When Nikon SB-900 speedlight was released, it was claimed to be the utmost strobe around, even by the utmost and fierce competitors. Soon after some overheating issues came to life, showing what might be a project flaw or it not being suited for some extra-intensive uses.
Just google around and you will quickly find many examples for those issues and even some people claiming it is a clear case of mistaken usage of the product (I vigorously doubt this!). When Nikon SB-900 Speedlight was released, it was claimed to be the utmost strobe around, even by the utmost and fierce competitors. Soon after some overheating issues came to life, showing what might be a project flaw or it not being suited for some extra-intensive uses.
Just google around and you will quickly find many examples for those issues and even some people claiming it is a clear case of mistaken usage of the product (I vigorously doubt this!). It seems that most of the overheating comes from intensive use of full power charges in short time lapses, taking the batteries and the whole unit to really heat. The overheating took the SB900 in some sort of standby to preserve its integrity, rendering the flash unusable for significant periods of time. Wedding photographers are probably the most affected by this issue, because of the characteristics of their shooting. Some people even disable the heat protection and keep using the hot unit, risking frying the thing useless.
Short after this issues – at least in product life cycle terms – Nikon has issued an update called the SB910. This new strobe is equally sensational, but has an improved overheat solution. The Speedlight goes into a reduced power state when temperature starts to rise beyond a certain threshold. It’s certainly a solution, but question is if this reduced power will serve everyone´s needs.
The video below shows a very nice comparison of SB900 and SB910 fired side by side a lot of times, until temperature issues pay its visit. May you judge by yourself if that is a good enough solution.
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