Nikon SB 400 Vs. SB 600
Light is one of the most important aspects of photography. Most SLR cameras come with an internal, built-in flash. Internal flashes are adequate for most situations; however, an external flash will give you much more natural lighting and allow you to capture pictures in low light. Nikon offers a variety of external flashes called SpeedLights. Nikon's SB-400 and SB-600 are both very capable flashes; however, they have quite a few differences and will appeal to different types of photographers.
Specifications
Nikon's SB-400 is the smallest flash available for Nikon's current line of DSLR cameras. Due to its small size, the SB-400 uses two AA batteries for power, compared to the SB-600, which uses four. The SB-600 is a standard size external flash. Both the SB-400 and SB-600 connect to the hot shoe of a Nikon camera. Since the SB-600 is a larger flash, it has a higher GN rating than the SB-400. The SB-600 has a GN, or Guide Number, rating of 98 compared to the GN 69 of the SB-400.
Pivoting Flash Head
The SB-400 is a very capable flash for everyday photography. The SB-400 allows the flash head to pivot vertically from 0 to 90 degrees. This allows for indoor bounce flashes to give a soft glow to the room. One of the limitations of the SB-400 is the lack of a sideways pivot. Because the flash head can only be adjusted vertically, a bounce flash is not possible while photographing in portrait orientation. The SB-600 does not have the bounce flash problem, because the flash head can rotate sideways and allow a bounce flash during portrait orientation.
Wireless Off-Camera Flash
One of the biggest feature differences between the SB-400 and the SB-600 is the ability of the SB-600 to work off-camera. The SB-600 can be used as a wireless slave flash to either a Nikon Wireless Flash Remote or higher-level Nikon SpeedLights, such as the SB-800 or SB-900. The off-camera feature will allow you to place the SB-600 in the vicinity of the camera and it will fire when needed. The SB-400 must be attached to the camera's hot shoe to work.
Flash Zoom
The SB-600 has a zoom feature to match your lens zoom. The flash will adjust the power and fill range, depending on the length of zoom on your lens. The SB-600 will adjust the zoom to correspond with the lens from 24mm to 85mm. The SB-400 is a static lens and will not gauge the power based on the zoom length.
Compatibility
The SB-600 should be used when replacing a flash for an older film-based camera or one of the original Nikon DSLR cameras. The SB-600 is compatible with all of Nikon's DSLRs and most of the Nikon film SLR cameras of the last few decades. Nikon's original DSLR cameras used D-TTL as a flash-control system, instead of the newer i-TTL. TTL is an abbreviation for To The Lens. TTL limits the exposure of the picture, depending on the amount of light detected by the lens. The SB-400 only works with i-TTL, which is available on all the current models of Nikon's DSLR cameras.
Tags: DSLR cameras, SB-400 SB-600, bounce flash, flash head, external flash