Entry Level Speedlight

ejl

I am fairly new and I,m looking for a very inexpensive speedlight for my D5100. I am not in manual mode yet (still in auto). What inexpensive speedlight would be best to start off with? One that I can just put on the camera and go. I have one now, but the on camera flash keeps popping up.

Moose

Howdy @ejl - The SB-400 is a great starter speedlight, that syncs beautifully with the D5100. Just slide it onto the hot-shoe and let it go to work. When shooting indoors, you'll want to bounce the flash off the ceiling in order to get more natural looking light. The SB-400 is capable of this, but only when shooting horizontally (landscape).

If you rotate the D5100 vertically (portrait) then the flash head won't be able to point upwards towards the ceiling. For that, you would need the SB-700. Hope that all makes sense and happy shooting! :)

ejl

I had the SB-400 and the results were OK. I didn't get the brightness I was expecting. I have a Neewer TT560 now and I'm having trouble with it. Whenever I attach it, the on camera flash pops up. I've read the directions and it says that it shouldn't do that.

Moose

@ejl - I don't have any personal experience with the Neewer TT560. My guess is that the D5100 isn't communicating properly with it, which is why the built-in flash keeps popping up. If you need added power, then the SB-700 would be your best bet. If you're looking to save a little money, you could always go with the older SB-600 (used).

ejl

Ok thanks for all your help.

statuswest

I have an SB700, and it was spendy but the perfect companion to the D5100. If you set it in the SU4 slave mode, the popup flash will actually trigger it remotely as well.