Flash compatibility

I have flash units SB 23, 26, and 30. Would they be compatible with a digicam like my D7000?

The Nikon SB flashes with two-digit model numbers and without the DX suffix, such as your SB-23, 26, and 30, are for TTL with film SLRs. You can use them on a DSLR such as the D7000, but there will be no TTL flash.

The earliest DSLRs, including the entire D1 family and the D100, use D-TTL, and Nikon's two D-TTL flashes are the SB-28 DX and SB-80 DX. They still have two-digit model numbers, but they have the DX suffix.

After the D1 and D100, Nikon started using i-TTL from the D2 family, D70, and on. The i-TTL flashes have three-digit model numbers such as SB-400, SB-800, SB-900, etc. If you would like to use TTL flash on your D7000, you want one of those i-TTL flashes. There are many of them to choose from.

The latest flash is the SB-5000 that is compatible with radio trigger.

The Nikon SB flashes with two-digit model numbers and without the DX suffix, such as your SB-23, 26, and 30, are for TTL with film SLRs. You can use them on a DSLR such as the D7000, but there will be no TTL flash.

 

The earliest DSLRs, including the entire D1 family and the D100, use D-TTL, and Nikon's two D-TTL flashes are the SB-28 DX and SB-80 DX. They still have two-digit model numbers, but they have the DX suffix.

 

After the D1 and D100, Nikon started using i-TTL from the D2 family, D70, and on. The i-TTL flashes have three-digit model numbers such as SB-400, SB-800, SB-900, etc. If you would like to use TTL flash on your D7000, you want one of those i-TTL flashes. There are many of them to choose from.

 

The latest flash is the SB-5000 that is compatible with radio trigger.

Thank you for that helpful and well written reply. I currently use those guns on an N90s. Great stuff.

The (Very early DSLR) Nikon E series cameras use the same flash as the film cameras. The Nikon E3 works with the SB-29 in TTL mode. I used that combo for many camera repair projects. It still works.

You still have the E3? It would be worth quite a bit of money now. A number of Fuji DSLR's were based on Nikon film body can do TTL too. They could read light reflected off the sensor like a film camera.

The SB-26 is fully useable on a Nikon DSLR in Auto-Aperture mode.

Limitation is that you'll have to set the camera to manual mode in order to force the shutter to a suitable flash-synch speed, and to set the lens aperture to a suitable value.

By setting the same aperture and ISO on the flash and camera, with the flash in 'A' mode, you can get fully automatic exposure.

(There's a sensor built into the front of the SB-26 that reads the light being reflected back from the subject. This cuts off the flash when it detects sufficient exposure has been given. It works reliably and accurately IME.)

I don't think the SB-23 and 30 support A mode, but since they're weedy little flashes with barely more output than the camera's popup flash, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

BTW, I use the similar SB-25 and SB-28 flashes with my D7200 and D800 quite frequently, and find their AA mode to give more consistent exposures than an SB-800 in i-TTL mode, especially when bounced. YMMV.

Plus you're better off using fully manual control of flash output and simple radio triggers with multiple off-camera flash setups.

you're better off using fully manual control of flash output and simple radio triggers with multiple off-camera flash setups.

Yup, fully agree.

It was trickier in film days because of the lack of instant feedback meant you spent ages fiddling with flash meters.... and you never really knew you'd got it right until the stuff was developed.

Now, with independently RF controllable flashes, you don't have to leave the camera. Flashes can be addressed separately or in banks both in power and flash spread.

A little while back, while doing a search for Nikon Speedlight compatibility, I ran across this web page.

https://nikonsupport.eu/europe/images/6312/SBCC_en.pdf

Yup, fully agree.

 

It was trickier in film days because of the lack of instant feedback meant you spent ages fiddling with flash meters.... and you never really knew you'd got it right until the stuff was developed.

 

Now, with independently RF controllable flashes, you don't have to leave the camera. Flashes can be addressed separately or in banks both in power and flash spread.

I find that the flash meter results in more perfect straight out of the camera results in the studio than eyeballing the images on the LCD (which is too small to judge exposure reliably). I invariably get images that are a bit too dark when using the eye to judge flash exposures from the camera's screen. If using a larger screen then this problem largerly goes away but that requires setting up tethering. By contrast, if I use a flash meter then I get consistent results from the start.

Although I have setups where I can control the flash output from the controller or the camera, I don't use them most of the time. The control interfaces of the different systems are sufficiently complex that setup time is too long when not using them on a frequent basis. So, I use manual flashes in the studio and go the flashes to make the adjustments to the output of each flash. With Elinchrom flashes the controller often is blissfully unaware of what the settings of the flashes are and although it can technically pull the information from the flashes, it takes such a long time and is sufficiently erratic that I don't bother to do it that way. I just use the controls on the flashes (for mains powered units) or from the flash generator (if battery powered). With Nikon although it remembers the flash and trigger pairings, I had one of my flashes in service and it was replaced with a new one, so the pairing wasn't done for that trigger and I had forgotten the order in which to do it (first press button on WR-R10, then execute pairing on the flash) and so I ended up fiddling with the remote flash setup for 5-10 min before I got it to work correctly. This wouldn't be a problem if using the same system day-to-day (the pairing is maintained once set up). But nonetheless I see other photographers with similar problems with various brands of "intelligent" flash setups. The human factor is no doubt significant here, but the design of the systems is not exactly the most simple. So, I most often use flash either as an on-camera TTL bounce flash, or with manual flash output set up from the flash itself on the Elinchroms. And the fancy stuff while it can be great it is not great in times of a pandemic where I forget between shoots how to do pairing. ;-) With the dumb flashes, there is very little one can forget.

For certain scenarios I do use remote flash with TTL mode. For example I have a softbox which is intended for two speedlights, and if I put two SB-5000's in there, both group A, I get shorter recycle times and can use TTL easily. As long as there is only one group of TTL flashes, fiddling with settings is kept to a minimum. I sometimes use this kind of a setup to "augment" window light to ensure that the face of the subject is lit sufficiently. TTL makes setup time shorter ... assuming that the flashes are in working order and paired and the photographer knows what they are doing. I do agree that if one uses multiple groups of flashes then having them all in TTL would be a recipe for chaos. One TTL group whether on-camera bounced flash or remote can help compensate for changes in subject position automatically and speed up setup time without creating too much uncertainty into the outcome.

I invariably get images that are a bit too dark when using the eye to judge flash exposures from the camera's screen

Is this just with flash or in general? I guess you could adjust the screen brightness to better reflect the actual results?

Depending what the subject matter is, I've been known to put a put a small piece of bright white card in various parts of the scene and adjust the relevant flash to just go blinkie.. it kinda ensures an ETTR exposure.

Mix and match iTTL is where madness lies....:confused:

Is this just with flash or in general? I guess you could adjust the screen brightness to better reflect the actual results?

In general when photographing in dimly lit indoors whether I shoot with flash or available light. I don't want to adjust the screen because then I forget to reset it for outdoor stuff. :/

If I have an important shoot I meter the lights before the subject comes in. And that way I get the right kind of light without having to do test shots. Of course, if we then proceed to change the lighting setup and background, then things can get more sloppy (only because I feel I am in a hurry) but having the starting point perfect helps a lot in getting things on the right track.

I could start to do more tethering but I really dislike the cable. If I check exposures on a tethered laptop then the results usually hold up really well also on a larger monitor.

Depending what the subject matter is, I've been known to put a put a small piece of bright white card in various parts of the scene and adjust the relevant flash to just go blinkie.. it kinda ensures an ETTR exposure.

Right, that makes sense.

A little while back, while doing a search for Nikon Speedlight compatibility, I ran across this web page.

 

https://nikonsupport.eu/europe/images/6312/SBCC_en.pdf

There's some error in that PDF.

The D700 is lumped in with the D800 and later cameras, yet its compatibility with older, non-iTTL flashes is greater.

A film-era flash attached to a D700 will automatically set the shutter to a flash-synch speed, and IIRC, communicate the lens aperture to the flash. This was (probably unnecessarily) disabled on later DSLRs.

All irrelevant anyway, if you just put the camera in M mode and control the flash manually.

I've even stuck old Canon speedlites in Nikon hotshoes and they fire just fine. No flash automation of course, but with fully manual control, who cares?