SB-800 and 430 EX

OK........ I recently purchased an SB-800 speedlight. My friend came over one day to check it out and brought his

set up, which includes a 430 EX speedlight. Since the SB-800 is a commander unit, i was wondering if we put his

430 in slave mode and on the same channel as the SB-800, that the SB could command the 430. We tried a few

times and couldnt seem to get it work. However, I still have a funny feeling it could work. Any

Comments/Suggestions? please, they are welcome

I doubt very much whether the Nikon unit will talk to the Canon. They talk completely different languages.

Well, my friend said that he saw a video on youtube of a man who got his to do this. However I haven't seen the

video. But, what your saying does make sense. Oh well, we'll try again later just for the sake of arguement.

If you put the SB-800 in SU4 mode then the 430 will fire it, not sure if it will work the other way round though.

Keith's right. In SU-4 mode, the SB-800 is a simple optical slave. As soon as it sees another strobe go off (ANY strobe!) it will fire. Remember, though - if another strobe has any pre-exposure metering pulses (or anti-red-eye pulses), that will also trigger it. So, as long as the master strobe is emitting only one pop, the SB-800 will behave much like a studio strobe with an optical trigger.

 

This is one of theSB-800's greatest little un-sung features, if you ask me.

i have even used my point and shoot's strobe to fire my sb800 before - for those times when you don't want to drag the dslr out to take a portrait, just set your sb800 up on a stand behind your guests, turn off red-eye reduction on your p&s and fire away. lots of light for everyone!

Wow so what you guys are saying is that technically my sb-400 could command my SB-800. WOW thats cool.

<i>"This is one of theSB-800's greatest little un-sung features, if you ask me."</i>

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This is exactly the reason I have kept an old SB-26 around LONG after I switched from Nikon to Canon.

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Keep in mind however, that the "master" is not "controlling" the "slave" in this setup. It is simply triggering it. There is no TTL or other exposure information being passed back and forth.