My Nikon D90's popup flash is broken. Repair or buy an external flash?

I asked my photog friends about this. Some said to just buy an external flash coz the repair fee might be higher than buying a YN external. I dunno… I think I should weigh my options first. I mean, popup flash isn't useless after all. Plus, it's more portable than an external.

Have Nikon give you an estimate to repair the on-board flash.

If you want full i-TTL performance, you may want to save your pennies and buy a Nikon SB700

Define "broken"…

If it's just the small tube in there that's gone, then the repair is not beyond the abilities of most local camera dealers - at a very reasonable price.

You do lose some functionality in your camera with a broken flash. Whether or not you use that functionality is another question.

The main advantage - other than the use of the flash - is if you want to use the Nikon CLS commander mode built into the D90 to control other flashes wirelessly.

If you have never used that option, you can externally control a Nikon flash - say a SB700 - wirelessly from the camera. The camera's flash is used on the camera to send signals to the external flash unit (at a highly reduced intensity) - which of course, requires that the camera's flash work.

But you may not be aware of that feature.

And I do suppose that would also affect the camera's resale value should you ever want to sell it and if the wireless mode is important to a potential buyer.

If it were me, I would at least get an estimate to what it would cost to repair.