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The Nikon Speedlight Commander SU-800 controls up to three groups of i-TTL compatible wireless flash units. It provides a variety of wireless multiple flash and close-up flash operations. Control the flash output levels of the SB-R200 remote Speedlight unit when mounted on current Nikon Creative Lighting System SLR cameras. Easy-to-view LCD panel Transmission Range - Approx. 20m (66 ft.) Number of Channels - 4 Number of Groups - 3 Transmissions per Battery - Approx. 1200 Transmission Interval - Approx. 1 second Flash Light Wavelength - Approx. 800 to 1000nm (infrared ray) Flash Coverage - Approx. 60 AF-Assist Illuminator - Approx. 10m (33 ft.) at center area using a 50mm f/1.8 lens Power source - One CR123A (3V) lithium battery Included Accessory - Soft Case (SS-SU800) Dimensions(WxHxD) - 2.7 x 3.8 x 2.3 (68 x 96 x 58 mm) Weight - 5.6 oz. (160 g)
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Technical Details
- Speedlight units can be divided into three groups with independent control of the flash output- Commander function triggers wireless remote flash units
- One-touch switching between close-up and Commander modes
- Easy-to-use close-up flash operations - Dual-light close-up flash & Triple-light close-up flash
- Compact and lightweight
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By Catherine Southerly (Louisville, KY)
The Nikon SU-800 is a very useful product and it synchs up with my SB-600 quite easily. My pictures have a more professional look, IMO. I read somewhere that directional lighting makes a photo look a bit more polished and I have this with the SU-800. My only caveat is that I would make sure to have to flash's manual around when choosing channels and stuff. It took my an hour to figure it out with out the manuals and as soon as I used the manuals, I was up and running.
Good luck and happy pictures!
By Richard A. Selby
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 allis 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 no 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
By Babby (Phoenix, Arizona)
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!
By Chris R. Field (colorado)
This thing is great!
First off, if you have a Nikon D70s, D90, and maybe a D80 not sure, dont even bother with this thing. They all have internal flash commanders built in and they use the flash.
Also, you can set the flash on the camera so it wont fire when the exposure is taken. So this is only really useful with the D40, D60, and i believe the D5000 also lacks the built in commander.
This is only really handy on the D70s, D80, and D90 if you plan to have the flashes behind you, as you can put it on the remote ittl cable and point it to the rear, or bounce it off the cieling and such to control the flashes. It MAY be helpful with portrait work if your subject is prone to blinking.
Ive always had the humerous notion of somebody being thrown into seizures with the built in pop up flash remote commanders.
THAT ASIDE, this thing works pretty good! I have a D40, and i have the SC-29 ITTL cable and that works great but im stuck with an arms length distance on that coiled cable.
it did NOT come with a battery as advertized. Buy these on amazon, they are about 10 bucks at walgreens or walmart. you can get 4 of them for that price on Amazon.
it has 2 plugs on the side. I couldnt find any literature of what they did. They are for Nikon TTL cables. Not PC sync cables.
A co worker let me borrow his SB-900 for the weekend, coupled with the SB-600 i have they worked fantastic together. The CLS system really came through and it was easy as hell to get the right correct and not overexpose the image. it all just kind of falls together.
This would not be a great deal if the SB-800 had not been discontinued and shot up to 700-800 per unit.
im glad i got this, i cant wait to pick up a couple more SB-600's. I have not tried to shoot it over 50 feet away, but so far i have not missed a flash yet.
great toy!
=========UPDATED=========
Still works like a champ!
I have since upgraded to a Nikon D90 with the built in commander. The built in commanders control the on-camera flash plus 2 more groups, The SU-800 controlls 3 seperate groups.
even with the Nikon D90 i still find myself using the SU-800 most of the time unless i really need to have the pop up flash included in. Its very convenient having the extra display with the flash control information directly on top of the camera and not having to dig through the menus (which isnt all THAT bad but why not save a step)
About a week ago i put my 2 Nikon SB-600's on stands and used the SU-800 on top of the camera outside, i positioned the SB-600s about 15 feet apart and stood about 1 foot back from being completly dead center between the flashes and they still triggered, Line of Site seems to work about 170 degrees left and right which suprised me. Plus i was outside there was nothing for the commander to bounce off of.
The remote commander's range is almost identical if not a tiny bit further than the SU-800 from other peoples testing i have read of, it is still very handy to have even if it is not required.
Five Stars!!!!!!!!
By Bearie Luv Amazon (Pasadena, CA)
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.
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