Nikon F6 Flash needed

[rmjranch]

Bought a used F6, need a flash. Nikon recommends SB-800. Seems they no longer are made. Purchase one used or something else? How much were SB-800 new? Thanks

 

[Theo Sulphate]

From here,

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/flashes-compared.htm

it appears that both the SB-800 and older SB-600 have the TTL compatibility needed for film cameras.

 

[rrusso]

Well, naturally Nikon would recommend one of their flashes.

And the 800 is an excellent workhorse flash. I've seen them in very good condition in the 150-200 range.

You don't absolutely need TTL. If you want to learn how to use flash, I'd recommend just getting a good manual flash and, if you don't already have one, a meter with flash capability. Alternatively, if you have a dslr, you can use it as a Polaroid to dial in the flash settings.

Use cheap film. It isn't that difficult and you'll learn quickly.

Not that TTL is such a bad thing, but I find it boring. If you want to take better flash photos, you have to get the flash off the camera.

 

[Chan Tran]

The F6 supports i-TTL. It's the only film camera that does.

 

[CropDusterMan]

Won't the SB-28 work with the F6? It works with the F5 and F100.
Nikons flashes always worked so well.

 

[macfred]

Won't the SB-28 work with the F6? It works with the F5 and F100.
Nikons flashes always worked so well.

It does - as well as SB-23; SB-24; ...

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

But not all functions supported by the F6 will be available.
Any Nikon TTL flash will work, what varies is the TTL capabilities.

 

[mweintraub]

I'm selling an SB-600 if you're intersted. I've used it on the F6 and other film cameras. Newer flashes don't support the old Film TTL standard.

 

[Vonder]

Won't the SB-28 work with the F6? It works with the F5 and F100.
Nikons flashes always worked so well.

Indeed, the SB-28 is the best. I love how well it works with the F6.

 

[CropDusterMan]

I'll tell you, the old SB-26 was great too with its built-in optical slave...I used to clamp them up as back lights
and often threw a ball of bubble wrap over the head with some CTO's and put them into lamps (with bulb removed) in shots to create a look that it was lit more naturally by room light...see image below. THis is one of Annie Leibovitz's shots where a Profoto head (converted to Hensel Porty) was color corrected to 3200 and placed in the lamp to create a neat shot...I knew one of the assistants on that gig, he later was my boss and we did this trick often...lol, if you look closely, you can see the beefy profoto cord.

 

[TSSPro]

SB-26 is a workhorse- I love my 26s until they dies. The optical slave is a great thing, too. The 800 has the optical slave as well and works with the I-ttl as well, but you can have great results with the older flashes, too.

 

[r-brian]

I have a SB-26 sitting in my bag that I picked up a couple of years ago. I don't think I fired an on-camera flash in 20 years; I know I won't use this one. But when I did use a flash, I loved the SP-26., I guess I need to see what''s it worth.