Pro advice please - SB800 problems

I am experiencing an unusual problem. I use a 2 light set up if flash is required. I have 1-D2x and 2-D300's alternating the entire wedding day with 2 SB800's. One of the SB800's stays on camera as a master and one off camera as a slave.

Last October, I noticed that the flashes were firing but the images were not getting exposed or were horribly under-exposed. It was almost as though the flash and camera were out of sync. I replaced the batteries and alternated camera bodies but nothing changed. After the wedding, I did several tests and determined that the master flash was only exposing properly on 1 out of 5 flashes.

I sent the master flash into Nikon for repair. It was expensive and Nikon replaced the flash tube and flash foot. About two weeks ago, the same thing happened again at a wedding. The flash would fire but the exposure was bad. After each shot the red light on the back of the camera flashes repeatedly.

The SB800 is at Nikon again and I am waiting for it to return. This time the repair is under warranty. The flash is about three years old.

Have any of you experienced this?????????

One more thing - My meta data is all over the place. On two equally exposed shots, one shot says, "flash fired" and the next one says "return light detected" then the next one may say "flash did not fire"

While not as pronounced as your's I've had similar inconsistencies with my D2x/SB800 combination only - not slaved... I had imagined it was just a greatly overused flash unit for me - it has seen a tremendous amount of work (3.5yrs)! Had a friend who got an SB800 when I did, and their unit just died... I don't use flash in critical ceremony shots (CA, outdoor weddings)

(I'm assuming that you are not spot metering...and...sometimes TTL is a bit chunky when extraneous light)

Probably a good question for Thom - hope he stops by to help.

I just upgraded to the D3 and SB900...and it's smooth sailing so far...(a monster leap in technology over the D2x/SB800 really - I am stunned)

Best, Jack

Sorry to hear about your problems with the SB800.

I have changed fron SB800's to SB900's and am very pleased that I did.

The money you are spending getting the SB800 repaired and the anxiety you are having about whether you photos are going to be good or not is well worth the price of SB900's
--
Philip

What are your settings? Make sure you do not have partial power dialed in and I'm sure you know to keep your shutter speed below 1/250. FP mode with higher shutter speeds drastically reduce the range. Do not use TTL/BL indoors.

Hi Greg,

I had the exact same problem with an SB800 almost three years ago. The Norwegian repair center did a thorough test of the unit and concluded that it was "probably" the electronics that had problems. Being an electronic engineer myself, I believe they were correct in their assumption. But they were not 100% sure and unable to pinpoint the exact cause for the problem, so, since the unit was less than 2 years old (we have two years warranties here in Norway), they gave me a new one and the problem was solved.

If I were you, I would be nervous of any repair that does not include a complete exchange of the electronics.

Good luck.

Regards

Erik

Thanks everyone for your input. I received the flash back from Nikon today with a letter that says:

"We are unable to reproduce your results. The flash has been inspected and is working to factory specifications"

Chk Flashfoot
Chk Flash Tube
Chk Connections
Cleaned and Inspected
• NO PROBLEM FOUND NO REDO

So, in other words, they found and did nothing. What do I do? I guess I will just keep using it and send it in everytime it does this. Maybe it will just completely break.

One more thing:

While this SB800 flash was being repaired, I dusted off my trusty Vivitar 285's and Radio Slave system. I photographed a wedding on April 18th. Perfect, beautiful, consistent, f4,f4,f4 everytime, everyshot. I took 1,700 shots with the 285's all on 4 - AA's per flash.

This much performance from a $79 flash makes me wonder why I even need the SB800. Best part, if I drop it or it breaks, I go get me another $79 Vivtar 285.

--Are you setting this to ITTL and are you sure both fire??? ITTL is after all a AUTO interpretation of a flash metering and has nothing to do whit what you desire. To eliminate a one think that you suspecting that they fire but not synching whit camera just set them on full manual mode with a hand held meter one at a time shot look at exposure and then set second flash and see if they do what they so pose. If they do in manual than your problems are from not fully understanding ITTL.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

You did not state whether the problem was with the one strobe only on the one camera or that the strobe problems appeared with the same strobe on multiple cameras. With a single strobe and a single camera the problem can be in the camera's flash module. I had that problem with a D200 that was exacerbated by using one of the Fong dong things which added a lot of leveraged weight and did not help. I got the D200 repaired for no charge by Nikon and back in 3 days (thanks in part to NPS status) and got rid of the Fong diffuser which is really a very poor design anyway.

The SB800 with iTTL using different pins than the Vivitar. In general if you want consistent flash exposures it is best to set the camera manually for the ambient light exposure desired and then have the camera on TTL BL or AA depending upon the situation and adjusting the flash EV for the amount of fill you want. In some situations, as in shooting outdoors at night, an AA mode strobe setting will produce the most consistent results.

These are all things that are best tested BEFORE the wedding.

calson said:

You did not state whether the problem was with the one strobe only on
the one camera or that the strobe problems appeared with the same
strobe on multiple cameras.

Click to expand...

Actually, I did indicate that I am alternating this flash on three cameras and the problem exists with all three cameras.

calson said:

These are all things that are best tested BEFORE the wedding.

Click to expand...

That is true. Please notice that these shots are at the reception which is actually during the last 1/3 of the wedding day. The problem did not occur until the reception.

btw - I am using the Stophen Omn-bounce that came with the flash.

Mironv said:

--Are you setting this to ITTL and are you sure both fire??? ITTL is
after all a AUTO interpretation of a flash metering and has nothing
to do whit what you desire. To eliminate a one think that you
suspecting that they fire but not synching whit camera just set them
on full manual mode with a hand held meter one at a time shot look at
exposure and then set second flash and see if they do what they so
pose. If they do in manual than your problems are from not fully
understanding ITTL.

Click to expand...

I have been using two SB800's on iTTL for over two years now. They both fire. This setup has worked. Please notice the inconsistent readings and exposure on the contact sheet.

Imagine working all day with the same set-up, then for no un-explained reason, you start getting black, dark images in a random fashion. Adjusting flash compensation doesn't work because when the flash decides to fire at full power, the shot is ruined.

--I Think you are bumping the Fn button (function) and setting your flash to FV (flash value)on the D200 set this button to --maybe spot metering and on the D700 turn it off--- you will find in the menu under the dials changing good luck