Question about the Nikon SB600 flash

[francis]

I have found out that the SB600 can't strobe, which is a pity but not such a big deal really.

What I can't work out tho, is wheather it is possible to trigger the flash remotely without having to make the flash on the camera go pop? I tried setting the built in flash to "--" in the commander mode settings, but that didn't help. I could of course put something over it, but that would be a hassle. If anybody knows how to solve this I would be very grateful!

Francis

 

[antmcc]

That I am aware of, (and of course I'll surely be proved wrong), but the on-board flash doesn't (significantly) contribute to the exposure when in commender mode. When I've used mine underground, the onboard flash hasn't made any (noticable) effect to my pictures, I think if you use an sb800 on board as commender you can get it to contribute to the exposure or not.

I expect the best real test is to trigger in a dark place with the subject backlit with your sb600. if your subject is white (or better still reflective) then you'll see if the contribution from the on-board is significant enough to matter. perhaps you have a willing buddy who caves in a hi-viz waistcoat?

 

[francis]

I tested using the onboard flash in TTL mode together with the SB600 in TTL mode and shining the SB600 away from the subject. This gave me a perfectly exposed shot. I then put the onboard flash in "--" mode and kept the SB600 in TTL mode. The subject was then under exposed. It appears that even tho it flashes, it doesn't contribute (in any case very little) to the exposure.

Thanks!

Francis

 

[Andrew W]

If you use the camera's inbuilt flash in commander mode it doesn't have any noticeable effect on exposure unless the subject is very close to the flash. What is of more concern doing it this way is that the burst of light that commander mode gives could still have a fogging effect if there is a lot of moisture in the air.

I initially experimented with using the wireless TTL (commander mode) underground. I used a separate commander unit (more on that below) rather than the inbuilt flash but found that the strobe had to be within sight of the camera to fire which was pretty useless for most of the lighting setups I wanted to try. Hence I shifted to using a firefly with the flash in manual mode.

To set off the firefly I used the popup flash in the camera (I have a D70s) with an infrared filter. The filter I use is not a crappy bit of film over the flash but instead attaches to the hot shoe. It came with the nikon close up flash kit which is a really excellent bit of kit if you like closeup photograhy. The close up kit comes with a commander unit (SU800) that only fires infrared (no visible light) which eliminates the fraction of a second delay you'll notice you get in commander mode but as mentioned above isn't very good underground. The infrared filter, on the other hand works a treat. Not sure if you can buy them separately but I expect an email to Nikon would find out. Nikon describe it as SG-31R IR Panel for Built-In Flash.

I put the inbuilt flash into manual mode when using this. It then fires one burst rather than the multiple flashes you get in commander mode before the main flash, which means you can get away with using a firefly 2 rather than the more expensive firefly 3.

Have fun playing with it and post some pictures 

 

[francis]

Thanks a lot!

I will try and get som underground shots this weekend and maybe next week. If any of them come out OK I will post them here

Francis

 

[antmcc]

To set off the firefly I used the popup flash in the camera (I have a D70s) with an infrared filter. The filter I use is not a crappy bit of film over the flash but instead attaches to the hot shoe. It came with the nikon close up flash kit which is a really excellent bit of kit if you like closeup photograhy. The close up kit comes with a commander unit (SU800) that only fires infrared (no visible light) which eliminates the fraction of a second delay you'll notice you get in commander mode but as mentioned above isn't very good underground. The infrared filter, on the other hand works a treat. Not sure if you can buy them separately but I expect an email to Nikon would find out. Nikon describe it as SG-31R IR Panel for Built-In Flash.

Thanks for the tip Andrew , I'd tried the slide film trick, but I think I might get one of these though I couldn't find anyone selling it under the reference you mention, but changing the 1 to an I (for IR) brought me back a couple of suppliers, e.g. http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/prod.asp?i=16750

I'm guessing I've already seen some of your results in your link on the other page , so the setup you're using obviously works.