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Really need some help with my SB800..

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fuggy said:
I pulled the flash off of the hotshoe and connected it via cable
adapter. Put it in red eye auto, and fired a shot. I get 3
preflashes and then as the shutter releases I get another flash,
seemingly with perfect synch time. But, same result. I am assuming
that the 4th flash is also a preflash?
Click to expand...
You are correct, the 4th flash is a preflash. Any flash not recorded in your picture is a preflash, either red eye reduction or to measure exposure. Any flash that happens when the shutter is open will be recorded in your picture. I think at this point it is safe to assume that your camera is broken.
 
I had not done a hard reset of the camera yet, only a menu reset, so I had hope that this may work, but still, nothing.

--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
the 2 second photo and hand fired flash worked. I have not seen any kind of strobe setting. What is that?

--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
Okay, just making sure :)
--

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” -Dorothea Lange
 
fuggy said:
I had not done a hard reset of the camera yet, only a menu reset, so
I had hope that this may work, but still, nothing.
Click to expand...
One more test you could do is to use the SB-800 in SU-4 mode - see page 84 of the SB-800.

You would then hold the SB-800 in your hand (or in a stand) in front of the D50 and fire the SB-800 using the flash of the built-in flash of the D50.

I am almost positive that this must work correctly, but is only a last resort solution.
This is in fact the poor man's wireless flash solution with a D50/SB-800 combo.

I could be wrong, but I still suspect an electrical problem between the hot-shoe contacts on the D50 and the SB-800.

Take your D50 to the shop and try to make it work there with any other flash unit.
Possibly they could even check out the hot-shoe on your D50.

Marco
 
that it is a harware issue and not user error :P I think the poor man's way of doing this would defeat the purpose but it is worth a try.

--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
Basically put sb in front of me on a table in su mode and my built in flash triggered it. I took a picture of the flash head on to see if I could catch the light and no luck. So, if I do not capture the flash when it fires off of the camera does that rule out hot shoe issue? If it is out of sync while on AND off of the camera shouldn't that really narrow this to a shutter sync problem?



--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
fuggy said:
that it is a harware issue and not user error :P I think the poor
man's way of doing this would defeat the purpose but it is worth a
try.
Click to expand...
Well, I have already used my SB-800 in SU-4 mode just to avoid ugly shadows by pointing the SB-800 in my hand at the object in question, because there are actually two flashes firing, the built-in D50 flash and the SB-800.

You can use the supplied SB-800 stand to take your pictures for Christmas in the meantime, until you get the D50 sorted out correctly.

Marco
 
fuggy said:
Basically put sb in front of me on a table in su mode and my built in
flash triggered it. I took a picture of the flash head on to see if
I could catch the light and no luck. So, if I do not capture the
flash when it fires off of the camera does that rule out hot shoe
issue?
Click to expand...
From your picture it doesn't look like your SB-800 fired at all.

If you are sure that your SB-800 actually fired and it can't be seen in the photo, then I am at a loss for words.

Unless someone else wants to chime in here, the best bet will be to take your D50 to the shop and see with the folks there if they can work out a solution.

Marco
 
Oh, it definitely fired! Thought it was a good idea until I nearly lost my sight for 5 minutes :P I too am at a loss and I really thank all you good people for trying to help. The good news is, I now know every aspect of my SB800, just wish I could use it :-(

I will take it back to the shop after the holiday when they are not so busy and then maybe they will be cordial enough to help a loyal customer, rather than the screw-you-your-on-your-own attitude.

Thanks again everybody and Merry Christmas to you and yours.

--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
I think it may be off by a millisecond. When I take a picture in the mirror I watch the aperture close and it looks almost instantaneous.

--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
fuggy said:
I think it may be off by a millisecond. When I take a picture in the
mirror I watch the aperture close and it looks almost instantaneous.
Click to expand...
When you take pictures with the built-in flash of the D50, does that always work satisfactorily?

Marco
 
That's because it doesn't have one. :-) The D70 and D80 have Commander Modes, though (D80 can control 2 zones independently). But, just to clarify in case any D70/D80 owners are reading, the popup flash does NOT fire while the shutter is open during Commander Mode. It fires the communication sequence before the shutter opens. If you take a picture in front of a mirror it will be plainly obvious. You will see the flash, but it is minimal and not enough light to illuminate anything else. I believe the light you do see from the popup flash is just from the flash still decaying out, not from an energized flash.

--Will
------

 
If you press mode a couple of time it will switch from TTL to RPT. There you can tell how many flashes you want and at what interval they should be fired.
It should test if the camera actually triggers the flash.

You'd also have to put your camera into some f/11 and 2-3 second exposure mode.

Basically though, I think your camera is faulty or maybe the contacts not working properly.

--
http://donandre.ipernity.com
 
Hi All,

Well, took the camera back to the camera shop today and the guy behind the camera insisted that it was working properly. Told him about the tests that I put it through and he said shooting into a mirror will not capture the flash, hmmmmmmmm. Took the speed light off of the camera and asked him to hold it. I then fired off an onboard flash to trigger the remote. It fired and I showed him the picture, no flash. He kept insisting that those testing methods do not mean anything. I had my 50mm f 1.8 lens on and he kept taking pictures and showing me that they were properly exposed. I said look, here is a simple test that you cannot argue with. Go into that bathroom over there, turn off all of the lights and take a picture of the room. Then come and show me how good it is working. He did and came back with a black piture. Only then did he begin to listen and do some testing with different cameras, looking at settings, etc. He finally conceeded that their was a problem with the camera.

Bottom line, the camera is going back to Nikon and it will cost about $200 and 4 weeks to fix. He recommended a local shop so I took it there first. The guy there was so cool to spend so much time with me, literally an hour doing all kinds of tests. He checked everything, did some cool exposure tests that I had never seen, and came to the conslusion that it was out of synch and only Nikon could fix it.

The good news, I am not stupid :P

Thank you all for the help. I have to say, the repair guy was so impressed at all the things that I told him that I did to diagnose the problem that he jokingly offered me a job. I credited the kind and knowledgable folks on dpreview.com and he smiled and said "yeah, that is a very good group to turn to..."

--
Gymnastics Dad with a Camera.

Nikon D50
Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF
Nikon 18-55mm AF-S DX
Nikon 70-300mm Zoom
SB800 Speedlight
Manfrotto Tripod

And lest we forget my trusty Panny FZ50!

http://public.fotki.com/fugfuggy/
 
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