built in off camera flash

Way back when my nikon D70 had built in off camera flash… you did not need flash triggers … that never worked in my experience.

Is this standard now ? If not, which camera systems have it?

Thanks

I don't use it but I think at least Canon and Olympus have this... so others will probably have it, too. On my Olympus I have some settings to control 3 groups of off-camera flashes. I do not know if it works with radio or IR; These systems are always proprietary .

I use Godox instead of brand-specific, because I can get more flashes for my money and also different types. I does require an extra Godox controller on top of the camera.

rogercanon5D2 said:

Way back when my nikon D70 had built in off camera flash… you did not need flash triggers … that never worked in my experience.

Is this standard now ? If not, which camera systems have it?

Thanks

Click to expand...

The Nikon D70's pop-up flash had a Commander mode to remotely control a compatible off-camera flash (SB-600 or SB800). Commander mode used the pop-up flash to fire a short burst of flashes to send TTL instructions to the off-camera flash.

The generic term is optical-based wireless flash (or something like it). It's pretty good for someone just starting out with off-camera flash but it does have shortcomings.

IIRC, every brand has optical wireless flash but only in their enthusiast-level camera models. For some models without a pop-up flash, you have to buy a small compatible flash to act as a Commander.

Today, the price of radio-based flash triggers has dropped a lot and they work pretty well. There are simple manual radio triggers (example) and much more sophisticated radio TTL triggers that are built right into the flash itself (example).

I just find trigger and receiver pairs another point of weakness if you are an occasional photographer …. are they both charged … are they making viable contacts … or are they not working for some other unknowable reason … I gave up using them they were unreliable …

The D7100, D7200 and D750 built in flashes all work in “Commander Mode” to control off-camera flash units. The Z50 does not have that mode unfortunately.

Optically controlled remote has given way to radio controlled remote flash triggering for many reasons, range and reliability among them.

If Nikon’s radio system seems expensive then Yongnuo and Godox make workable systems for much less.

Todays “Eneloop” style rechargeable batteries hold their charge for many months without use. This reduces the occurrence of dead batteries when you need them the most.

if you have not tried a modern radio flash controller, you should. I find their usefulness and reliability to far exceed the old optical style.

There is no argument against the convenience of the Commander Mode on a built in flash though.