Photography Thailand Forum

[aksiam]

Hi all,

Can any one tell if any of the older series SB flashes (23 - 28) are compatible with the Nikon P5100?

I know on the Nikon site it reads SB-400, 600 & 800 but i am not sure if this is a ploy to get you to buy their new flashes or not.

Cheers in advance,

Siam

[epixx]

If it was me, I wouldn't be in doubt. The whole point with the P5100 is that it's compact, and the SB-400 is an excellent compact flash, so why buy anything else?

I think all recent Nikon flashes will work with the P5100, but most of them are significantly bigger than the camera.

[aksiam]

Thanks epixx,

As I use this as my happy go lucky P&S I don't have an external flash for it. But are friend had been willing to lend me his SB-26 to use with the group shots that I had asked about the other day, so I thought I would see if it would assist me in this situation. Especially after yours and marks advice on strobe lighting. I also thought that if I use the 5100 that i would be able to do as Mark said and layer faces if people do the inevitable and close their eyes in a pic or two.

Also you sure right about the size, any mounted flash looks super daunting on such a compact camera, borderline ridiculous.

[epixx]

That changes the whole thing a bit. Should work fine. If I remember correctly, the SB-26 is relatively powerful, and well suited for the job. A diffuser may come in handy.

Be sure to use the P5100 at lowest ISO to avoid noise and loss of detail. I believe base ISO is 64 but 100 should be good as well. The optical viewfinder is rather inaccurate, and only shows around 80% of the image, so using the LCD instead might be a good idea. There's no RAW format, so you need to get the white balance right. Spend as much time as possible with the camera before the day. It has almost as many adjustments as a DSLR.

[aksiam]

yep thats right, its an amazing little machine.

Thanks for all the advice!