I woke up at 2PM today with my phone ringing to let me know that the first shipment of SB-900s was in and one had my name on it. I picked it up from my friendly hometown dealer, Pitman Photo (they always seem to come through when I need them).

First impressions: It reminds me of the Canon 580EXII in terms of size (much larger than the SB-800). The new interface is vastly superior to the old one, which even after nearly 4 years still confuses me every now and then.

The flash now cycles practically silently. At full power, the sound is a very quiet whine that goes in the opposite 'direction' from what you'd expect- sound begins at a high pitch then ends at a lower one instead of the other way around, but extremely quickly. Recycle times are noticeably faster with 4 batteries than the SB-800 with 5.

The new gel system is fantastic. It comes with 4 gels designed to balance for different kinds of incandescent and fluorescent light, and the gels are computer coded so the D3 and D700's auto white balance can use the right WB for the gel. I tested it earlier and I got some great matching of colors.

The included gels are the SJ-900 set, and the SJ-3 set is the optional color gels. The gels slot into a really nice small cover that snaps on over the front of the flash. The included diffuser dome is designed to fit over this, so you can still use the gel holder with it.

It really does well with covering wide angles, using my 14-24mm on the D3 it didn't miss a beat.

Pictures coming shortly, but here are a few to tide you over:

D300+SB-900 on left, note the attached color filter gel... D200+SB-800 on right.



D3/24-70 with SB-900