Got an SB-800 and am confused!

[leonard_evens]

I got an SB-800 Speedlight, and after studying manuals, I'm still pretty confused.

 

I can manage to take a picture with the SB-800 mounted on my D70, and I

understand bounce and all that. What I'm having trouble with is using the

SB-800 as an off camera flash in conjunction with the D70 speedlight. I did

manage, after some false starts, to get the SB-800 to fire remotely using the

D70 speedlight to set it off. But if I understand correctly, in so called

commander mode, the D70 speedlight contributes nothing to the exposure. I would

like to be able to use the D70 speedlight in conjuntion with the remote SB-800,

where the remote acts just as a slave and doesn't have to communicate otherwise

with the D70 flash. I could if necessary determine the proper aperture on the

D70 using a flashmeter.

 

This may all be in the various manuals, but those mnuals are hardly models of

clarity. Any help would be appreciated.

[jeffrey_kempster]

Leonard,

 

The D70's onboard flash can not contribute to the lighting of the scene. It can only trigger the sb-800. This is one thing I think is so great about the d80 and d200. They can both trigger two seperate groups of flashes.

 

Jeff

[frank_skomial]

1. Read KenRockwell 7 pages tutorial on this subject.

 

2. Get Thom Hogen ebook about D70.

 

... search this site for more information...

 

reading Nikon manual for SB-800, and D70 could also help.. but you already went through the "false starts" and some frustration. D70 and SB-800 communicate only on 1 port and in 1 group, other settings will not work, but I believe you already discovered that - Ken Rockwell explains that very well.

 

You have a wonderful system in your hands, and going back to flash meter and manual flash control seems unreasonable. I believe you want to go back in time due to the frustration that you encountered, partly because Nikon explanations are short or nothing. E.g. there is only 1 short sentence devoted to using D70 as a commander.

 

Try to learn about iTTL/CLS and go for the best technology.

[frank_skomial]

And of course D70 can control remote flash output. I guess you understand the difference between triggering a flash and conrolling flash output - the difference is like day and night. D70 is capable to control multiple flashes in one group.

 

D70 does that the same way as D200, but D200 allows 2 groups of flashes, and falls short of 3rd group. Neither D200 nor D80 are able to use group C.

[bill_b2]

Place a wireless flash sync on the SB-800, either via the hot shoe or the sync terminal. It's ready to go. www.weinproducts.com is a longtime provider of the devices. There are others, too.

 

Camera would be in Manual flash, adjust Flash Exposure Compensation for the built-in flash as needed. SB-800 in manual, adjust as needed.

[briany]

<i>I would like to be able to use the D70 speedlight in conjuntion with the remote SB-800, where the remote acts just as a slave and doesn't have to communicate otherwise with the D70 flash. I could if necessary determine the proper aperture on the D70 using a flashmeter. </i><br><br>

You're right that if you use commander mode/CLS the D70 flash essentially won't contribute to the scene. (If you had a D200 you could determine how much the on-camera flash would contribute.) Set the D70 to manual flash mode, SB-800 in SU-4 mode. It's not a mode I've really used, but playing around with it, it looks like you can hit the mode button on the flash after selecting SU-4 to toglle between the flash trying to meter versus manually setting the flash level. Note that the D70 must be in manual mode - the TTL preflashes would trigger the SB-800 in TTL mode.

[chris_vincent2]

I think this is how it works - I just tried it.

 

If you set the SB800 to remote SU-4 you can adjust the ouput level manually using the +/- buttons. Set the D70 to TTL - not commander mode. The SB800 will then act as a manual slave triggered by the D70.

 

Unfortunately, in terms of cost, this syetem works much better if you have an SB800 on the camera running the show. This means you need a second flash.

[leonard_evens]

I also discovered what Chris described. Setting the SB-600 in SU-4 mode and remote allows the D70 built-in flash to light the scene while also triggering the SB-800. I believe the SB-800 can be used in either A or M mode.

 

I understand that doing it this way eliminates most of the smart features of the camera and speedlight, but for the kinds of applications I have in mind, e.g., interior architectural photography, the use of guide numbers supplemented by a flash meter won't be a serious limitation.

[briany]

Chris, Leonard: are you sure when using the SB-800 in commander mode and the D70 in TTL mode the pre-flashes don't trigger the SB-800 (a fraction of a second too early?). You May get very lucky and the SB-800 may not see the pre-flashes, but this isn't a guaranteed result. Without commander mode (SU-4) the only way the SB-800 knows to fire is seeing any other flash go off.

<br><br>

Actually I just found this: <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FmLU&tag=">thread</a> It looks like the SB-800 may be able to flash alongside the built in flash in TTL mode, but I wonder how that may affect exposure. To be safest, you should probably use manual mode on-camera.