Photography equipment doesn’t reach goldfries’ lab that often but fortunately they still do come by from time to time. In my lab it he Pixel X800N, a budget flash that’s made for Nikon camera systems.
Before I proceed, here are some details of the flash unit as seen on the official product page (There’s just too many images to link, you should take a look at the product page).
Essentially it’s a flash that looks almost identical to Nikon’s SB-900. The plastic material seems to be of low-grade, not that I can complain about a flash unit that’s cheap and cheerful.
I have a Yongnuo YN600EX-RT and in comparison to the Pixel X800N’s build quality the Yongnuo unit actually feels premium. 😀 However my Yongnuo unit was terrible, it has a broken battery door and it’s not covered in their warranty (WTH) and apparently it’s something not uncommon! Fortunately the Pixel X800N’s battery door seems to be of a much more robust build.
The buttons and dials, they work fine and I have no problem navigating the menu. It feels cheap but overall it works fine.
The LCD panel lights up in bright green all the time, that makes it a lot easier to view the details in dim lit areas.
User Experience
The product page claimed many things, for example the 3-second cycle time. What I did was a 10 short burst test on my Nikon D750 and I could get only 3 flash out of 10 frames fired.
Notice how the copy says “less than 3 seconds” which could actually mean up to almost 3 seconds. 😀 That’s quite slow when you need to rapid fire at events.
I did use the Pixel X800N on one wedding photography assignment – primarily for group photos and still-life and it worked fine.
Speaking of still-life, I also used the X800N for a food photography assignment and the photos turned out great, the lighting was consistent and I had no problem signalling it from my D750’s pop-up flash.
The Pixel X800N supports both manual and TTL modes, you will be able to control the flash power and group settings from your camera.
With my Sanyo Eneloop 2,000mAh batteries I was able to get 200 shots with the X800N firing at 1/8 and there was still plenty of charge left.
The Verdict
The Pixel X800N Speedlite / Flash retails at RM 499, the build quality isn’t great but what’s neat about this speedlite is that it is feature rich.
As a professional photographer, I would not use it for events photography that requires rapid fire unless I have no other option. As for flash units to be used in product photography, the X800N will do the job just fine.
