D100 sync

I was using the Nikon D100 in a studio with some 600ws monolights

set to slave mode. I have done this on two seperate occasions. On

the first day everything went well, proper sync, great exposure, no

problems. On the second day with the same setup the D100 was not

properly syncronizing with the strobes. I checked the flash to see

if it was firing rear curtain, but is wasn't.

 

I was initially metering f-8 and shooting 1/60th. The images were

severly underexposed, I then increased the lights to f-22 and set

the camera to f-2.8. I was still about 5 stops under exposed, I

could not salvage the information in Photoshop. I checked my meter

to a daylight illuminated object and then shot accordingly with the

D100 and the image was properly exposed. I also shot at f-22 with

the Nikon F4 with 200 speed film, which is what I metered at and the

negs came back perfectly exposed from the lab. I told the lab to

develop "as is", and explained my situation to the technician so

they did not correct the film and he evaluated the negs with me and

agreed that they were properly exposed, this was a pro-lab so I

trust his opinion as much as I do my own.

 

I realize that I could use the AS-15 hot shoe adapter, but I really

want to resolve this problem. Also Nikon tech support has no idea

what is going on.

 

Has anyone else had this problem with slave syncronization on the

D100, or have any opinions on a simple error I have made?

 

Brady

Only thing I can think of is that the flash reverted to TTL and the pre flashes triggered your strobes before the shutter opened as normally would happen. How were you triggering your strobes with the F4 by the way? <p>

I would suggest a Wein SSR IR transmitter on your D100 hotshoe to trigger your slaves instead of the built in flash. That should solve the problem.

I was thinking about the TTL pre-flash, I am not certain if it were in TTL, but I will try it this weekend in manual mode to see if it works. I used the PC cord with the F4. Thanks for your suggestion, if manual doesn't work then I will use a hot-shoe/pc adapter.

I suspect your strobes are syncing on the pre-flashes of a local DTTL flash which means they fired before the front curtain opened.

You need to get the local flash out of DTTL mode or use a low power non-ttl flash unit on camera if you want optically slave your strobes. I went to pocket wizards transmitter/receivers on my D1X to avoid this.

Brad,

It sounds like the built-in flash was on D-TTL mode and the pre-flash triggered the strobes before the shutter opened. To get out of the D-TTL mode, set the camera to spot mettering. Try to see if this make any different.