DF-383 Power Zoom AF Flash for Nikon

I purchased the DF-383-NIK for the Nikon system. I was hesitated as others had comments regarding built quality and out of the box performance mostly DOA units. I can't comment on that as the unit we received has performed perfectly. The TTL and fill flash work as a Vivitar should. I've used Vivitar Flash units for 20 years and they are robust.
Power zoom is abit louder than expected and the internal light is of little value in most cases as its lit only from one side of the LCD screen, unit goes to sleep by itself requiring reset. But other than that it works as advertise. TTL metering. Works as a slave (S-switch on the rear) and can be triggered. Its a big unit and after using it for 2 separate jobs I can rate it a solid 4 Stars. Minus (-1) one as it not built as well as the old Vivitar's or anywhere near as solid as Nikon SL SB's units (which I have 600/800). Battery access door is cheaply made, Oh yea order some rechargeable AA batteries,I use Energizers 2,450's and Sanyo's.

Excellent value for photographers using there 1st ext flash and pro's alike.
Used on a D90/300 and D700 bodies for reference.

THose lights are very good, are TTL compatible, can be trigger via a Flash slave, have manual setting, can be used with the cactus wireless trigger. The only thing is that after a while, does not matter if you are using it continously, it goes off (standby), you have to reset it manually. I do not like that feature.

Ordered TWO of these flash units ~ both failed straight away out of the box. Construction is sub-par compared to units directly from Nikon or Canon. While the flash unit is as powerful and has the same features, both units had failure in the zoom unit (head unit). In one, the head fell off the internal track after a couple of shots, and got stuck in the wide angle position. In the other unit, the flash would not communicate properly with the camera after the first shot. THANK GOODNESS for Amazon ~ and Adorama Cameras ~ as I was able to exchange these units for name branded units. I ended up getting two Nikon SB-600 flash units in exchange. Money was more, but, definitely worth it, as one flash resides on my camera, and the second unit is the slave for backlighting.

Save yourself a lot of grief, and get the OEM units instead.

This flash unit does not work well with my nikon D90 and does not work at all with my D40. So I had to buy a nikon SB600 to replace it. Old proverb 'cheap ting nogood, good ting nocheap' Garnet Richardson does not like junk equipment

I am quite pleased with this flash. Integrates well with my Nikon D90. It does not function with Nikon's Creative Lighting System, but then it costs 1/4 the price of a NIKON SB-900. Plenty of power to bounce off walls and ceilings or use with a additional diffuser. The quality of your photos will improve significantly with almost any flash other than the small direct flash built into your camera. The manual and/or slave capabilities will allow off camera flash shots that will further improve your photography. That said, the slave funtion does not work well in outdoor situations where the ambient lighting is high. This is were the much more expensive NIKON SB series flash units will out perform this flash unit - remote wireless TTL flash control - I just can't understand why a flash unit SB-900) should cost more than half the cost of my D90 body. The D90 has significantly more electronic and mechanical technology than the SB900 and I'm sure the mfg'ing cost of the D90 is many times that of the SB900.