I've been shooting with my D850 for like five years now and I've always been a natural light only kind of person because I loved the look but honestly I'm starting to realize that's just an excuse for being scared of flash. Well I have this big indoor family reunion shoot coming up in three weeks in this really dim historic building in downtown Chicago and there is just no way I can pull it off without some artificial light. I tried using my old SB-700 that's been sitting in my bag for ages but the recycle times are just killing me and it feels like it's overheating after like ten shots at full power. Plus the interface on that thing is just so clunky compared to modern stuff.

I've been looking at the newer Nikon SB-5000 but it's so expensive and I'm wondering if the radio control is actually worth it if I don't have the right trigger setup yet. Or should I just jump ship to something like a Godox V1 or the AD200? I keep hearing people rave about the round head on the V1 for better light falloff in portraits but I'm worried about third-party reliability when I'm on a deadline. I need something that wont misfire when I'm trying to capture candid moments and has a decent battery life because I dont want to be fumbling with AA batteries all night like it's 2005.

Budget is around 400 or 500 bucks max but if there's a game changer for a bit more I could maybe swing it. I really need that soft, professional look for these portraits but I'm just spinning my wheels looking at specs. What are you guys using for your on-camera stuff lately that doesn't feel like a total brick and actually plays nice with the Nikon TTL system...