CLS, Skyports

[michael_c18]

<p>I'm getting started with lighting and I have two SB-900 flashes. I've found Nikon's CLS to work great indoors due to the signals getting bounced around off walls and such, but I was recently at a workshop and had some trouble shooting outside. This morning, however, I tried again and as long as I was fairly close, I wasn't having any real problems using one on-camera in commander mode. (It was pointed at the sensor on the side of the other one, which was on a stand, sticking out the back of a softbox.) What are others' experiences with using this kind of setup, outside, in direct sun? In other words, what kind of range and what success rate should I expect?</p>

<p>On a related note, at the workshop (after I was having a great deal of difficulty getting my remote flash to trigger), one of the photographers there kindly let me borrow his Elinchrom Skyport, so I could try them out. They worked much better, except that for some reason I was getting banding at 1/250th and even 1/200th (my D200's max sync speed is 1/250th). The amount of banding seemed erratic, but I couldn't eliminate it until I dropped to 1/160th, which was kind of limiting outside. The photographer who owned them said he'd never had any problems shooting at 1/250th, but he was using a different camera and flashes. Is there any reason you can think of why I'd see banding above 1/160th?</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Hard to say why you were getting that latency. Using a D200 (or any other Nikon body, for that matter) with either Paul Buff's CyberSync triggers, or with Pocket Wizards, I've never had that problem. <br /><br />Don't forget that when you <em>are</em> using CLS, that you can rotate the lower portion of the SB-900 (when using it behind one of those softboxes) so that the IR sensor points in the post useful direction. That can buy you some more reliability/distance when working outside. If it's bright sunlight or any real distance (or if the slaves are buried in modifiers or not easily in line of sight), radio triggers sure are handy. If you need to preserve CLS, there are new PWs that can help, but they're not cheap. If you don't mind just simple triggering, the CyberSyncs are great for the price.</p>

[mariosforsos]

<p>First caveat: I have not tried the Elinchroms, so no input there...<br>

Second caveat: I use an SU800 commander and not a built-in flash, so ambient light does not affect me that much.<br>

However, I am a long time user of CLS and have this to say: it all comes down to line-of-sight. If your commander can see the IR port of the slaves, you'll be fine. Even outside, with no surfaces to bounce from, the IR signal from my SU800 travels very well and triggers my flashes without a single problem.</p>

<p>Admittedly, I've had "some" trouble using it to fire a strobe in the middle of a forrest at night (I had to carefully and very precisely align the receivers in my remotes to make it work), but other than that, it's all well.</p>

<p>One thing you could do (and I have done it for those setups where one of more slaves were completely out of sight of the master, but within sight of each other) is to set one slave to see the master and the other(s) to see the first slave on an SU4 mode (during which they only look for the flash to work and not an IR signal).</p>

<p>Personally I'm addicted to the CLS as it fully allows me to control power to my flashes without having to physically go there and change them. However, having said that, I am slowly considering looking into the new PW mini which can do the same thing over radio (rather than IR). The cost is significantly higher, but maybe the benefits outweigh it...we shall see...</p>

[monika_epsefass]

<p>Michael, I have a question about the Skyport: what camera do you use with it, and how did you connect it? And do you use it with flash or with a proper studio light?<br>

I was utterly disappointed when I got a Skyport and didn't manage to hook it up somehow with the camera - I had the feeling it was intended to be with studio lamps instead of a "plain" Nikon flash...</p>

[michael_c18]

<p>Marios: I think part of my problem with triggering was getting the SB-900 on my camera lined up exactly right with the one I was trying to trigger. I'd left my on-commander flash zoomed all the way to 200mm, I think, which probably made it harder than it needed to be. I'll try again with it at a more moderate zoom.</p>

<p>Monika: I was using the Skyport with a Nikon D200, and I just stuck it in my hot shoe. It was triggering an SB-900 off-camera; it just plugged into the PC port on the flash, using a cord that had a 1/8" mono jack on one end and a PC jack on the other. A Skyport won't let you control a speedlight (as far as I know), but it will manually trigger one. If you have a flash without a PC port, you'll need to get a PC to hot shoe adapter, which will let you put your flash on the hot shoe of the adapter, and then plug the PC cord into the PC port. I saw <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/05/universal-translator-ushers-in-new-age.html">this one</a> on Strobist, which looked nice and versatile. It even lets you use a straight 3.5mm mono plug (on both ends), instead of a PC jack, which would be very nice.</p>

[szrimaging]

<p>I am using Skyports into Ranger Quadras (built in receivers) and a D200. Never had problems with a 1/250th sync in my setup. I use them outdoors all the time. No issues. In fact, I highly recommend this setup for outdoor portraits.</p>

[szrimaging]

<p>After looking at your setup for triggering, did you have a secure connection for the skyports to the SB900? Could the flashes be firing slower due to the extra level of communication needed? Does the sync speed of a SB900 change when not using CLS?</p>

[michael_c18]

<p>Zach: the connection to the SB900's PC port <em>was</em> loose; the photographer I was borrowing the Skyports from said he usually wraps the cord around the flash to keep it from coming out. So a somewhat-loose connection could cause sync issues? I figured it might make the flash not fire, but since the flash was firing I figured the slight loose connection wasn't an issue. As far as the sync speed of an SB-900 when not using CLS, I'm not sure. I do know that when used on-camera there are no problems shooting at 1/250th.</p>

[szrimaging]

<p>Yes, the loose connection can cause all kinds of problems. It could not only stop from firing, but it could cause them to randomly trigger. That said, your issues seem to be either that they didn't trigger or that there was a slow down in the sync. Not sure a loose sync cable would cause a slower sync. Could be wrong on that though.</p>

<p>Just curious, did you allow enough time between shots for the flashes to fully cycle?</p>

[michael_c18]

<p>Yeah, they had enough time to cycle. One really odd thing is that the amount of the sync error wasn't consistent. That is, above 1/160th, different amounts of the frame would be darker on different shots (ranging from maybe 1/4 of the frame dark, to only a narrow strip <em>not</em> being dark), even though the shutter speed and everything else were unchanged. To me, that's the most puzzling thing about it.</p>

[szrimaging]

<p>I'm placing money on the sync cables. If they are getting hit by wind, it culd have caused them to have small movements, and maybe they were passing in and out of proper connection, so when they were triggering, they were triggering later than they should have been. Just a thought.</p>

<p>Skyports do seem to have a bit of a problem when the battery on the sending unit gets low. But overall, they have been pretty consistent for me.</p>

[michael_c18]

<p>Okay, thanks! I figured this had to be unusual behavior, since the Skyports seem generally well-regarded, but I wanted to double-check. I'll chalk it up as a bad cable or maybe weak batteries.</p>