SB-800 firing a lot, why?

[sam_ellis]

<p>I have an SB-800 on a D700 and lately I've noticed it firing frequently (not when taking photos). Then sometimes it won't fire when I DO want to take a photo. I noticed it happening recently, but it definitely became a problem last night. My assistant had to leave early and he took my backup with him! The backup to the backup was left in the bag at home. All was fine for the wedding, but I definitely missed some shots (nothing critical, don't flame me).<br>

I can't seem to get it to repeat at home so I'm thinking it's a factor of many flashes causing an internal error.<br>

Any thoughts on this before I send it back to Nikon?<br>

Thanks,<br />Sam</p>

[sam_ellis]

<p>Oh, and by the way...talk about price gouging for SB-800s! There's only five new ones on Amazon.com and they're listed at between $500 and $900! NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS!</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>My sb800 occasionally does the same thing. Fortunately, the bouts of random firing with my unit aren't frequent enough to force me to have it repaired, but it certainly is annoying. In my case, it seems that if you leave it turned on (and attached to the hot shoe), after about a minute of random low-intensity flashes, the random firing eventually stops. There may also be a correlation of the bouts of random firing to higher ambient humidity. My guess is that it's a problem (high resistance leakage) in the trigger circuit.</p>

<p>It will be interesting to see if other folks have this problem.</p>

<p>Tom M<br>

Washington, DC</p>

[colda]

<p>I've had this problem on a D200, considering that I've got 2x800's and 2x600 which all do this (only occasionally) on the D200 and not at all on my D300, S3 or S5 I could only conclude that it's the camera and not the flash</p>

<p>Upon investigation I found that on the D200, the flash units didn't feel as secure as on the other bodies (there was a slight bit of movement), the problem was partially fixed my gently tapping the sides of the flash mount on the D200 until the flash units had a snug fit - I say partially as I noticed a random flash the other day - will check the mount again later</p>

[sam_ellis]

<p>Still playing around with it today without being able to duplicate it, but here's a thought- could it be from sweat getting into the hotshoe? The only reason I thought of this is I saw the moisture guard for the SB-900.</p>

 

[bob_calvary]

<p>I had the same problem and I'm not suggesting you do what I did to fix it. I still can't believe I did it......... it's the connection between the flash and the hotshoe (loose). I took a very small hammer and lightly tapped the top of the hotshoe to make the connection tighter, problem solved.</p>