Matthew Richards

Strike a light. Here are the best-buy flashguns on the market for your Nikon camera

Matthew adds a dash of flash to our Big Test, as he puts eight great Nikon-fit Speedlights through their paces.

Often referred to as ‘the most available light’, a decent flashgun is an amazingly versatile piece of kit. It’s portable and can make a huge difference to the quality of lighting in almost any scenario, from night-time shots and gloomy interiors to portraits on a bright summer’s day. Indeed, filling in the shadows under direct sunlight is one of the things that flashguns do best. With ‘intelligent’ TTL (Through The Lens) flash metering, dedicated flashguns can team up with your camera to enable correct exposures in all sorts of shooting conditions. The system works by using a brief pulse of light, fired by the flashgun prior to the actual exposure. This is reflected from the subject and passes through the lens, after which it’s measured by the camera’s metering system. The camera then communicates the correct setting back to the flashgun, and the duration of the main flash during the exposure is adjusted as necessary.