SB-800 Problem (Quick techie question).

Hey everyone. I have been getting into skate shots recently, and have been using my Dad's SB-800. I am having a problem, though. When I try to fire it off camera as a slave to the onboard D50 flash, it doesn't work unless I am 1/2 or even 1/4 power in Manual. I really need full power for some of these shots. The flash fires, but it always ends up missing the frame, either shooting earlier or later, I can't tell.

Anyone know whats up?

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Unfortunately the D50 wont controll the sb800 wirelessly off camera. You will need to use a remote cable like this one to controll the flash off camera. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=details_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=300477&is=REG&addedTroughType=accessory_detail&addedTroughValue=300467_USA

Incorrect. If the SB-800 is in SU mode it will act as a slave to pretty much ANY flash. However I-TTL is completely lost and conditions must be set in manual.

As far as the original post, I know when I had my D50 and was using my friends SB800, I only got about 4 out of 6 fires. Im thinking the sensor is just not that sensitive and gets confused easy(Like from the residual flash of itself when fired and high power)

bobcat3610 said:

Unfortunately the D50 wont controll the sb800 wirelessly off
camera. You will need to use a remote cable like this one to
controll the flash off camera.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=details_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=300477&is=REG&addedTroughType=accessory_detail&addedTroughValue=300467_USA

Click to expand...

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Thats not really my problem. I have no issues controlling it off camera, I have done it in two scenarios now. I just always need to have my onboard flash on. I am using SU-4 Mode.
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http://www.pbase.com/connorroelke
Feel free to comment anything! It's always apreciated.

Fantazm beat me to it.

Are you saying that you only got the Sb-800 to fire 4 out of 6 times at full power, or at all using that mode?
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Some of my photography...

http://www.pbase.com/connorroelke
Feel free to comment anything! It's always apreciated.

At all. No matter what the power was set on. Of course this was just a quick "goof-off" session. There could have been many factors influencing this.
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If TTL is completely lost and the flash only fires 4 out of every 6 trys I would hardly call that "controlling" the flash off camera.

Connor,

I think what may be happening is that SB800 is triggered by the pre-flashes of your D50, rather than the main flash. To avoid that, set the D50 flash to manual mode (1/16 power works fine) and the SB800 to the SU4 mode. If you prefer to use the D50 flash in auto, use the Flash Value Lock to set the exposure (this will trigger the SB800 with the pre-flashes), wait a few seconds to allow the SB800 to recharge, and then take your picture.

Hope this helps.

Connor Roelke said:

Hey everyone. I have been getting into skate shots recently, and
have been using my Dad's SB-800. I am having a problem, though.
When I try to fire it off camera as a slave to the onboard D50
flash, it doesn't work unless I am 1/2 or even 1/4 power in Manual.
I really need full power for some of these shots. The flash fires,
but it always ends up missing the frame, either shooting earlier or
later, I can't tell.

Anyone know whats up?

--
Some of my photography...

http://www.pbase.com/connorroelke
Feel free to comment anything! It's always apreciated.

Click to expand...

Connor Roelke said:

Hey everyone. I have been getting into skate shots recently, and
have been using my Dad's SB-800. I am having a problem, though.
When I try to fire it off camera as a slave to the onboard D50
flash, it doesn't work unless I am 1/2 or even 1/4 power in Manual.
I really need full power for some of these shots. The flash fires,
but it always ends up missing the frame, either shooting earlier or
later, I can't tell.

Anyone know whats up?

Click to expand...

What mode is the D50 flash set to? Manual? If not manual, it will be firing its pre-flash which will trigger the SB800 in SU4 mode, and then the SB800 won't have enough time to recycle and be ready to fire when the D50's exposure flash fires a moment later.

larsbc

I concur with all of the other poster here as you need to have the d50's flash set to manual and set at minumum power if you don't want it to contribute much to the exposure. However: have you checked the batteries on the flash? When it's in remote mode and manual power it will only fire if it has the charge to do so. I suspect you need a new set as you mentioned it was firing at 1/2 and 1/4 power but not full. Check the ready light on the back of the flash; if it's not on the flash will not fire. Aslo the flash will give a little beep when it's ready. Hope this helps.
Cheers Peter
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I had no clue about any of that, and it all helped a lot! (Except I knew about the flash recycling and the beep, I get some credit, don't I?) I will try it out and see how it works.

Thanks so much!

--
Some of my photography...

http://www.pbase.com/connorroelke
Feel free to comment anything! It's always apreciated.

bobcat3610 said:

If TTL is completely lost and the flash only fires 4 out of every 6
trys I would hardly call that "controlling" the flash off camera.

Click to expand...

Well if you Set the SB-800 to SU-4 A (Auto) mode, the flash will turn off and on insync with your i-TTL prefires and you wont have miss fires. The only problem is that you will drain your batteries badly. You can also try Flash Value lock to avoid the preflashes which is the cause of mis firing in SU-4 mode.
http://nickmjr.smugmug.com/
Nick M

Exactly. What you say is correct.

The flash is not "confused" as some have speculated.

And the most likely reason for some intermittent success at low power settings is that the SB-800 is firing in response to the pre-flashes and then quickly re-cycling and firing again with the main flash.

This is something I experienced when testing various off-camera, optically triggered flash scenarios. I was testing the response of my SB-26s using the "D" (delay) mode. The SB-800 does not have this switch, by the way.

At low power settings, Nikon speedlights can re-cycle very quickly and this capability produced some confusing test results until I realized what what was going on.

At higher power settings, the flash takes longer to re-cycle and therefore doesn't have time to fire twice in such a short period of time.

As you point out, the answer is to control the preflashes.

Bob
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