Nikon SB-700

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Nikon SB-700
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Intro Specs Performance Compared Usage Recommendations

Nikon SB-700 (16.2 oz./459g with 4-Ni-MH cells, measured GN 85'/26m at ISO 100, measured 2.3s recycling time, about $327). enlarge. I got mine at Adorama; I'd also get it at Amazon or at B&H. It also sells for about $175 used if you know How to Win at eBay.

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Nikon does not seal its boxes, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, dropped, damaged or used flash, a customer return or if the warranty has already been registered to someone else online! The approved sources I use ship from secure, remote automated warehouses where salespeople or other customers never, ever get to touch your camera, and they have the best prices, selection, service and return policies.

April 2020 More Nikon Reviews Nikon Lens Reviews

Nikon Flashes Compared

How to Use Wireless Flash Control.

Introduction top

Intro Specs Performance Compared Usage Recommendations

Adorama pays top dollar for your used gear.

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio

I buy only from these approved sources. I can't vouch for ads below.

The Nikon SB-700 is a superb medium-sized flash for use on all modern Nikon i-TTL DSLRs.

Unlike other flashes, the SB-700 is only designed for current, not older cameras. Nikon calls these the cameras compatible with Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS). These cameras are all DSLRs except the D1 series and the D100. The F6 is also CLS compatible and works with the SB-700. With any other 35mm camera, you won't get much to work with the SB-700.

Dot-matrix LCD. bigger.

The SB-700 offers these features over the SB-600 (the SB-900 already has most of these):

Bounce Card top

This is important: I usually bounce the flash indoors, and this little kicker card adds catchlights to people's eyes.

With my SB-600, I use a white post-it-note to do the same thing.

The SB-700 also includes a Tupperware diffuser; I never use those.

Reads Filter Types and Sends Data to Camera top

As I hope you all know, flash needs to be filtered to have its color match the ambient lighting.

Flashes match daylight by default, but indoors under tungsten or fluorescent, you must match the flash color to the ambient light, otherwise people turn blue or purple and backgrounds turn orange or green.

I use gels velcroed to my flashes and set my camera's white balance manually to match everything.

Now with the SB-700, it includes hard plastic tungsten and fluorescent filters that pop over the flash.

When you pop on these filters, the flash reads the tabs, and sends that data to the camera to shift WB automatically.

Yay!

Faster Recycling top

The SB-700 has slightly less maximum power than the SB-600, and is also rated to recycle a little faster: 2.5s for the SB-700 versus 3.5s for the SB-600 at maximum power.

Commander Mode top

Most built-in flashes do this for free, but if you're using either an extremely cheap Nikon whose built-in flash can't work as the Commander, or using a camera lacking a built-in flash like the D3, the SB-700 can be the Commander.

The Commander is the on-camera flash that can control many other remote flashes wirelessly.

Better Button Feel

But a crummier, less legible LCD.

Exposure compensation might be more complex; on the SB-600, all you do it tap the + or - buttons.

SB-700. bigger.

Fluff top

Most of the things about the SB-700 are just fluff. Among the fluffiest things in the SB-700 are:

Illumination Patterns and Focal Length Ranges

The SB-700 has about the same range of light patterns (focal length settings) as does every other flash.

Someone at Nikon had the clever idea of making a new feature out of relabeling the settings in many different ways, and then claiming this as a way to modify light concentrations and settings for FX and DX lenses.

It's all baloney.

With a normal flash set to the 50mm setting, you get what the SB-700 also calls the "concentrated" setting at 35mm, and the "even" setting for 70mm. You also get the same things repeated as the 28mm setting for DX, and the concentrated setting for 20mm and the even setting for 45mm.

All these "different settings" are actually the same setting, called many different things in the firmware's User Interface.

This is firmware foolishness; you can do all these tricks with any other flash with a zoom head if you're paying attention.

Firmware Updates top

You can update the firmware of the SB-700 by yourself. So?

Do you really want to buy a flash for which Nikon hasn't finished writing the firmware?

Do I really have nothing more productive to do than update flash firmware?

Give me a break; I prefer real flashes that just light, thank you.

Specifications top

Intro Specs Performance Compared Usage Recommendations

Power

Flash Output

Guide Number rated at 28 meters, 92 feet, at ISO 100 at normal 35mm FX setting.

(SB-600 is GN 30 meters, 98 feet, in same conditions.)

Power Source

4 AA cells.

Alkaline, lithium or Ni-MH.

I use Sanyo Eneloop rechargables They last a long time, and never discharge when I'm not using them.

Recycle Time

2.5s with Ni-MH or Alkalines.

3.5s with lithium.

(SB-600 is 3.5s, and rated for 200 full-power pops per set.)

In the old days, flashes said that batteries were still good until the recycling time was 30 seconds. Today, the SB-700 says give up if it takes any more than 10 seconds.

Shots per set

Alkaline: 160.

Panasonic eVolta: 230.

Lithium: 330.

2,000 mAh Eneloop: 230.

2,600 mAh Ni-MH: 260.

Flash Burst Duration

1/1,000 ~ 1/40,000 s.

Modes top

iTTL

iTTL is the usual mode for DSLRs and the incomparable Nikon F6.

Manual

1-1/128 in 1/3 stops, except no steps between full and 1/2 power.

If you want 1/3 stops between full and half, set it at MENU > [M].

GN (Guide-number)

In this mode, if you tell the SB-700 how far away is your subject, it will calculate and use the correct manual power level for you.

Wireless Slave ("REMOTE" on power switch)

This flash has a sensor to work wirelessly with other flashes.

Remote Commander ("MASTER" on power switch)

Use on a D3 or other cameras lacking a built-in commander flash to control other flashes wirelessly.

FP Sync

Special sync mode for high shutter speeds.

NO REGULAR TTL MODE

The SB-700 won't work except in manual for use with most 35mm cameras.

NO A MODE

There is no built-in sensor for an Auto mode with older manual camera.

Size top

71 x 126 x 104.5mm.

(SB-600 is 68 x 123.5 x 90mm (2.7 x 4.9 x 3.5 in.))

Weight top

12.545 oz. (355.6g) empty.

16.175 oz. (458.6g) with 4-Ni-MH cells.

Nikon specifies 450g with four 1.5V alkaline AA cells, 360g empty.

(the SB-600 is 13.75 oz (390g) loaded, or 300g (10.6 oz.) empty.)

Included top

Nikon throws-in more toys with the SB-700 than with the SB-600.

This SB-700 also includes:

SW-14H

Nikon Diffusion Dome SW-14H.

This lets you use fisheyes and other crazy lenses without any hot spots.

SZ-3TN

Incandescent Filter SZ-3TN.

You use this when shooting indoors. This even keys the camera to tungsten white balance, so now what's lit by the flash, and the background all match.

Pros have been doing this with gels for decades, and setting WB manually.

This is brilliant, since it's more automated.

When you use this indoors, it looks great, instead of having bluish people against an orange background.

SZ-3-FL

Fluorescent Filter SZ-3FL.

Ditto for this fluorescent filter.

Use it when shooting in parking garages and offices with fluorescent lighting. It keys the camera to set the appropriate white balance, so everything should look great, instead of the subjects looking a little magenta and the background looking all green.

If should also help if you stay in really nasty motels that use those awful mercury and lead-laced corkscrew fluorescent bulbs instead of real incandescent bulbs.

AS-22

Speedlight Stand AS-22.

I've never used one of these.

SS-700

Soft Case SS-700.

Likewise, who has room for these? I jam my flash into my bag and bail.

Made in

China.

Announced top

15 September 2010

Available top

Since October 2010.

Price, USA top

2020 April $327.

2019 March $327.

2015 April $327.

2011 September: $325.

2010 September: $330.

Performance top

Intro Specs Performance Compared Usage Recommendations

All Nikon's flashes are controlled by the smarts in the camera. All the flash does is turn on and off when the camera commands it.

Therefore, picture quality depends on you and your camera, not what kind of flash you buy.

Power and Output

Measured Guide Number (GN) in feet, ISO 100:

Zoom Setting	GN, feet	SB-600 GN
14 mm	56	45
24mm	80
35mm	85 (80 + 1/6)	80
85mm	95 (80 + 1/2)

Ergonomics

Recycling time is the fastest I've ever experienced.

With a half-discharged set of Sanyo Eneloops, it takes only 2.3 seconds to relight the READY light after a full-power dump. The SB-600 takes 3.3 seconds to do the same thing.

The only bad thing about the SB-700 is the tiny rear LCD. Yes, the LCD is big, but the icons an text are all too small. Nikon tries to cram too much information onto the LCD, so everything is too small. I prefer the big, clean, simple LCD of the SB-600.

I LOVE the rotary power switch, a big step up from any flash with a push-push power button. Flick the switch, and the SB-700 is ON or OFF. I don't have a half-second to wait holding the SB-600's power switch.

Zooming

Unlike a lens, when a flash "zooms," all it's doing is changing its reflector to spread or concentrate the light a little more or less.

Nikon makes up all sort of marketing fluff (and programs the flash's firmware to make this even less clear), but the zoom head of the SB-700 works just like any other flash with a motorized zoom head made since 1986. It's really sad that Nikon wasted a real switch on the right side for this foolishness when that switch could have been something useful, like an exposure compensation switch as on the SB-30.

Compared top

Intro Specs Performance Compared Usage Recommendations

Compared to the older Nikon SB-600, it all comes down to whether you prefer simpler, more intuitive operation and a legible LCD (the SB-600), or if you prefer a built-in bounce card and a better power switch, at the price of an illegible LCD and fluff features getting in the way of what you need (the SB-700).

	SB-600	SB-700
Years	2004-2010	2010-
Works with	35mm cameras and DSLRs (TTL and iTTL)	current DSLRs and the F6 (iTTL only)
Power (measured, feet, 35mm, ASA 100)	80	85
Power Switch	Hold a button for a second.	Instant, direct rotary control.
Bounce Card	No, I use a white post-it note.	Built-in.
LCD	Big and bold icons, numbers and text.	Tiny dot-matrix icons, number and text. Slightly bigger overall, but tries to squeeze three times as much onto the screen.
LCD backlight	Green LED.	Cyan electro-luminescent panel.
Head swivel	270º	360º
Case	SS-600 sack.	Padded, zipered square case that holds flash, filters, and stand.
What matters	Simpler, more intuitive operation for the features you actually will use, and a big, legible LCD	A lot of extra features, like faster recycling, remote commander, built-in bounce card, handy tungsten and fluorescent light-balancing filters and a nice case, however all these extras obscure getting to the more important basic controls you really need, like exposure compensation.
Verdict	The flash I'd be most likely to grab to go shoot something serious. The SB-600 is all business and no BS.	The SB-700 seems more awesome sitting on my desk reviewing it, but all the fluff will probably get in the way for actual shooting. The best feature of the SB-700 are its much improved power switch and built-in bounce card over the SB-600.