I have the Nikon N90s and SB28. I also have a good but very old Vivitar flash. If Nikon were inexpensive I wouldn't be asking for comments, just buy Nikon.

Can I find, (A) a slave for the Vivitar that will work with the TTL A mode of the SB28? Am I dreaming?

OR

(B) do I have to buy the SU-4 and another $$$ Nikon flash?

If the answer is (B) which is the least expensive Nikon Flash that will give some backlighting for on the spot portraits?

Thanks for your valuable time and comments.

-- Michael Mason (mmason@vol.com), December 28, 2001

Answers

You don't mention what model your old Vivitar unit is, but if it's not TTL capable it's not going to work with the SU-4.

But you don't have to stick with Nikon Speedlights. Any third party flash that is capble of TTL metering and is dedicated to the Nikon system should work with the Ikelite Lite-Link TTL slave. It's very similar to the SU-4 so I suppose that should work too.

There are good reasons to stick with Nikon Speedlights though. Quality, durability and compatability being the main ones. I would say "you get what you pay for," but in my experience with flash units, you only get about half of what you pay for, no matter who's unit you buy. Lot of money for little bit of light.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), December 28, 2001.