Triggering an external flash with the Nikon 1 ?

One thing BUGS me: I thought I could wirelessly trigger my SB-800 or Elinchrom studio flash with the on-board flash of my J1, but it seems that the external flashes fire with a slight delay, which of course is longer than the 1/60 that the Nikon 1 uses !

Is there a way to make the external flashes fire EXACTLY at the same time as the J1 onboard one ?


J-P.

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I have a V1 so the actual setup may be slightly different for your J1

My daughter-in-law and I had two optically-triggered slave strobes (my SB800 and one of hers, brand unknown) placed a two the corners of the room.

Set the SB800 to SU4.

Set the SB800 Mode to "M" and the power level to some appropriate value. (If the SB800 is left in mode "A" it appears to fire on any pre-flash from the V1/J1.)

I had the V1 set to Manual, ISO400, f/5.6 and very low power setting for the SB-N5.

I have not found a way to trigger the SB800 in a setting where the ambient light is changing.

I asked this same question in your other thread before i saw this one. I'm hoping someone can recommend an inexpensive slave unit that will let me trigger my old SB24. I don't do this often enough to warrant buying a new flash. Thanks.

LOL....

While you were writing you post above, I was busy answering your post in the other thread...

I hope we'll find a solution... The first one who find one inform the other, ok ?


J-P.

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Robert Peters said:

I have a V1 so the actual setup may be slightly different for your J1

My daughter-in-law and I had two optically-triggered slave strobes (my SB800 and one of hers, brand unknown) placed a two the corners of the room.
Set the SB800 to SU4.

Set the SB800 Mode to "M" and the power level to some appropriate value. (If the SB800 is left in mode "A" it appears to fire on any pre-flash from the V1/J1.)

I had the V1 set to Manual, ISO400, f/5.6 and very low power setting for the SB-N5.

I have not found a way to trigger the SB800 in a setting where the ambient light is changing.

Click to expand...

Hi Robert !

Thanks for answering ! I will try with my SB-800 -which sits in a draw, with my D700 -, but in fact I misspelled the flash I tried to use with the Ji ! It was indeed a SB-80DX that I normally use joined to my Elinchrom, for studio shots with the D700 !

Unfortunately I don't remember if the SB-80DX has the same settings -SU4 for exemple- as the SB-800, but I know it works 100% wirelessly ! Anyway, I will try to fin an old user manual and check...


J-P.

--
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JP Scherrer said:

One thing BUGS me: I thought I could wirelessly trigger my SB-800 or Elinchrom studio flash with the on-board flash of my J1, but it seems that the external flashes fire with a slight delay, which of course is longer than the 1/60 that the Nikon 1 uses !

Is there a way to make the external flashes fire EXACTLY at the same time as the J1 onboard one ?

Click to expand...

J1 is more tricky to use with external slaves than V1, because the build-in flash in J1 can't be set to manual mode, so it always use pre-flash to measure flash exposure. External slaves gets trigged by this pre-flash and therefore flashes too early if you can't set a delay on the external flash or slave trigger.

V1 is much easier - just set V1 flash to manual output 1/16 (or more depending on distance to external flash) and the external SB-800 to SU-4 mode with manual output adjusted to the subject distance, aperture and ISO used.

SB-700, SB-800, SB-900, SB-910 has the build-in slave-sensor, but SB-600 don't.

Rob Galbraith has an excellent description in his J1/V1 review (2/3 down the page).
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-11666-11988-12052

Regards
Ole Thorsen
http://www.pbase.com/ole_thorsen

OMNISCIENCE
Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.
(Grook by Piet Hein)

There are several flashes and optical triggers out now that allow you to set the number of preflashes to ignore to and sync to the main flash only.

--
-------David-------

That sounds like exactly what I need. Do you have any specific recommendations?

Octane said:

There are several flashes and optical triggers out now that allow you to set the number of preflashes to ignore to and sync to the main flash only.

Click to expand...

Hi David !

Great to learn that !

Now it would be even better if you could give some more details, eg. WHICH FLASH can do that !?!

TIA,
J-P.

Photo Galeries at http://www.pbase.com/scherrer
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Try this “Preflash NULL Optical Slave Trigger” from Colinsfoto.

http://www.colinsfoto.com/-Preflash_NULL_Optical_Slave_Trigger/p43950_311598.aspx

I’ve bought an optical slave from Colin to trigger a Canon flash with my S90, which works flawlessly
--
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Hi I'm new to the forum, and I know that this is an old post but I thought some users would like to know that I am successfully triggering external strobes with my Nikon J-1 with a product called Seagull SKY-5 Wireless Remote Flash slave. It can be purchased on amazon. It is a light sensor trigger not an IR but it does the trick of delaying the flash and not firing during the pre-flash.

Please don't disappoint for this , for I had make my sb29 into work with 1/64 power only .So believe that, you will see the similar thing on Ebay.

Never the less , I make it with wireless . You shall see it.

Emir (Taiwan)