Which Nikon flash works well with a D5200 and 18-300mm lens?
Asked 1/28/2014
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I use a Nikon D5200 with an AF-S Nikkor 18-300mm lens and want an external flash. Do I need a flash that matches the lens’s full zoom range, especially at 300mm, or will a standard Nikon speedlight still work?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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On a crop body, just about any external flash should be able to cover 27mm or so effective focal length. Even if your flash didn't quite cover it, a diffuser can easily spread the light out sufficiently. The 300mm is going to just be a subset of that field of view.
That said, this is without distance factoring in. If you want to be able to cover a person standing at a distance that takes a 300mm lens to fill the frame, it is a vastly different question. Without a distance to factor in, it isn't possible to answer how powerful a flash needs to be.
The number you are interested in is known as the guide number. The guide number divided by the aperture value gives you the distance at which the flash can give a standard exposure for whatever ISO the guide number is for (typically 100 if not otherwise specified).
Originally by user11392. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11392
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
You do not need a flash that exactly matches the full 18-300mm zoom range of the lens. Flash “coverage” refers to the beam angle, mainly important at the wide end. On a D5200 (DX/crop body), most external flashes can cover the wide end well enough, and if needed a diffuser can spread light wider.
At the telephoto end, a 300mm lens simply sees a narrower portion of the flash beam, so a flash that only zooms to 85mm, 105mm, or even 200mm can still work—you’re just not perfectly matching the beam. The bigger issue at long focal lengths is usually flash power and subject distance, not beam coverage. That’s where guide number matters.
From the answers provided, Nikon’s higher-end speedlights such as the SB-910 are a better fit because they zoom out to 200mm and can concentrate the beam for more reach. An SB-600 was noted as less suitable due to lower power and shorter zoom coverage.
So: don’t worry about finding a flash that “covers 300mm” exactly. Focus on getting a sufficiently powerful speedlight; an SB-910-class unit is the strongest recommendation from the answers.
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