Nikon D600 Flash

Coverage and Range
Good flash range, but with narrow coverage. Our standard indoor portrait shot required less than average exposure compensation.

Coverage. Flash coverage is quite narrow and uneven at wide-angle (24mm), leaving very dark corners. Narrow flash coverage isn't unusual, though, as manufacturers look to increase range by concentrating the light, and keep in mind 24mm is wider than most lenses. Coverage is much more uniform at telephoto (85mm), but there's still some fall-off in extreme corners that may be due to the lens itself (Vignette Control set to Normal).

Exposure. Our Indoor Portrait test scene was well exposed with +0.3 EV flash exposure compensation which is a little less than the average amount of flash exposure compensation required for this scene (+0.7 EV). The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced bright results with no flash exposure compensation, though with a stronger orange cast from the room lighting.

ISO 200 Range. With the 24-85mm kit lens, flash exposures started out bright at 6 feet at wide-angle and remained bright to 10 feet, decreasing gradually as distance increased for there. At full telephoto, flash exposures were a little erratic as distance changed, with 14 feet being the brightest exposure! 16 feet was still bright, though, so very good range here.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Nikon D600's built-in flash is rated with a Guide Number of 12m or 39 feet at ISO 100. That works out to about 15.8 feet at f/3.5 and 12.2 feet at f/4.5 and ISO 200, the maximum apertures of the kit zoom lens. In the test shots above, the D600 performed as Nikon says it will at telephoto, producing a bright flash exposure, however at wide-angle exposure of the target is slightly dim, about a 1/4 f-stop underexposed, despite using spot metering. Still, because of the results at telephoto, we think Nikon's flash power rating is credible.

Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.