Nikon D200 in the studio

[pge]

Hi

 

I recently purchased a D200, having a great time with it.

 

I have a very old set of Norman studio lights, so far I have been

using the on-board flash on the D200 to trigger the studio lights with

a peanut. But now I want to do some low light directional shooting so

I don't want to fire the on-board flash. I heard somewhere that it is

not wise to attach a regular sync cord from a digital camera to an old

light pack, and since my D200 took me a while to save up for, and to

find, I am very concerned about harming it.

 

Is there any truth to this fear, are the delicate circuits of a

digital camera in any danger? Thanks for your help.

[Ed_Ingold]

There is possibly some danger to your camera. I suggest using a flash isolator, such as made by Wein (SafeSync?). Eventually, you might want to get a Pocket Wizard radio remote to free yourself from the sync cord altogether.

[dan_meyers1]

Phil,

 

There's NO danger to the camera using a sync cord. I've been using two older Speedotron packs with no problems and called both Nikon and Speedotron to confirm compatibility. Both said the D200 can handle up to 250 volts. But if you're in doubt, call Norman.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Man, do I hate sync cords. Then again, I'm the sort of person who can trip over their own shadow.

 

First, do you have the D200 flash set to 1/32 or 1/64 power? That can settle a lot of issues with the onboard flash contributing undesired light to your pictures.

 

Now, the next thing to try is an infrared filter over the flash of the D200. The slave trigger is sensitive to visible and infrared light. I've used unexposed, developed slide film for this purpose, for years. It's handy if it's mounted, then you can attach it to the pop-up flash of a D200 (or a D70) with a rubber band.

 

If you want something more "dignified", Nikon sells the SG-31R flash blocker. It sits in your hotshoe and positions a square of visible light blocking, IR transmitting plastic in front of the D200 flash. SG-31R is $11 at B&H.

[eric_kim]

I recently purchased a 9 year old Speedotron brownline 840 lighting kit at Ebay. Its sync voltage is too high for the digital cameras, and I purchased a Morris wireless radio trigger transmitter/receiver on $79.00 at Helix. I am very happy to its performance and don't have to deal with wires.