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I don't use flash much, but now and then it's nice to have a fill flash for bird/wildlife/close-up. This would be for my Nikon D850 or 500, and a range of 17 to 500mm lenses. It needs to be very light weight and not very expensive. (maybe $300 max, but would settle for much less!)  I have a better beamer I used with my old long Canon lenses(all gone now), but found it awkward to use. I guess it did help with a long lens.

Not asking for much, am I!

Any suggestions/ favorites?

If you don’t mind used, check out Craigslist for listings like this:

https://albuquerque.craigslist.org/sear ... ikon+flash

These are handy for macro:

https://boulder.craigslist.org/pho/d/niwot-nikon-sc-29-flash-cord-cable/7031476226.html

Joe

Godox and Nissin make great third party units in your price range that do everything the 2 to 3 times as much manufacturer flash units do. Heck with Godox you can get a radio transceiver and full sized powerful flash for less than half of the price of just the flash from Nikon.

Cynthia Crawford wrote:I don't use flash much, but now and then it's nice to have a fill flash for bird/wildlife/close-up. This would be for my Nikon D850 or 500, and a range of 17 to 500mm lenses. It needs to be very light weight and not very expensive. (maybe $300 max, but would settle for much less!)  I have a better beamer I used with my old long Canon lenses(all gone now), but found it awkward to use. I guess it did help with a long lens.

Not asking for much, am I!

Any suggestions/ favorites?

I bought a Nikon SB-910 used from Roberts in Indianapolis for only $199,95

I use a Flashpoint Zoom Li-on R2 TTL Flash.  This is exactly the same as the Godox V860 II - the brand E.J. mentions, except it is offered by Adorama who brands it Flashpoint (price is the same).  It has an advantage over Godox in that all service is provided by Adorama so you deal with a US company for all service.  Firmware updates are on the Adorama site in understandable english not on a Chineses site.   What is nice about this unit is that it has a dedicated Li-on battery (much like a camera battery) that has faster recycle times and more power storage than 4 AA batteries frequently used in fashes.
https://www.adorama.com/fplfsmzl2nk.html
By the way if you do buy this flash I would recommend that you make sure it has the latest firmware installed, if it does not update it as it can make a huge difference in how it operates with more recent cameras.

This maybe too late but have you looked at the refurbished flashes at Nikon USA?

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-store ... meras.page

They had a 10% off sale recently and I'm sure they will have more in the future. I've bought 2 lenses and the SB-700 AF (under $300) from here. All looked immaculate/new and came with a 90 day warranty. So far no problems and the SB-700 works like a charm with my 500/5.6 and D500.

Cheers,

Jim

hullyjr wrote:This maybe too late but have you looked at the refurbished flashes at Nikon USA?

https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-store ... meras.page

They had a 10% off sale recently and I'm sure they will have more in the future. I've bought 2 lenses and the SB-700 AF (under $300) from here. All looked immaculate/new and came with a 90 day warranty. So far no problems and the SB-700 works like a charm with my 500/5.6 and D500.

Cheers,

Jim

Thank you Jim. I wondered about refurbished. I wasn't sure what the life span of a flash/bulb might be, regardless of present condition, or how you could tell how long it would last. Having said that, I don't have a general idea what the life expectancy is of any flash-there does not seem to be a way to know about usage like there is for camera shutter counts.

For now I am using a very cheap Neewer flash that my husband passed on to me. It is simple-seems to work until I get more interested in fancier options. I will certainly consider used, when it comes to that.

Hi Cynthia,

The flash tubes last longer than most cameras. I have ones dating back to the 1980s that work as background illumination (using primitive light triggers). I believe the capacitor (or something like that) does get old and slow like me. The flash will take longer to reach full capacity/charge. At some point it just will not charge.

I've damaged more flash thanks to the Better Beamer burning the plastic casing than anything else!

Regards,

Jim

hullyjr wrote:Hi Cynthia,

The flash tubes last longer than most cameras. I have ones dating back to the 1980s that work as background illumination (using primitive light triggers). I believe the capacitor (or something like that) does get old and slow like me. The flash will take longer to reach full capacity/charge. At some point it just will not charge.

I've damaged more flash thanks to the Better Beamer burning the plastic casing than anything else!

Regards,

Jim

Thanks again, Jim. An illuminating post! .  Hmmm- Better Beamer burning the casing??? New on on me.  You mean the beamer casing gets burned, or the flash itself? 

Cindy, what he is referring to, and this is a real fire hazard, is if you leave a fresnel flash extender on the camera and the sun hits it, it can focus the light just like a magnifying glass can concentrate the light of the sun and actually cause burn spots or melt part of the casing. In rare cases it has caused things to catch fire when that concentrated spot of light hit fabric or something else flammable just as a magnifying glass can. Never ever leave your "beamer" pointed into the sun either in use or while waiting to use it or while it sits in your car, basically never.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Cindy, what he is referring to, and this is a real fire hazard, is if you leave a fresnel flash extender on the camera and the sun hits it, it can focus the light just like a magnifying glass can concentrate the light of the sun and actually cause burn spots or melt part of the casing.  In rare cases it has caused things to catch fire when that concentrated spot of light hit fabric or something else flammable just as a magnifying glass can.  Never ever leave your "beamer" pointed into the sun either in use or while waiting to use it or while it sits in your car, basically never.

Wow! Thanks for that warning. I had no idea, and, I suspect, neither do many others. I should they would post a warning on that thing. (Haven't used mine since I left Canon, but it's around ...in a case...somewhere...)

We had a ton of discussion about it back in the early 2000's when these things were first becoming popular but there are so many photographers that have come into the fold since it is good to bring it back up.  Back then, with 4 or 5 stops of dynamic range we used flash so much more than we do today to fill in shadows even in good light.  Back then anything over ISO 400 was utterly useless due to noise as well so we used flash a lot.  Nowadays we just don't use flash that much anymore.

Good image stabilization system helps, too. For stationary subjects, you can also bracket the exposures then combine the files in post.