Nissin MF18 for Nikon Macro Ring Flash - User Friendly Controls with Auto/TTL/Manual

I'd purchased a very cheap ring flash a year ago. The cheapness more than lived up to its name. You do often get what you pay for. I'm mostly a wildlife photographer, but I dabble in macro from time to time. Since I don't do macro very often, I really didn't want to spend the nearly $1,000 for the Canon macro flash, and have to turn around and purchase an adaptor to make it fit on the end of my Canon 100mm macro lens. That's just stupid, in my opinion. Not to mention that Canon only offers an adapter ring that fits the 100mm lens. There are no other options. Plus, I wasn't so sure about having the two side flashes vs. a center ring flash. I can see where the side flashes would be useful, but even with the cheap ring flash, I'd discovered I really liked having the center source of lighting. After reading the reviews of this Nissin ring flash, I decided to give it a try since it's at least half the price of the Canon macro flash. Plus, it actually comes with several adaptors. I'm able to use it not only on my 100mm macro lens, but also my 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens. That's a huge help to have that ability because butterflies are skittish, so I've had to use my 100-400mm lens on them. I used to also have to wait for perfect sun direction lighting to capture them beautifully...not anymore! I can even get great shots on cloudy days with this Nissan flash! For someone like myself who just dabbles with macro, this can be a bit of an expensive flash to purchase. Just take it from someone who's been there and done that...the cheaper alternatives aren't worth wasting money on. If you want to get great macro shots, even if you only pull out your macro lens a few times per year, it's well worth investing in this Nissan Macro Ring Flash. The Nissin feels well-made, too. The adaptors are indeed made of metal, as promised, and are very sturdy. I've still got a lot of tinkering with it to do, but so far, I'm highly impressed with the few times I've used it.

Poor quality of image! This flash is not fully adaptable with D7500 Nikon

I found this a bit challenging to learn how to use, but I think mostly that was because I've never used a flash before. Once I figured out the correct settings on my Canon 6d, it's awesome. I can take macro photos of insects in my garden under much poorer light conditions than I can take without it, and makes a great fill flash when the sun is out. It blows through non-rechargeable batteries but I can shoot for hours with one set of the rechargeable batteries I bought to use with it. My only frustration is that with the shutter speed limited to 1/180, I can't use it with my Sigma 150mm macro lens when hand-holding because the lens requires shutter speeds over 1/250 to avoid blurring, with or without the flash. But this is not an issue with my Canon 100mm macro lens and the pictures come out great.I've also learned that some flies really don't like the flash and are gone before the shutter even opens. But most insects don't seem to notice it at all.

The media could not be loaded. This is my set up with the flash. I use a Rebel T7 camera and a Tokina lens. The flash didn’t come with the correct adapter size for my lens so that sucks! And I would say I have to change the batteries out every 2 weeks which is pretty annoying. Other than that the flash is a good one for starter photographers like me!

I use it in macrophotography in the dental field. I only owned a Godox ring before Nissin. I used the Nissin now for 2 weeks before writing this review.Pros:- Light temperature is ideal- Manual control for the output of the right Vs left LED- Flexible ring diameter- Colored display panel- Adjustment rings and the flash are of great qualityCons:- Not the lightest gear- The battery socket is like a drawer, you get it out place the batteries then reinsert and clip it. Its easier to have a design with direct batteries' installment within their place in the head- Slightly high price

Well made, but not inexpensive. definitely get what you paid for with this product. The quality and quantity of light is wonderful for my close-up captures.

I have used this ring flash with a Nikon D7000 and Nikon 105mm macro lens for last 6 years. It has been a reliable workhorse in my dental practice. I love that it has enough light output that I can take photos of a patient's mouth at f32 which helps a bunch with getting good depth of field in my photos.

I received this product on Spt 25, very late in the season when most of my favored outdoor shooting scenarios were already in fall mode, so I didn't have the shooting opportunities I would have had earlier in the year. I shoot close-up/macro nature. I bought this unit because of the increased number of flash tubes, the advertised granularity of illumination control, and especially because of the advertised diffusion. I have been impressed with the improvement in my shooting in difficult macro environments. The increments of control are making a significant difference, especially when coupled with the built-in diffusion. So far so good. I'll give it 4 stars for now. I am looking forward to doing some serious desktop testing over the winter, and to next spring when I can really test it out in the field.