Selling (sold) my modified Nikon SB-N5 flash

Please note that this item is sold. I leave the post up until further for information purposes.

This is a modified version of the Nikon SB-N5, which I made before I started making the V1-F1A. I have no longer use for this flash, mainly because I practically no longer use the Nikon 1 V1, so I decided selling the flash. The flash is in perfect condition, it works as the original SB-N5, and you have the possibility to add an external, more powerful flash if needed. Selling it with the original box, manual and the pouch.

When you need more light, or are looking to add a creative touch to illumination, then this modified Nikon 1 Speedlight SB-N5 is the one to use. Plug this compact i-TTL compatible flash unit into the Nikon 1 V1, V2 or V3 camera's multi-accessory hot shoe and use it as a flash on top of the camera, or add a radio trigger or a more powerful flash using the PC connector in front of the SB-N5. Note that i-TTL is only supported without additional flash, as the original SB-N5 is supporting it. Adding extra flash requires manual flash and camera mode use.

The SB-N5 can be tilted or twisted up, down, left or right and bounce the light if needed. The flash can double as a continuous light source illuminating for six seconds during both Motion Snapshot and Smart Photo Selector modes. Extra batteries are not required—the camera powers the SB-N5 flash from the camera battery.

The SB-N5 does not have to be switched on if the SB-N5 is not needed and you just want to add an external flash or radio trigger. In this case the SB-N5 acts as an adapter only, it will not fire itself, only the external flash or remote trigger will be triggered by the camera.

Note that the added PC contact does not have any protection, so only flashes made for digital cameras with low trigger voltage should be attached. By adding a flash with high trigger voltage the SB-N5, or the camera, or both will be damaged. The flash is tested before shipping it, but there is no additional warranty, other that I guarantee that it is working when I pack it.

Technical specifications of the SB-N5

- Guide Number

8.5 m/27.9 ft. (at ISO 100, 20°C/68°F) to 12 m/39.4 ft. (at ISO 200, 20°C/68°F) 

- Effective flash range (i-TTL)

2 to 66 ft. (0.6 to 20 m) (varies with ISO sensitivity, bounce angle, and aperture) 

- Bounce Function (Rotate)

Vertical: Flash can be rotated up 90° from horizontal with stops where the flash is pointing directly ahead and at 60°, 5°, and 90°
Horizontal: 180° right to 180° left, with stops where the flash is pointing directly ahead and at 30°, 60°, 75°, 90°, 120°, 150°, and 180° 

- Approx. Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth)

2.0 in. (50 mm)  x  2.8 in. (70.5 mm)  x  1.6 in. (40.5 mm) 

- Approx. Weight (without batteries)

2.5 oz. (70 g)

How to order

If you are interested, please send me a mail using the contact information below. Please don't pay in advance before I confirmed that the flash is still available and that I reserved for you.

After I received payment, I will need one work day to pack it and to ship it to you, using registered, traceable post. I will use the Swedish Post and will charge you what they are charging me.

Please note that I will only sell this unit to buyers from Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand, countries of European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Monaco, Aland, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Japan. Note that I make no exceptions made from this list.

Contact information

adapting(dot)camera at gmail(dot)com

Please note: the mail address above must be modified by you. You must replace the (dot) with real dots, the spaces before and after 'at' must be removed and the word 'at' must be replaced by @ sign. This is done to prevent internet robots from sending me spam mail. After your modification the mail address will look like: axxxxxxx.cyyyyy@gmail.com

Price and payment

The price for this modified SB-N5 flash is 99 EUR or 110 USD, whichever you prefer. The price may change as exchange rates are changing. This price excludes the shipping and handling, the total price will be calculated when I have your personal data.

I accept payments in EUR and USD only, no other currency. Payments must be made through PayPal, no direct money transfer, checks or any other means are accepted. Shipping and handling costs will be added, this cost is not possible for me to predict, I will charge you what the Swedish Post charges me, which at this moment is 13 EUR or 15 USD for shipments outside Sweden. I will ship with registered, traceable post only.

Prices and the terms are non-negotiable, if you think this is not acceptable for you or you think the price is too high, please don't buy it.

A final note about the modified SB-N5

Even though it is based on the original Nikon SB-N5 flash, this should be regarded as a do-it-yourself product. No warranty is given, other than that I guaranty I tested the flash before shipping it, and I guaranty that it is working on my Nikon V1 when I ship it. I have no possibilities to test it on the Nikon V2, V3 or any other future models since I only have the V1.

Remember also that a deal is a deal, if you bought it, it is yours. I will NOT take it back, not even for a reduced price. This may sound harsh, but I have bad experience and this is the "lessons learned" from that experience. It is up to you to decide to buy it, and if the conditions are not acceptable, please don't buy this adapter.

The Nikon Z7 image sensor cleaning is faulty or inefficient

I have now had my Z7 since about three months and so far I have not seen any dust problems until a few days ago. To be honest, I think that the Nikon Z7 has a faulty image sensor cleaning function because it does not seem to do anything, even though I have it set to automatically clean the sensor at shutdown, meaning that every time I switch the camera off, it should shake the image sensor so that the dust falls off.

In the D800 there was also a possibility to set up so that this automatic cleaning process also was done at power on, and this could be observed by the flashing LED at the back of the camera, and the LED flashed several times after the camera was switched on or off, indicating the cleaning process. This was very efficient, and during the 7 years I used the D800, with frequent lens changes, I haven't had any dust problems, and only cleaned the sensor once, even then only dry cleaned. Now, I know the D800 has a mechanical shutter, which is closed during lens change, so the sensor is protected a bit, but I have also been a frequent live view user and in any case, during so many years, I would have expected to have serious dust issues if the sensor cleaning was not working.

I have also used the Nikon 1 V1 during the last 6 years, and even on that camera I change lenses often, and even though that is also a mirrorless camera, so the sensor is exposed to open air during lens change, the same way it is when changing lens on the Z7, I have not yet needed to clean that sensor.

Sadly, this is not the case with the Z7. Already after this short time of use, and in spite of quite rare lens changes, my camera was severely dust infected and in an immediate need of cleaning, even though I have it configured so that the automatic cleaning should take place every time I switch the camera off, and I do switch it off every time I don't consider needing it for a some time, which can be several times a day. The LED to the right of the "i" button is NEVER flashing, but that can be by design the case, or because of a firmware bug, I don't know. Never the less, the cleaning process odes not take place as it supposed to be, or it is so inefficient that it practically does nothing.

This is a test image to show the situation when I decided that I must do something about the dust. It is clear that there are far too many dust specs to be called "acceptable". Yes, to see this large number, I had to take the image at f/22 and process it so that most of the specs become visible, meaning that in a real situation these would not be visible, because I almost never stop down below f/8, but it is still disturbing because in macro images these will no doubt become visible and also in many other situations where the scenario is optimal for visible dust.

Surprised by the high number of dust specs, I decided to run the "Clean now" option in the camera. After running that once, I took a new picture but the results were the same, so I run it about 8-10 times in a row. The results were a bit better, but still totally unacceptable and still very much infected. After this test it is obvious that the built in sensor cleaning function is faulty or so incredibly inefficient that using it just gives us a false sense of security about it.

Of course, this is not acceptable and Nikon should do something about it. Especially considering that they didn't even sold the cameras with one single free och charge cleaning service, not even during the warranty, unlike both the D300s and the D800. Maybe they knew that the Z cameras will need a more frequent cleaning than the DSLRs, maybe they expected the image cleaning function to work just as good, which would have made it an unnecessary service. I don't know, but considering Nikon warns the users to clean the image sensor manually, this is not good at all.

The good thing about my dust problem is that for now, it has been easily solved using a rocket blower. A few puffs of air seems to have done more than what running the cleaning function manually 8-10 times could do. So for now, my dust infected sensor is clean again, but hopefully Nikon will do something about the cleaning function, because that seems definitely not working. It is also much faster, because for some reason, each manually activated cleaning takes 20 seconds. Don't ask me why, I have no idea.

Please note that the images are clickable, clicking on them will open a larger size image for you to check the details. Note also that the images have gone through severe post processing to make the dust specs visible, there is nothing wrong with my camera, other than the dust cleaning function.

This problem is also demonstrated in my video:

Just to clear some misunderstanding...

In case there is a doubt, I love this camera. It was worth every penny and would buy it again even if I knew about the inefficiency of the dust cleaner function, but in my opinion it is good to know that it does not do what what I expected it to do. This way I know I need to clean it regularly.

Just some words of warning

DON'T USE CANNED AIR if you decide to clean your camera. It may cause more damage than do any good. Also, whatever you do, you do it at your own risk.