Sigma EF-610 DG Super Electronic Flash for Nikon SLR Cameras

I've used this gun for nearly a year now and used it on several major shoots, where I was the principle photographer and it's always inspired confidence and produced clean, well-lit pictures.Being semi-pro, a long-term SB600 (Nikon) speedlight user on full-frame Nikon D700, I've been needing a supplement to/replacement for the 600 as it is ageing and comparatively underpowered. Fine for interiors; outdoors it is lacking, its GN of 32 being about one-third less than this Sigma. I needed a decent gun for night-time Carnivals, especially when shooting with wideangle lenses.I did try Nikon's flagship SB900 but it was faulty and was both unwieldy and complicated to access the many modes, with its programs and menus. I even considered a S/H SB800 but they still command prices quite a bit more than I paid for this gun (similar to its RRP, in fact). The SB700 wasn't widely available enough to be a contender, at the time.FEATURES - A couple of features from the 900 that I liked do feature on this Sigma - a flip down white card that adds a catchlight to the subject's eyes and flexible bouncing capabilities - 180 degrees (behind) for instance. All the 'normal' features considered standard on a quality gun (LCD backlit screen, i-TTL, Rear curtain sync, manual overriding of exposure in 1/3 stops, wideangle diffuser to 17mm, stand, carry case - with separate pouch inside for set of batteries) are all included (plus possibly a few that aren't so important to me).In basic modes, it's as easy to use as the SB600 though a downside is that screen goes entirely blank when the gun is resting whereas I'd expect at least something to show it was still "on". Engaging extra functions and features, such as overriding output takes some button pressing, but no menus to navigate and all that.THE GUN - The gun itself is Japanese made and is barely heavier than the 600, with batteries and has that soft-touch feel that Sigma use quite a lot. It is longer and a little bigger but not ungainly so. The battery flap opens very differently to that of the Nikon - I'm not looking forward to opening it in the pitch dark - and the poor display of the orientation of the batteries is a real annoyance, meaning you have to use another light source just to see (the Nikon uses white painted symbols that help, the Sigma uses barely raised black ones on the flap and are recessed to being almost in the chamber itself. I haven't yet got used to this nuisance.IN PRACTICAL USE - One area where there is real advantage is that there are more infrared sensors for AF in the Sigma than in the SB600 and so AF in darkness is possible, (& correctly exposed photos) whereas this hardly ever worked with the 600. When photographing a choir at night in the grounds of a ruined abbey recently, with the wideangle diffuser in place and a 24mm lens, I got perfect intensity to not burn out their white robes but enough spread to fill in on the ruins. I used the backlit mode, minus 2/3rds of a stop and employed 'shadows' in Photoshop CS to get a very nice and impressive shot, that belied its (mostly, some ambient) sole light source. The Nikon would have struggled with this scenario, by being underpowered and probably would have swamped the foreground, burning it out and also underexposing the background. Another plus was that after some 40 shots outside and another 60 inside straight after, the set of Uniross rechargeables still had quite a bit of juice left in them, so the gun seems efficient.BUILD - Build quality and quality control could be of an issue, though no worries so far. I already feel at home with and it has become my main gun, though I'm keeping the SB 600 as spare and for when I need a second one for studio use etc. I'm happy to give this Sigma 4 and 3/4 stars, the minus bit being for the slightly small buttons and the lack of a 'ready' light and the poor battery orientation display.I really only use flash where I need to, for bands and musicians it's only ever as a fill-in, hence my need for ease of overriding the output. Flash and flashguns leave me cold - I only pick one up when it's about to be used and I buy a new one about every decade. Sigma make some quality products - half of my best lenses are from them and so whilst they might not be leading lights in this field, it's rational to believe that a Sigma flashgun would do a competent job, with the same value-for-money attraction over marque products that their lenses are renowned for. For me, I can certainly say that this flagship gun continues this tradition.

Excellent value for money, works really well with my Pentax K50, I wanted a TTL flash and the Pentax versions are very expensive but this does the job just as well, full manual control as well.

This flashgun does everything I wanted it to do, and with a guide number of 61 is very powerful. I used it with my Nikon D5500 camera, and the results have been very good indeed. I use View NX2 to down load my pics to my computer, and when checking data of the equipment used to take each exposure, found the flash when used was a Nikon SB-800.!!! So this Sigma flash EF-610 DG Super, looks to View NX2 as a Nikon flash, at a reduced price. The construction is excellent, feels robust, just the buttons are a bit small. I am very pleased with my purchase, and would recommend this flash to anyone.

Excellent value for money and ease of use. Has generated good results already . Only quibble is it does drain the batteries quickly

The media could not be loaded. I bought this flash few days ago , en one day I took 700 pictures on the street , very fast response , intuitive , working perfect with my new Canon T3i [ 600D ] . Looks likes professional , very happy with my Sigma EF-610 .

I have a Canon 580EX and compared with that it is cheaper and more adaptable without any loss in quality of manufacture or performance. I think that it is a much better design than the Nissin Di 866, which I also own.

Got mine on deal. Had to wait for weeks for the item to be delivered but it is really good. Good brightness and fits my Sony A200 perfectly. If you are not a professional or a dedicated photographer keep in mind you have to spend good time on reading the the manual.

The flash arrived yesterday and I immediately started testing. First impressions - very good. I especially liked the rubbery finish of the unit. But that was the only good thing I can really say about the flash. The extra star is for Amazon's service - just back from Collect+ place when I send the flash back for refund and can already see on my account that the refund has been processed. Great stuff!Now the bad points (please note the flash was tested with Pentax K-5II):1. Very inaccurate TTL measuring. It mostly overexposes. I tried to find some consistency and it seems to overexpose about 2 f-stops while bouncing and exposes mostly correctly with direct flash. Strange. I set up compensation on the flash at -2 and it seems to help but when I wanted to shoot straight I had to remember to change the compensation back to 0. I searched internet forums for solutions and someone suggested to keep the camera on X-sync function and switch ISO from auto to manual settings for the flash to work correctly. Tried that and it didn't work for me. Maybe it works for different camera bodies.2. Very flimsy built-in wide angle diffusing panel. I found it difficult sometimes to get it out or to get the white bounce card out. At some point auto zoom jammed at 17mm and I spend half an hour searching through instruction manual to see what I might have switched on or off to make it work again. And what happened was that the flash senses whenever the diffuser is applied and automatically locks auto zoom at 17mm and I didn't notice that after putting the diffuser back in it wasn't firmly in place and therefore the flash thought it was still in use. I thought it was just me not being careful with it and tried this a few more times and I found that every time I had to press the panel firmly in in order to make the flash go back to auto zoom.3. Sticky rubber buttons - they seem of poor quality. On a few occasions some of my presses were not registered and sometimes I had an impression that they stayed pressed in.Sigma is a well known and reputable company and I ordered the flash with confidence. To my surprise it happened to be very unreliable . I could give it benefit of doubt and contribute this problems to quality control and maybe other units will be ok. This flash probably could be used successfully but, with the number of manual adjustments and constant "chimping", I would need to treat it like a manual flash. And for that I can use my YN 460II which I purchased for below £40.

Très bon flash.

Todo perfecto

問題なく使用できている

Die Lieferung erfolgte schnell, die Verpackung war einwandfrei. Das Sigma EF-610 DG Super verwende ich an meiner Nikon D7500. Es hat eine sehr gute Leistung und lässt sich unkompliziert bedienen.

Vraiment décevant. Il se recharge extrêmement lentement, alors qu il est stipulé qu on peut faire du rafal avec. Ça fait plutôt 1 photo toutes les 20/30s.Je l ai renvoyé