RSS FeedThe Nissin Di866 Basic User Review
This has been long overdue. We have put the Di866 through it’s paces as a regular user should. This review is aimed more at the regular consumer and hobbyists rather than the technically knowledgeable Professional Photographer (although you might still find this review useful).
The Nissin Di866
The Nissin Di866
The Nissin Di866
The Nissin Di866
Before the Nissin Di866 release, we have used and abused the Nissin Di622 which we now have several units of. We complained of the swivel head up and down lock mechanisms as total garbage. Di622 Flash head will fall down from a 45 degree position if we attached snoots, lightsperes and other moderately heavy diffusers and reflectors. We also complained of the peripherals like usb port for firmware updates and ports to allow it to be used on wired flash triggers. We also complained of the ability of the flash not to support hotshoe triggers like cactus, wireless or wired. The current Di622 firmware update allows the flash now to support hotshoe trigger, but we at GeePlease think this should have been supported out of the box.
You’ll be glad to know Di866 has rectified for all those. The swivel head is Sturdy, a usb port for firmware update, hotshoe trigger and most importantly and we find really really awesome is the ability of the New Nissin Di866 to Function in several Commander/Slave mode not relying solely on the TTL feature the Nissin Di622 had(Although the Di866 still support the TTL triggering master/slave).
Since our technical reviewer is with the DarkSide (Nikon user), he found the ability of the Di866 to be used as commander and slave for the Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System) a really good selling point. This is the world renowned proprietary lighting system Nikon uses that is intelligent enough to read levels like a pseudo AI (Artificial Intelligent) system where the flash talk with each other.
It can even be used as a slave for the built-in commander mode of the Nikon D90 and other Nikon SLR’s with commander mode. What more is it is a fraction of the price of the top of the line Nikon Flash SB900 although you can’t go wrong with a Nikon model.
The build quality also has improved, it looks and feels more expensive as you expect on a professional flash. Also the added feature of and added secondary diffused flash we also found really cool. At the bottom of the front area of the Di866 is a smaller flash that fires as a flash assist to the primary flash.
The Nissin Di866 Simple Navigation Controls
The control screen of the Nissin Di866 is in color and easy to navigate although there is some slight lag time between the menus. The screen can also auto-rotate it’s depending on the orientation of the flash, which is a nice addition especially that the new SLR models auto rotate their screen as well based on the orientation of the camera.
Feature-wise we found the Di866 exemplary, it is indeed a Professional Camera Flash. The boon of all this features however and the power of the flash makes the Nissin Di866 a power-hungry device. We used a regular set of batteries for the flash which we used for the Nissin Di622 before. The battery in a fully-charged state will run out on the Di622 in about give or take 100+Fires depending on the power set. On the Di866 with the same application, we are lucky if we get 50+ fires out of it.
Although investing on more higher-end batteries and eneloops extended the life of the firing of the Di866 a significant 60%. The higher the mAh rating of the battery, the more flash fire capacity increased.
The Nissin Di866 In Slave mode Firing
The main complaint we had from one of our reviewer is the noise the camera makes. This is the servo working when automatically adjusting the exposure. However of the two units we tested, one was less noisy than the other significantly. We opened up the noisy Di866 and discovered there was no industrial grease for plastic applied. We added our own grease for plastic (it is a white gluey grease you get from the hardware store, not the automotive kind) and the noise dropped significantly. Although we dont advise you to open your Di866, since this will void your warranty and you might destroy your flash if you are not careful.
Battery Compartment on the left
The Flash Assist at the Bottom of the main Flash
The Nissin Di866 Front Look
The Nissin Di866 Back Panel
We strolled in the park with the flash and we stood behind a friend using an SB900 and people asked more about the Di866 because of it’s look and the colored screen. They felt it was more high-tech looking and they thought more expensive than the SB900.
On the performance side, the SB900 is faster with the same set of batteries, the recycling time is slower on the Di866. Although when the batteries are fresh, they would compete toe-to-toe. For the quality of exposure, it is a hit and miss on di866 on auto mode, although we feel you should use manual mode anyway, it gives better exposure.
Taking portraits with both flashes, without diffusers and other light modifiers, the Di866 surprisingly made our subjects face fresher, we bounced the main flash on the ceiling and although both flashes made a nice portrait exposure-wise, the di866 stood out more since the face of the subject had lesser hard lines caused by shadows under the cheek bones, eyes and chin. This was because of the Flash Assist feature of the Di866.
We plan to do a part 2 of the review using the flash in CLS, but we only have one Di866 and the other on loan from a friend, we at least need four and we can drop an SB in the mix. We tried a two lighting and three lighting setup with the CLS and it works wonderfully, we want to test it to the limit using an all Nissin line-up.
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