^^ if you use it stupidly... like TTL, matrix metering, then aim it with diffuser dome upwards, in a big church wedding... AND fire it like a machinegun... Every 2nd shot is a full cap dump... then it will overheat.

But so many things MUST go wrong before it happens... SO... if you do happen to use it that way... like I saw some idiots at KLIMS... then you're asking for trouble and probably shouldn't be allowed near any flashgun.

NC is not UV. Nikon UV is marked 37c. Its multicoated, and good, thin ring filter. Its good if you're just using it for protection, but it wont serve the purpose of UV filter which is to cut down on the purplish cast haze on bright sunny days outdoors.

Get those Profoto 10kW hotlights then. Even the highest end speedlight is like a keychain torchlight compared to it. You'll never need to upgrade. Can even fry eggs with it.

Better flash is SB800. Same price and size and weight as SB700, but more powerful than SB900. Only thing you lose is the cycle time which is useless, since too fast cycling causes overheating anyway. And you lose some ergonomics in terms of easy access buttons.

Why did Nikon have to discontinue their best flash ever and replace it with an inferior model???

^^ Pity your victims a bit lah... Flash flash flash till they go blind... I've never used the 5th battery thingie. In fact, never used anything in the box besides the flash and the diffuser. The rest is kept for resell value.

But... looking at the SB900... I think no need to sell. I'll keep my SB800s till some better stuff comes around, or when my old puppies get fried.

On a fast card like extreme 3 jpeg normal only you'll get about 25 to 30 shots. Raw probably about 17 frames. Either way. Once you hit the limit it'll reduce to 2-3 fps, depending on how fast it can write to card.

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Added on December 19, 2010, 5:45 pmThe discontinued nikon afs 24-85/3.5-4.5 is a better lens if you ask me. Yet again another example of one step forward, two steps back by nikon.

This post has been edited by adriancs: Dec 19 2010, 05:45 PM

I've been using sanyo and powerex 2700mAh for years and my flashes are well used and still have not managed to kill them yet. The only problem with high capacity cells are that the self discharge rate is high.

These high cap cells also charge the flash caps faster, therefore reducing your cycle time. Together with bad practice of fast frequent full dumps, you can see why the cells are being blamed.

Bad usage kills flashes, not good batteries. Whoever told you high capacity batteries damage flashes is an idiot. They'll blame everything except seeing that the real problem is the idiot holding it.

50/1.8, 85/1.4, 105/2, 135/2 and 200/2.

How can you compare 35mm with 50mm. The angle of view is different. It does different things. Like apples to oranges.

There are no equivalents. If you wanna play, you gotta pay.

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Added on December 21, 2010, 11:10 amWhy not?

This post has been edited by adriancs: Dec 21 2010, 11:10 AM

Yup. Still considering the new 85/1.4 and 200/2. Maybe if next year is a good year... then 200/2!

Thats cos its was a noob question... and the standard answer has always been a fast telephoto.

The 85/1.8 is "good enough" if you ask me. With proper lighting you can't tell the difference between that and the 85/1.4, its lighter and it costs less than half the price. You only lose 2 things... ~2/3 of a stop of light, and some macho bragging rights. Other than that is a very fine piece of glass.

And the neverending search for the "perfect" lens continues...

Buy first la... then a few weeks later trade in and "upgrade". Keep the economy rolling

Uh... colour difference? I don't see any colour difference on my copy of 1.8D and 1.4D... Did you do manual WB, shoot the exact same scene, and without any UV filters? If you use different UV filters... between brands there might be colour casts.

Even if there were, no big deal to just use the eyedropper tool to get middle gray back to where its supposed to be.

I agree on the handling, but it hasn't bothered me much.

1855, 1870, 18105... All of them are sharp lenses, stopped down to f/8 or f/11 will give you critical sharpness. Of course wide open they're a little soft, lower contrast and have some veiling flare. This is where the primes win, at f/5.6, wide open for the zoom is already 3 stops down for the prime.

No cheap zoom will perform very well wide open. Even the expensive f/2.8 zooms have the same limitations wide open, though generally they're optimized to be sharp too wide open.

Stop down your zoom in good light and they perform just as well as primes. In low light, pop the strobes or switch to your prime.

Moons... you seen one, you've seen all... since everywhere in the world the moon shows its same face everytime. Great for testing your lens sharpness and atmospheric clarity, but thats about it.

You can charge whatever it is that you feel you're worth. Think about how much you'd earn an hour, and how many hours you put into that work, including travelling, shooting, editing, printing, etc... whatever costs, then plus maybe a 25% or 30% profit margin and you get your final price.

As for requesting copyrights and softcopies, you can always sell that too... for a price.

Look up google for some sample photog job contract, detailing the pricing, min number or hours work, or a lump sum deal; ownership of image and usage rights, and so on. Signing a contract, as well as any relevant copyright/mode usage/liabilityl release forms is always a good practice. It protects both you and your client. Think of it as a business, and put down in black and white what you'd like your company policy would be.

Slap some CTO on the flash, and manually dial in Kelvin WB values. You'll get back the nice warm colours.

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Added on December 25, 2010, 10:30 pmCongratulations!!! Next do better for SPM arr....

This post has been edited by adriancs: Dec 25 2010, 10:30 PM

CTO is colour temperature orange. Its a piece of coloured gel plastic like tanglung cellophane in orange. Put some on your flash so that the colour is the same as the ambient lighting colour. If no kelvin setting them put to daylight wb.