't need a front flash it doesn't sit atop your camera and become more imposing to someone who may not be comforatable posing to begin with.

I photograph with two(2) D2X's, and this item is making my portrait sessions easier. My cameras are big to start with, so that is why I like the compactness of this unit.

So if you have read Joe's book 'The Hot Shoe Diaries' and you have a Nikon then the next thing you did after reading the book was make sure you had a few SB800's (I wish they had not discontinued them) or SB900's, a few SB26's or SB600's and then you ordered this product the SU-800 commander unit. Why? Because you know the power of CLS and you want to free up that SB900 you have been using to command your stobes and you want the expanded reach that the SU-800 can provide. Yeah, this thing does make your life easier. It doesnt mean you dont keep pocket wizards, but you may just not need them all of the time, unless you want to keep running from one flash to another making adjustments... OR you can get the SU-800 and command the flashes from one place, ontop of your camera. I would recommend getting the hot shoe cord to connect to the commander though, I have already come accross a few situations where having it would have made my life even easier. Joe McNally did suggest it in the book, I didn't listen and he has proven to me that I should have just gone ahead and ordered the darn thing. Enjoy!

Without the SU-800 commander, remote strobes (SB-600, 800, 900) are fired using the camera's pop-up flash, or with an SB mounted on the camera's hotshoe. This introduces what may be undesirable light from the front as well as a less-than-attractive pinpoint catchlight in the eyes of the subject. Popular workarounds involve using a small strobe-mounted softbox (which softens the light from the front and increases the size of the catchlight) or using tape to cover the pop-up flash. Unfortunately, if the tape is opaque enough to block the light, it also blocks the signal to the remote strobes. Ultimately, the easy and elegant solution - the end to fixes and workarounds - is to spring for the SU-800!

The SU 800 has been a huge help in my photography work. It is simple to use, very versatile & hits the mark every time. I have also been impressed with the distance that is can be away form the commanded flash units. I was thinking about getting a set of Pocket Wizards but this proved to be a much better & less expensive option.

Go Nikon!!!

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!