Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon SJ-1 Color Filter Set, Eight Filter Light Balancing Set for the SB-800, SB-600 & SB-80DX Flashes

I'm a devoted Nikon shooter (35+ years) and have used just about every Nikon accessory at one time or another. These filters are great, but I think Nikon is charging way too much money for an item that you can make cheaper and faster (and more durable and useful) yourself. I use an 8x10 sheet of Lee filters and cut out individual pieces. Add a little velco (available the Dollar Store) to the top and bottom. Use it with a Honl (www.honlphoto.com) velcro speedstrap on your SB-900, 800 or 600. Honl offers these filters too, but it's so easy to make them yourself, why spend the cash?
I've used both color balancing and colored filters on a wide variety of photo shoots. I shoot a lot of high-tech and telecom equipment and I often use a color filtered speedlight behind the equipment rack - adds drama and clients love the look.

First off, I am a big fan of Nikon products and I use Nikon exclusively for my photography pursuits. I wanted to improve the results I get from flash photography, which I find to be one of the bigger challenges to learning this craft. So I purchased the great Joe McNally's book "The Hotshoe Diaries", and have been reading the amazing flash photography how-to blog "Strobist" [...]

Both of these very highly regarded sources discuss at length that you need to color your flash with colored gels in order to balance the bright white light from your flash with the ambient light of your subject. No problem. To achieve that end, I figured that since I already own a Nikon SB-600 flash unit, why not purchase gels that were made for the flash? Such a conclusion seems logical enough, yet these gels are flimsy, require scotch tape to stay on, and are about as useful as coating your flash lens with a dry erase marker.

After purchasing these gels I quickly learned the error of my assumptions and wanted to post my experience so others don't make the same mistake. For a mere $6.50 I could have bought (and eventually did) a 20x24" SHEET of any given color from B&H (they also sell some of the more widely used colors here on Amazon - namely 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or full CTO or "Color Temperature Orange" - which is the most important color to have).

I spent about $40 for much better quality gel that I can cut out myself and attach using a Honl or Lumiquest velcro speed strap. As an aside, the Strobist says that you can get similar results with velcro strips you can purchase at any hardware store. Just pick up some velcro at a local store, attach it to the gel cut outs, and you now have the ability to switch your gels quickly and without the need for scotch tape, which just ends up tearing your gels anyway.

[...]

These sheets can be cut up into many pieces that you can use on your flash. It's far more cost effective this way and you can velcro these on. The Nikon SJ-1's are flimsy and hang onto the flash without covering it completely unless you scotch tape them, which COMPLETELY defeats the purpose of having gels that are made for my flash! The scotch tape eventually ruins the gel and also means you are shooting light through a piece of scotch tape in addition to the gel. It also means you now need to carry around a roll of scotch tape whenever you go out shooting.

I got far more value than the Nikon SJ-1 gel pack with a [...] Roscogel swatchbook. The Cinegel swatchbook cost me a whopping [...] and has at least 50 shades of different gel colors. According to Joe McNally's book and blog, the CTO, plusgreen and CTB colors are the ones you will likely need the most anyway (see:http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/whats-in-the-bag/).

The Nikon SJ-1 gel pack is not a good purchase and I highly recommend the alternatives listed above (or on Joe's blog), or if you don't want to cut the gel yourself, try the Honl velcro gels. They are pricey but look like they are pretty good quality.

The little plastic carrying case is kind of nice but you are better off using a business card holder anyway.

[....]

This gel set is of good quality, comes in a handy folder and are a great fun to use. There are basically two ways to apply these. The first is to get your flash to match the ambient light, and the second is to get creative and experimental. While the first is very useful, the second is great fun! Putting on gels and playing with the white balance setting can create some wonderful results.

Buy a Rosco or Lee sample pack for $5 instead. It's got everything that is in here on more. You'll need some velcro to attach the gels to your flash, but it will work immensely better than this setup.

Nikon should be ashamed of the asking price for this product. Then again, Nikon will try to sell you a public street if you're not careful.

I like Nikon's cameras and OEM accessories. This filter set does not fall into either category. It is, instead, a hardcore screw job by Nikon

The Good: The gels have nice color and are cut to fit the SB-600 and SB-800 perfectly. They come with a nice "wallet" type holder that fits nicely into the pockets of the SB-600/800 carrying bags.

The Bad: Like all gels these are consumable.. which means they will warp, fade, and degrade with normal use.. They are expensive. As stated in some other reviews you can get a sample pack of Rosco gels which has a lot more colors and a lot more gels for a lot less money..