D70 built-in flash triggers hensels but shots are dark and grey - why?

[sam_bech]

Hi,

I have a small studio set-up to shoot jewellery. I am using a D70 and the built-in flash to

trigger two hensel flash experts (1000) and a courtenay solaflash (2500). The only way to

capture enough light in the shot is to slow my shutter speed to 1/15 s or slower (1s)

depending on the jewellery even with three strobes firing! I can live with it for product

shots but for potraiture that isn't possible. The corporate portraiture I recently shot were

too dark if shot at 1/60 (was using one x-large softbox and ambient light for the rest).

They look terrible and grey! I can't understand it. It is as if the D70's built-in flash fires

and the shutter is released but the slaves fire too slowly and only way to capture light is to

slow the shutter speed down. The built-in flash is definitely firing with the front curtain

sync. Or is that the strobes are old and need new fuses? I don't have a flash meter yet so I

am not sure but the strobes all appear to be firing at full power. I need to buy a wein safe

hot shoe to connect the sync cord and try that. Just wondering if anyone else tried this and

had similar problems. Or am I just trying to do too much on the cheap.

 

Thanks,

Sam

[marnedog]

It is because your in camera flash is set to ittl. You really need a AS-15 to work it the right way through the syn cord. Or just get a cheap flash that is not ttl that you can change the ration on, so that it only puts out enough to set the slaves off on you Hensels without the syn cord. I had this problem years ago. But now, no problem at all. You camera is working fine.

[ransomsix]

The D70 fires a pre-flash which isn't noticable to the eye, but it triggers your slaves prematurely. You need to trigger them using either a hot shoe flash, or a sync cord via a hot shoe adapter (or with a radio system). A few companies such as wein now make digital friendly slave devices to solve this problem, but since your strobes have them built in it doesn't do you much good. Unfortunately you can't disable the preflash with the built in flash.

[frank_skomial]

You did not tell us in what camera mode you operate, so my advice can be wrong.

 

If in iTTL mode of your built in camera flash, (any other then manual mode of your D70), then the preflashes trigger your Hensel/Solaflash prematurely and not during the actual exposure flash time.

 

You photos are dark, since your strobes (Hensel etc) are long dark when the actual exposure happens, so you needed 1/15 sec to get some trailing light from your strobes when they just finished the job but possibly are still bright to help a bit.

 

Preflashes and main exposure flash as so close so perhaps you would not be able to notice that. So, your flashes are not too old, and it has nothing to do with fuses.

 

Wein Safe Sync, when inserted into the shoe on the camera, will not allow the built in flash to po up completely, and that is not solution if you want to use the built in flash to trigger remotely via slaves.

 

Use Safe Sync to trigger your strobes via PC sync cables, and forget using the built in flash.

 

Once you manage to trigger your Hansel/Solaflash at appropriate moment, then you will need a flash meter to determine exposure

 

Better solution is use a SB-800 on camera, and use existing PC sync socket on the left side of SB-800 body. In this case there are multiple choices of lighting.. the story is getting too long.

[mykol]

Hi, I use a simillar setup and just set the on camera flash to manual (low power). It then fires the strobes at the correct time and doesn't contribute to the lighting (though if you want it too - you can up it's power in settings for use as a fill etc.)

 

I do use the camera in manual mode and though I was going to get an external light meter - I have felt no need to as my exposures seem to be pretty much bang on by simply checking the image & histogram - after a couple of test shots it's generally perfect.

 

As I have an SB600 too, I added this to the stobes for use as a hairlight & bought a cheap flash trigger (?10).

 

Hope this helps

[twmeyer]

try rear curtain sync with a shutter speed slow enought to catch the Hensel, but not so slow to show your modeling lights. Otherwise, get a radio slave... t

[sam_bech]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks so much for the replies. :) So helpful! I think to protect my cameras (F100 and D70), I will buy the Wein Safe Sync. I am using everything on Manual. I haven't used other camera seettings since I discovered the conrol I have with Manual. I have a Minolta Flash Meter (recently purchased second-hand) so that should take care of any exposure readings. Will the SB-800 (which I plan to buy in the next week or so) protect my cameras from the high-voltage strobes if I use that to plug the sync cord into (as Frank suggested)? And Jared thanks for that explanation about the pre-flash...I was tearing my hair out for hours before I decided to slow the shutter to compensate :P

 

Cheers, Sam

[j_leonardo_smith]

You're on the right track with using the built-in flash of the D70 to trigger your lights. Another way to trigger them, without buying any more gear, would be to set the built-in flash for Manual mode and dial it down to 1/16th power. This is done in command menu #19. There will be no pre-flash, so the external lights will fire at the time you press the shutter, and the light coming from the built-in flash will have no effect on the final exposure. Make sure to set your shutter speed back to 1/60th too. <P>

 

Leo Smith<BR>

somewhere in California<P>

[sam_bech]

Thanks Leo. :) I will look for command #19 in the manual and give this a try. I wish I had posted this question long before. You guys have been a great help!

 

Cheers,

Sam

[steve_hovland]

Just to reinforce the point, on my Canon A70 the preflash goes away when the camera is in manual mode.

 

Anyone who has this problem with any digital camera should try setting the camera to manual mode. You can use a business card to keep the camera flash off the subject and direct the light toward the external slaves.

 

There's no point hoping that the camera will read the exposure from external flashes. Buy a meter such as the Sekonic L358 that tells you how much flash is being combined with the ambient.

[ben_lovejoy]

I shoot with my D70 in the studio using the built-in flash to trigger the strobes. So long as the camera is in manual modem with a shutter speed of 1/500th or slower, then all you need to is put the flash into manual mode too.

 

1/16th power should do it, but you can come up to 1/8th if the strobes don't fire reliably.

[balfour_christie]

I've recently bought a used D70 and am just getting the hang of it. I have 1 SOLA2 and 1 SOLA4 flash units which I hadn't used for years. I dug them out but as the manual didn't give me much help on setting up I did a search and came across this site and this question. I am ever so grateful to all you folks as I followed what you suggested and got almost perfect results first time. What a hair and time saver, many thanks.