Quoted from prior post:
- Best Features: Nikon SB-5000. ...
I am going to respectfully disagree with the above point, as the owner of both Canon Speedlites and Nikon Speedlights:
1. The SB-5000 requires dongles to use radio triggering. The Canon RT flash equipment has radio triggering built into the units.
2.Starting with the 580EX-RT, the latching mechanism on the top-tier Canon Speedlites became sturdier than the corresponding parts on Nikon Speedlights.
3. The top-tier Canon Speedlights effectively weather-seal against the correponding area around the flash shoes of the better Canon cameras. Nikon offers a separate rubber-like accessory, to effect this weather-seal.
4. The physical switches on Canon 580EX II and 600EX-series Speedlites seem sturdier than the corresponding parts on the SB-5000. I developed this opinion on my own, but, then, the power switch on my wife's SB-5000 has failed, which validated my assessment.
5. Nikon Speedlights, in my opinion, have declined in overall quality since the SB-800 and SB-80DX, which seem to have been the high-water-mark of Nikon Speedlights, and the Nikon Speedlights of that era were not weather-sealed.
6. Canon shooters have had the ability to use the camera's Flash Control menu to control Speedlites since 2012 cameras, and the 580EX II Speedlite. Nikon shooters did not have this ability until the D5/D500 cameras, in 2016, and only with the SB-500 and SB-5000 Speedlights.
7. I have used my 580EX II and 600EX-RT Speedlites in light rain. I do not intend to conduct a controlled-comparison experiment, to verify how long this would be effective, but two of my 600EX-RT Speedlites, in their Canon soft cases, floated about my bedroom, for a while, during Hurricane Harvey. When I found them, a day or two later, the insides of the battery compartments were dry.
8. If I am going to use use one large shoe-mount flash, with a Nikon camera, I will use my Metz 64 AF-1, rather than a Nikon Speedlight. The nicely small Nikon SB-500 does make a nice optical master/commander unit for a remote SB-5000. (I have not bought the Nikon accessories/dongles needed for radio-controlled flash, and have no plans to acquire it.)
Again, I own both Canon and Nikon flash units, so, I am not trying to start a brand war. I use both Canon and Nikon DSLRs. In my opinion, Canon's current top-tier Speedlites are notably better than Nikon's current top-tier Speedlghts.
I am not, and never have been, a "professional photographer," but did have a duty to create/provide evidentiary/forensic and crime scene images, regardless of weather conditions, during my final 7+ years of public service, from 2010 to 2018.
