Nikon Speedlight Roundup - 2024

The Nikon DSLR and Mirrorless range are favoured by photographers of all levels, thanks to the perfect mix of quality and usability provided. As mentioned in our Nikon DSLR camera roundup, no matter your skill level or budget, this brand is sure to have something to offer.

The range of Nikon Speedlights available for these digital cameras helps you harness all types of artificial lighting, from powerful bounce flash for beautiful portraits, to even lighting for Macro shots. To help you discover which Nikon flashgun you need to get more from your photography, read our roundup of current models below.

Although aimed at beginner’s, the Nikon SB-700 Speedlight delivers an impressive feature set that will allow users to improve and develop as photographers, while still getting plenty of use from the Speedlight. The flexible head of this Flash Gun swivels a full 360-degrees, as well as tilting up and down to provide you with plenty of options to bounce the flash output, which delivers beautiful and natural quality of lighting for creative portrait photos.

The guide number of the SB-700 is an honourable 28, strong enough for the majority of circumstances, while it covers an expansive zoom range of 24-120mm (12mm with the included wide panel), which means the flash output is adjusted to facilitate use with a range of lenses. Suitable in wireless flash setups, the Nikon SB-700 can be set as the master unit on your camera, controlling other units in your setup.

The Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight is an advanced member of Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, which is suitable for both DX and FX-format cameras. The guide number of this Flash unit is a strong 34.5mm, while it covers a broad 24-200mm zoom range, which can be extended to a wide 14mm with the included wide-angle diffusion panel. The SB-5000 is notable for featuring the first cooling system on a hot shoe-mounted flash, which allows it to achieve up to 100 consecutive full-powered flash bursts.

The Nikon SB-5000 can be used as a master unit in a range of advanced wireless flash setups, using both the traditional optical line of sight method, as well as more advanced and reliable radio triggering, which requires an additional wireless remote controller and adapter. Although a portable unit, the SB-5000 is incredibly versatile and powerful, with an included diffusion dome for harnessing a softer quality of light, as well as a range of colour correction filters for you to explore your creative side.

The Nikon SB-500 Speedlight is a portable and easy-to-use offering, which is compatible with DX and FX-format cameras. The guide number of this Flash unit is a respectable 24, while covers broad 24mm angle of view on FX cameras (16mm on DX-Format).

The Nikon SB-500 includes a very handy LED light with an impressive 100 lux output, which is excellent for implementing a constant form of lighting for your photo and video work. To provide a more natural, balanced form of artificial light, this compact flash gun includes a versatile bounce head, which tilts up 90 degrees and rotates 180 degrees in both directions.

Although capable of basic point-and-shoot operation, the Nikon SB-500 can also be used to explore wireless lighting setups, in which it can function as both master or slave.

If you are a Nikon user interested in Macro Photography, the R1C1 Twin Speedlight Kit is a must-have. This kit includes everything you need to provide an even spread of artificial light, which allows you to capture maximum corner to corner details of smaller subjects. The two SB-R200 wireless flash units in this kit deliver a guide number of 33, and they are fired remotely by the included SU-800 wireless commander. This setup is very simple to use, so you will be away and firing within moments.

In order to make use of this kit with your specific camera and lens setup, this kit also contains an attachment ring and a range of different adapter rings. The Speedlights can be tilted and angled, as well as positioned at different points around the lens, so you can carefully construct the lighting that you are projecting on your subject. Thanks to the SU-800 wireless commander, you can also make use of other flashes positioned off-camera if you want to achieve a more professional and advanced studio quality of lighting.

To get the most from your digital camera, you need the proper gear and accessories, from the Speedlights that you have just read about to the best Nikon camera lenses.

If you need more help deciding on what Nikon gear to purchase chat to us online today, or head into your local Ted’s store.