Flash options for event photography with Nikon Z

[skyace888]

Hi all!

I'm planning to shoot an event soon at a venue in the evening with both outdoor and indoor space. Planning to bring my Z8 and Z6II along with the 50 F1.8, 24-70 F4, and 70-200E F2.8 w/adapter. I'll be photographing candid shots of individuals and groups with various settings and lighting conditions.

The only speedlight I currently own is the older SB800. I haven't tried it yet with my cameras but from what I saw on Nikon's site it should work in manual and TTL. In my mind for a "run-and-gun" type setup I was thinking set camera to manual with widest aperture and 1/200 shutter max sync speed with auto ISO. Then SB800 set to TTL or manual and bounce it.

My questions are...

- Has anyone used the SB800 with the Z series and if so what was the experience?
- Any suggestions for my camera and speedlight settings mentioned above?
- What are your preferred modifiers to bounce and diffuse with speedlights to create soft light?
- Should I consider getting a newer Nikon speedlight or something like the Westcott FJ80II (either instead of the SB800 or in addition to it) with the two camera bodies?
- Saw that lensrentals.com has the Profoto A10 available to rent and that looks really tempting. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

 

[BF Hammer]

SB-800 is still a good speed light today. It was the best Nikon offered 15+ years ago. I have an SB-600 and SB-400 and both work great with my Z5. I usually just bounce off a ceiling in TTL mode.

As an aside, since the Z series mostly don't come with pop-up flash like DSLR bodies have, an SB-400 makes a great compact fill-flash to have with you when you may not expect to use one. It will fit a large pocket. Glad today I bought one in 2007.

 

[Needa]

Welcome
As I recall there are some issue using manual flash with auto ISO.
This might be helpful https://bcgforums.com/threads/auto-iso-with-flash-problem.14283/post-156521

 

[skyace888]

Thanks again everyone. The event went well and I captured a number of candid and posed shots. Used the Z8 with SB800 TTL. Manual mode on camera and adjusted accordingly.

 

[Paliswe]

I take a lot of flash pictures at events with my Z6. I always use M, set ISO to 800 and use TTL. That works fine for me. From there I do adjustments depending on the situation, usually I set shutter to 1/125 and f to 4-4,5-5,6