A Tough Cookie

I've been shooting Nikon for over 7 years now. One thing that I've always admired about Nikon is how well-designed and well-built their products are. As a full time wedding photographer, I depend on my equipment to get the job done, and can't be second guessing stuff to see if they will work or not.

Events from this weekend encouraged me to share a story about one of my speedlights. I bought the SB900 pictured above, about 3 years ago. Since then, I've shot 100+ weddings with it. It's been soaked in downpours numerous times, fallen onto grass while mounted on light stands more times than I can count, and been dropped on concrete about 5 times (including the latest fall at a San Fran wedding where I forgot to lock it on my Pocket Wizard and it fell off when I was walking, bouncing off a concrete pillar before hitting the stone floor and knocking out all the batteries and the battery door). This past weekend, I was shooting getting ready photos of the bride in a hotel, and forgot about a ceiling fan. I had my SB900 on a lightstand, raised it a bit too high, and the fan hit it, fracturing the red plastic panel on the front into many pieces. I picked it up, and amazingly, it still worked! Shot the rest of the wedding with it, in addition to another wedding in Kona the following day.  This thing is one tough cookie!

Nikon, all I can say is that you guys make some solid products...thank you :)