Nikon SB-600

Go back to basics with this lightweight, robust gun, which packs a punch while travelling well

This Speedlight keeps up with the new ’guns on the shelves. The SB-600 does almost everything you’d want, just without all the bells and whistles. It has a back-lit LCD, auto high-speed sync, a zoom between 24-85mm (extendable to 14mm with the wide-angle adapter) and it’s small and light. The TTL support makes it really easy to work off-camera without the headache of adjusting power values (although +/- 3EV controls are available in TTL-mode).

The SB-600 is stripped back to basics compared with the SB-910, and doesn’t have the same zoom range, nor can it automatically detect whether a camera is DX- or FX-format. But it is tough. After dropping ours down some stone steps on a location shoot recently, the flash’s guts were splayed out and the body split in two. However, within a matter of minutes we’d pushed everything back together and ‘pop’, the flash started working properly straight away. The SB-600 is the perfect travel flashgun, and could even serve as a stand-in at the studio.