can a sb25 work on d300

[dave_petley2]

<p>will a sb25 work on a d300 okay </p>

[ShunCheung]

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/guide-to-ttl-flashes/">http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/guide-to-ttl-flashes/</a></p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<p>Sure ... but <strong>not</strong> in TTL mode (which is probably how you would want to use it).</p>

[peter]

<p>I was sorely disappointed that this flash will not function in TTL mode with my D200 as I have a near mint version of the SB 25 myself that I used to use on my F801s. Although this is fairly old by todays standards, the only reason I can see for this failure is - planned obsolecence by Nikon as it had perfectly good circuits to allow it to meter with these film cameras includingt he F90X. In similar vein my old D70s does not meter when Nikon MF lenses are mounted - even though when I mount these lenses on a Panasonic L1 with adapter they meter perfectly well on that camera. This has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with marketing and revenue generation. Eventually I bought a D200 to overcome this shortcoming (as regards leneses.)</p>

[bgelfand]

<p>Hi Peter,</p>

<p>In the case of the SB-25 and digital cameras, it is a matter of physics and not planned obsolescence. The SB-25 was made for film cameras. In film cameras the camera meters the light reflected from the surface of the film to determine the TTL exposure, NOT the incident light through the lens. With digital cameras there is no film. Metering the light reflected from the digital sensor proved unreliable, due to the physical make up of the sensor itself. For digital cameras, the flash emits several preflashes. The camera meters these preflashes, computes the required flash, the shutter opens, and the flash fires under the control of the body. (I am not sure if the preflashes are metered directly or reflected off the closed shutter of the body; I suspect off the shutter.)</p>

<p>Since digital cameras and the flash system they require were not even designed when the SB-25 was built, it is little wonder the SB-25 does not emit the required preflashes.</p>

 

[ShunCheung]

<p>In photo.net's i-TTL flash article I linked to above, I went into some details about why film TTL flashes such as the SB-25 are not compatible on DSLRs and why Nikon introduced D-TTL and then replaced it with the more advanced i-TTL.</p>

[tri-x1]

<p>I used an SB 25 on My D300 and I gave great exposures using the flash sensor. The main reason I got an SB 600 was it is more compact</p>

[g._v.]

<p>I think that Nikon TTL flash is overrated; I cannot count the myriad threads that I have read in this and other forums started by photographers attempting to figure out how to make it produce consistent results. Throw in Matrix Metering and all you do is increase the number of variables that you have to take into account...</p>

<p>I use my SB-26 and "ancient" Metz CT-45 flashes in auto aperture mode; the built-in flash sensors work just fine. I manually set the exposure in the camera and then use the flash aperture/ISO settings to adjust the amount of flash. The only time this becomes close to a problem is in rapidly changing ambient lighting, and that happens maybe 1% of the time in my experience.</p>

<p>I do like using the built-in flash on my DSLRs when convenient; as long as I set exposures manually, stick to center-weighted metering and adjust the flash output accordingly I usually obtain the desired results. I adapted a Fuji film canister to use as tiny light diffuser for the on-camera flash. </p>