Altura Photo Professional Flash Kit for NIKON DSLR - Includes: I-TTL Flash (AP-N1001), Wireless Flash Trigger Set and Accessories

I just received this Altura kit for Nikon and I must say I'm impressed. NOTE: I did not notice that the transmitter takes an A23 12 volt battery. I do not like this at all. Not only is it not available everywhere (convenience stores etc), I haven't found a rechargeable A23, I'll look some more. I know, you can carry spares etc, but I like the idea of being able to buy a battery right now if I need it and you never know. I m not knocking a star off for this because you can carry spares, but still, I wish it used AA's, AAA's, 9 volt, anything as long as it is common.Quick instructions for off camera testing. Install all of the batteries and make sure all of the channel switches are set the same on the transmitter and receiver. I just left mine all one direction like it came, you can change this later. After installing the transmitter and receiver on the camera and flash with the stand, make sure the switch on the receiver is set to "Flash" to test off camera mode. It has Off, Camera and Flash. I left the flash in TTL mode, but it DOES NOT DO TTL OFF CAMERA. It should now flash when you take a photo. On camera it just worked and was TTL. "Camera" is of course for when the receiver is mounted on the camera and you can trigger the camera with the transmitter. You need to connect the cable between the receiver and the camera remote socket.Build quality is very good and it feels nice and solid. This goes for the whole kit, the flash, triggers and the case. We have a photo group on Facebook and when I ask the pros about this flash, none gave an opinion except one and it was that he liked the Yongnuo manual flashes. I do too, and really want Yongnuo's TTL setup with the LCD controller etc, the YN-568EX with the YN-622N-KIT. The Yongnuo TTL kit will cost you a lot more, more than double, so for the money this is a steal. Oh, and it has manual mode too, so it can do what the manual Yongnuo 560 III, 560 IV etc does anyway, but those can't do TTL. The manual Yongnuo's are about the same price as this kit.I may get the Yongnuo TTL kit someday because I want off camera TTL and let my wife have this. She will absolutely need TTL because she has no interest in manual anything and will mostly use it on camera, at least that's what I think. She may get into all kinds of things now that she has options.I'm interested in all of it, the more capabilities the better (less limits) and this is a very capable kit with off camera TTL being the only thing missing. I don't know that I would use that much but like I said, no limits. I only took a few photos for testing and my wife was impressed with the photo of the cat from the side looking at the flash off camera. You cannot do this with on camera flash and it opens the door to tons of possibilities, backlighting and creative fill flash etc.Yes, I'm very new to DSLR photography and have spent 6 months learning to use my camera, a Nikon D5200. I've read tons of stuff and learned a lot. Check out "The internet Archive" for very good photography Ebooks on everything from basic starter books to advanced lighting. You should be able to find anything you want to know right there. I wanted this kind of setup for two things, TTL indoors and off camera flash.My wife was taking an outdoor photo of a spider one day and I told her to turn on her flash. She said "Wow" when she seen the result. It brought out the hairs on the spider and really let you see what he looked like. She likes taking photos of the birds at the bird feeder and you can't just walk up and take a flash photo of those. With this she can sit the flash in a good spot and use her zoom and make it look like she was standing right there. I'm sure she is going to love this, fill flash on a bird or anything else.I'll report back with more details after I have used it for a while and let you know how it's holding up etc. I researched a lot about speedlites before I bought this kit and it is absolutely the best deal, with the most features for the money. With 4.6 stars and 600+ reviews I took a chance buying it, but I think it's pretty much a sure bet with little risk. Just check other reviews for any product, 4.6 stars isn't easy to accomplish! Even the very best products have 4 stars or so.Many people leave a one star review because they are missing a part or because they can't operate it. This isn't fair to the product, mistakes happen and it isn't fair to blame your unwillingness to learn on the product. They also leave a one star review because theirs didn't work at all and again, shipping damage or an overlooked fault happen. It doesn't mean it's an overall bad product unless a lot of people are getting faulty products then you my want to look at something else or wait until the production run is straightened out.Right now this is absolutely a 5 star product and I am basing that on the build quality, capabilities, completeness of the kit and customer support as reported in other reviews. The only con I see right now is no TTL off camera, but still, I knew that when I bought it, can't knock a star for that. Nor can I knock a star for the A23 battery, it's listed right there and I just missed it. One review does say that it uses the A23, but I missed that too.I'm also going to see if the Yongnuo YN-622N-KIT works with this. Are they all standard Nikon i-TTL protocol or does Yongnuo and Altura transmit that information however they want? This is one thing I've had a hard time figuring out. If I can use a better trigger and controller on this speedlite I could eliminate the A23 battery and gain off camera TTL. That would make this a 6 star deal as the total cost of this kit is less than just a quality TTL speedlite. I'm not a paid pro and never plan to be, but I do want to take fantastic photos and I believe this is the next logical step in improving my photos while opening the door to more creative lighting.

(Please note this review largely pertains to using this kit with the D800. I am sure other camera will have an easier time getting it to function properly)Oh boy oh wow! What a nightmare this was to set up... this is my first flash unit and I am going posting this review in hopes of helping other users.It took me five and a half hours of troubleshooting to get this unit working wirelessly.Let me start off by saying I bought this kit for my Nikon D800, as other users in the answer section said they got it working for theirs.As indicated by the item description and another user in answers section, the cord that comes with the kit package that connects your camera to the transmitter will not work with the D800. You need another cord. What cord exactly you ask? That is not specified. Anywhere. So I look around and discern that the D800 uses a DC0 port. But! Amazon offers them in 2.5mm and 3.5mm. So which one do I buy? And I looked. It doesn't say. So I look EXTRA! and I find this spec on a different amazon listing for the transmitter/receiver remote package by itself: "Studio flashes featuring either a mini (3.5mm) or ¼" phono input..." Ok! That's not entirely clear but I buy the 3.5mm cord (do not buy that cord if you are wondering and checking. Do not get either cord for wireless use with the D800).Two days later it arrives.Right out of the box! there were no batteries for the main flash unit (the transmitter and receiver do come with their own batteries though).Ok, my bad, I should have checked. So I run down to the store and buy 4x AA.Popped them in and screwed on the unit and Voila! TTL mode with the flash unit on the camera hot-shoe worked perfectly.A little while later after messing around with the stronger flash and my macro lens I go to try this unit wirelessly. The 3.5mm cord is slightly too big for the port on the transmitter unit. GDI I think. I have to buy another cord and wait two more days to try this out. So I do that somewhat begrudgingly as there wasn't any information as to the the size of the port.In case you are curious you need a 2.5mm cable for the transmitter. If you need one at all...Here is where the five and a half hours of troubleshooting start. I get the cable a day early (huh? amazing amazon! Thank you XD) and I plug it in. It fits. Yes I am stoked! I start blasting an ugly watch with light and 10 shots in I am noticing that the flash only synced ~1.5 times. I think "Huh! Maybe I have the wrong settings....." and down the rabbit hole I go.Let me be specific. The instructional videos provided by GOJA were very basic and did not answer any of my questions. The vague manuals, which I had to download the one for the main unit, helped a bit more. Having looked at the manual and watched the online video prior to receiving my 2.5mm cable this was my setup:Flash unit mounted to the receiver and the stand. Transmitter mounted to the camera. Camera plugged in to the transmitter via the DC0 2.5mm cable. As indicated visually in both sources.The unit just wasn't syncing. So I notice that there is a function switch on the receiver. "Flash" or Off or "Camera"OMG it was off the whole time what an idddiiioottttt everything works great this isn't a hassle!!11!Just kidding I am dumb but I turn on. The documentation has some vague pictures and instructions about which mode to use. Neither of which really clearly stated as to why you would choose one over the other. That being said the "Camera" function showed a picture of the set up I was using. So I switch the receiver to "Camera" and gave it some love. It still won't sync.Let me fast forward. I tried changing it through each mode, different shutter speeds, utilizing both functions "Flash" and "Camera", with every combination I could think of for my in camera flash settings (TTL, Manual, RPT, CMD). I was having no luck. I thought about returning it. Finally! I found setting that would sync!Sort of.Having the transmitter off of the Hot-shoe but still plugged into the camera I could set the Camera to CMD -> Built in flash to -- (effectively off) and Group A and B to TTL (I think, that or M for manual). Changing the channel never seemed to matter but Channel 1 is what is working for me.So the Camera would sync up only if I had the flash unit on the camera popped up during exposure with the S1 mode on the unit itself.The problem with this was that I had to hold the transmitter in my hand plugged in to get it to sync. Which was a challenge but at least it was working! Not very feasible though as I cant focus and actuate the shutter and hold my camera and hold the transmitter very easily. So I went back at it and finally! while doing some searching I found information on another site about D800s CMD mode not needing a transmitter at all to push out flash information to a slave flash unit....WHAT?...So I took the transmitter off. In short order I found that having the receiver function set to "Flash", my camera flash setting popped up during exposure and set to CMD, BIF set to --, and Group A and Group B set to M for manual (offset at 1) that the unit would sync in S1..... X_xSo now I have two DC0 cables I do not need (but will be keeping who knows! do not buy these for the D800) and a transmitter I do not need.After all this trial and error I will still give this unit 5 stars. Because it is a fraction of the cost of a OEM unit and does work. If you are patient enough to figure it out on your own.I hope this exhaustive review helps some other individuals.I will be updating this review if the unit stops working but currently it syncs.