Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon Speedlight SB-400 External Flash

This is a great little flash. It fits nicely in a small pocket, weighs absolutely nothing and helps immensely indoors. The head tilts upwards at 60-, 75- and 90-degree angles. As a previous reviewer mentioned, it communicates with my camera perfectly ( currently owning a D300 ) to get spot-on exposure every time.
The only time it struggled was in a room where the ceiling was painted black and the bounce was limited. Still, this was easily resolved with flash-metering before taking the shot.
The beauty of this flash is that there are no settings to change on the back, you just switch it on and start shooting. I mostly use it in rooms with friends, and get amazing colours, as if there is no flash at all.

As I have a D60 with an 18-200 mm lens so my comments pertain specifically to that camera/lens combination.

While researching suitable flash units I selected the SB400 instead of any of the larger SB600, SB800 and the new SB900 units due to the following reasons in order fo priority:

1. Size - the SB400 is small enough to go in the camera bag or a pocket. Therefore it will actually get used.
2. Ease of use - basically just put it on, turn it on and let the camera control the output.
3. Cost - very good value for money.
4. Power output - powerful enough for a medium sized room and most situations I'll find myself needing a flash for.

The only slight limitation is the lack of tilt to the side for bouncing flash in portrait mode but this is quite minor considering the other benefits. Taking a wider shot with some cropping solves the issue in any case.

I recommend this flash unit without reservation.

Great, it can stay on my D 300 or my P 5100 all day and the camera doesn't tip over! Really surprisingly powerful, great for fill in,fast recycle time and it BOUNCES. I rarely use my SB 600 now unless I need a lot of light.

The compact SB-400 is ideal for quick shots where you have it in your pocket or in your camera bag: comes with its own little zipper case, and with a few flicks on the Quick settings menu to set white balance, my D-60 does the rest.

The body slots onto the hotshoe very precisely, and the tilt head swivels from 0 to 90 degrees for varying degrees of flash intensity, but with it set to 60+ right up to pointing at parallel to the ceiling (provided it's a pale colour), who needs a diffuser? Colours come out well, and detail is sharp.

A worthwhile - and robust-feeling - little speedlight that is surprisingly flexible. Likewise, I'd give it the full five. Make sure you have the batteries ready to load: the traditional in brackets (Not Supplied) - two AAs, by the way!

Was asked to photograph a wedding for a friend and decided that I needed a flash to help.

There were a couple of other non-Nikon flashes that were about £15 cheaper but they didn't tilt rendering them a bit useless for using 'bounce', which is absolutely vital if you want to avoid the unsightly shadows on walls.

I used it yesterday for the wedding and I have to say it was fantastic. It provided the extra power required when shooting group photographs outdoors, in eliminating shadow on faces and bringing out the lovely colours when it was overcast.

I did make the silly mistake of not actually carrying the spare AA batteries that I had taken with me. So had to run back to get them from the car. It took about 400 or so photos before it required a change of batteries. Not bad at all.

Highly recommend it. Simple to use, great tilt feature and makes a world of a difference! Worked perfectly well with my D40.