The Nikon d5600 is a very popular entry level DSLR camera body and in our opinion, it is one of, if not the best entry level DSLR on the market right now and its popularity would suggest that the community tend to agree with us. For its price point, it offers excellent functionality and blows most of the competing DSLRs in this price bracket out of the water and we feel this is why it has grown a huge customer base so quickly and established itself as the dominant budget friendly DSLR camera on the market.
Due to being so popular and having such a huge customer base of photographers who use the d5600 as their go to camera body of choice, we often see questions asked about various camera accessories that people are able to use when using the Nikon d5600 to get the best image quality possible. One of the most frequently asked questions that we have seen asked time and time again is based around the best flash for Nikon d5600 camera owners.
Due to seeing so many people reaching out for advice on a flash unit for the d5600 each month, we have decided to make this the main focus of todays article. We are hoping that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible who are in the market for a flash head for the d5600 as it can be a minefield out there with so many low quality flash units on the market right now.
Thankfully though, there is definitely hope and we have two recommendations for our readers. The first is out budget friendly recommendation, the Neewer 750II that is an excellent little flash unit for its price tag and should be able to meet the needs of most of our readers on a budget. it offers some solid entry level functionality and can help improve your flash photography image quality without breaking the bank. It has managed to grow a solid reputation amongst photographers over the years and can be a solid addition to your camera accessories.
That said though, we would highly recommend that our readers go with the Nikon SB-700 as it is a much better flash head for anyone looking to make photography their profession. Although it is an intermediate flash unit with a price tag to match, it is a much better option than the Newer 750II and offers better performance and versatility for your Nikon d5600. In addition to this, the Nikon SB-700 can actually compete with some of the more expensive flash units on the market right now depending on what you are planning to use your Nikon d5600 for.
The Nikon SB-700 is one of the most popular flash units for the Nikon camera range on the market right now and it has seen exponential growth in its popularity and sales recently meaning that it can be a pain to find. That said though, most of the online retailers have the Nikon SB-700 in stock still but with its reputation increasing as such a rapid rate we only expect more and more people going out to add the Nikon SB-700 to their camera accessories.
Although the Neewer 750II is a decent little entry level flash unit for the Nikon d5600, we will be focusing on the Nikon SB-700 for the rest of our article. We feel that the SB-700 is definitely the better option and should be the primary consideration for our readers so we want to take a more in-depth look at the flash an what it can offer you and your d5600.
Performance And Functionality
Although some of the Nikon flash units that the have released recently have had a number of issues, we are pleased to be able to say that the Nikon SB-700 is definitely not one of them and its performance and functionality is excellent. Although it does come with an intermediate level price tag, we have no doubt in our mind that adding the SB-700 to your collection of camera accessories for your Nikon d5600 will be able to offer you some solid improvements to the image quality that you are able to capture with your flash photography.
In addition to these general improvements, the versatility of the Nikon SB-700 also ensures that you are able to use it in pretty much every flash photography situation that you may end up finding yourself in while working as a photographer. This is one of the reasons that we try to offer a more budget friendly flash recommendation to our readers for Nikon cameras but always stress that the SB-700 is a much better option. Although many of the cheaper flash units do offer some solid improvement the basic flash photography, the do lack the versatility to be used as a professional flash head.
If you do choose to go with the Nikon SB-700 as your flash unit of choice for your d5600 then we would highly recommend that you take a few minutes to download the latest firmware update for it. This will ensure that it will work seamlessly with your d5600 provided your camera is also running the latest version of its firmware. Although earlier software builds on both the camera and the flash are compatable, a number of bugs as well as a small overheating issue with the SB-700 have been fixed with the various firmware updates so it is well worth downloading the free update.
In addition to the bug fix for the overheating, the latest firmware build for the Nikon SB-700 also offers improvements to the i-TTL, manual mode, guide number, advanced wireless lighting (master, remote, or SU-4 mode), color filter information transferred to camera, rear curtain sync, slow sync, Red-eye Reduction, and AF-Assist illumination functionality of the flash unit too. Although these improvements are minimal, considering that the firmware patch is free, it is worth installing in our opinion.
As you can probably tell from the list of features the latest software build for the patch can improve the performance off, the Nikon SB-700 offers full support for a number of core functions and modes that any professional photographers will want in their flash head. The wifi connectivity on your Nikon d5600 should pair directly to the wifi on the SB-700 but if it doesnt, check that you have the latest firmware installed on both your camera and the flash as this is the most common problem.
Depending on the flash photography niche that you are working in, you are also able to add the Nikon SB-700 to a multi flash setup if needed helping to increase the number of photography gigs you are able to accept. That said though, the majority of wedding or model photography as well as the majority of other popular niches you will be using the Nikon SB-700 as a stand alone flash for your Nikon d5600 anyway.
When it comes to battery life, you can usually expect around 200-300 flash activations depending on the batteries that you use with the flash unit as well as its settings, and flash recycle time. That said though, using a decent set of AA batteries (four are required for the SB-700) rather than some cheap batteries can definitely help to improve the battery life of the flash even with a fast recycle time and a short flash duration.
All in all, Nikon really have managed to learn from the mistakes that they had made with their older flash heads that had a number of problems. The Nikon SB-700 is an excellent camera accessory that will make a great flash unit for your Nikon d5600 and the number of excellent reviews from photographersthat the flash unit has received speak for themselves.
User Interface And Control System
Another area where Nikon have made huge improvements with their Nikon SB-700 over their older flash units is in the user interface and control system that the flash unit uses. The old annoying navigation menu is gone and the menu on the SB-700 as well as all of their other new flash units is sleek, easy to navigate, and lets you quickly and easily make tweaks to the settings on the camera unit as required.
The LCD panel on the flash unit is backlit ensuring that you are able to clearly see all the infomation display even in low light conditions. Although Nikon have not made this mistake, some of the lower price point flash brands have released flash units with LCD screens that have no backlight making them a pain to use if you are using your camera in low light conditions. The screen on the SB-700 is also large enough to fit the majority of the core information on the screen at once that you will need. This lets you simply glance down at the flash unit to quickly get the information that you may require during a flash photography session with your Nikon d5600.
The buttons and rotary dial on the flash unit are all very easy to use too and their positioning is ideal in our opinion. The vast majority of people should easily be able to reach all of the buttons on the flash unit without having to sacrifice the grip on their Nikon d5600. Although it is rare these days, some of the older flash units were a total pain to actually reach the buttons and you sometimes had to put your camera at risk by weakening your grip on it to tweak the settings but this is not an issue with the SB-700.
The final point that we want to make when it comes to the interface on the flash unit, and we know that this is going to come down to personal preference but it uses a on/off switch rather than an on/off button. Although this may not seem like a big thing, we have lost count of the number of photographers who have got to the location of their photography session only to realise the batteries in their flash unit are empty and that they have to go to their spare batteries right away.
This is usually down to flash units with an on/off button as you have to hold them for 3 to 5 seconds depending on the flash before it will actually power down. If you have multiple flash units in your camera accessories then some of your flash units may be a 3 second power down and some may be a 5 second power down adding to the confusion. We prefer a simple on/off switch on our flash units like the one on the SB-700 as it prevents this and once you set it to off, the flash it off.
Build Quality And Design
In this day and age, there is not much design innovation left in the flash space with the technology that we have available. The Nikon SB-700 is pretty standard in that regard and follows a very similar design to most of the other flash units on the market right now. This is very common and is not something specific to Nikon and their flash units but until the technology required for camera flashes becomes smaller, there really is little else that they are else that they can do when it comes to design.
The actual build quality of the flash unit is solid though, it is tough enough to take any potential bumps during use or while in your photography bag on your way to a job helping to ensure that its not going to break anytime soon. This helps to offer you some peace of mind as many of the cheaper flash units on the market are made from low quality plastics as that is how the brands keep their costs low to make their money meaning that they can break easily.
The Nikon SB-700 is also a lightweight camera flash meaning that you should easily be able to mount it to your Nikon d5600 and use your camera rig for long periods of time without having any issues. Some of the competing camera flashes, even some at higher price points in the market can be surprisingly heavy putting addition strain on your arms, shoulders, and back during use.
Conclusion
That concludes our article going over why we feel that the Nikon SB-700 is the best flash for Nikon d5600 cameras on the market right now. It really is an excellent camera flash unit and we are not surprised that so many photographers choose it as their flash unit of choice as well as why it has quickly earned the excellent reputation that it has in such a short period of time.
