michaeladawson
Forum Pro
Was hoping to get some input from this forum on my experience of the wireless capabilities of the Di866.
I recently received my 866 with the intent of using it with 2 Nikon SB-800 flashes in Nikon's AWL mode (CLS). I mainly use a D3 so one of these three flashes will be connected to the camera as the commander with the other two as remote.
With the 866 on camera as the commander everything worked perfectly. I would say 100%, no failures, in the limited testing I did over the weekend. I was shooting mostly manual flash with the 866 commander set to OFF (---) and the 2 SB-800 remote units dialed in appropriately on the 866, something like 1/4 to 1/8 power. All flashes fired every time.
Things did not work so well with the Nissin 866 set up as one of the remotes with an SB-800 serving as commander on-camera. The 866 would not reliably fire. The other SB-800 remote ALWAYS fired.
Sometimes the 866 would fire 10 times in a row. Sometimes I could go away for half an hour, pick up the D3 and fire a shot and the 866 would fire as well. Sometimes the 866 would not fire at all until I aimed the camera (and commander flash) directly at the 866 and snapped a shot. Then the 866 would fire normally again for a few more shots until it would decide to quite again.
The 866 was very sensitive to where I stood with the camera. Whereas the SB-800 remote would fire even if I went into the next room with no direct line of site, just an open door for the pre-flash light to shine through.
Next I pulled out my D200 and put the pop-up flash in commander mode. With the commander set to OFF (---), but the pre-flashes still on, I got somewhat better results, but still not great. So I turned the D200 commander flash on manual at 1/128 power. NOW, the Nissin fired every time. I could even walk the D200 slightly into the next room, fire, and the 866 would fire. I couldn't get as far away into the next room and have the 866 fire as compared with the SB-800. But not bad.
So I went back to the D3 and set the SB-800 on-camera in commander mode with a manual setting of 1/128 power. The other SB-800 and the 866 were set up as remotes in manual mode. It still didn't work reliably. I think it worked better than it did with the commander flash set to OFF (----), but still was extremely unreliable.
One other thing... even when the Nissin flash fails to fire you can watch the two red lights on the front of the unit flash quickly when you trip the shutter. Every time. I take that as a sign that the Nissin is receiving the pre-flash signals, but is failing to fire for some reason.
This is a lengthy post, but can anyone offer any suggestions? All is not lost as the 866 works perfectly as a commander flash on-camera. But I would like to know if others have experienced what I have. And if so, is a firmware update forthcoming?
--
Mike Dawson
I recently received my 866 with the intent of using it with 2 Nikon SB-800 flashes in Nikon's AWL mode (CLS). I mainly use a D3 so one of these three flashes will be connected to the camera as the commander with the other two as remote.
With the 866 on camera as the commander everything worked perfectly. I would say 100%, no failures, in the limited testing I did over the weekend. I was shooting mostly manual flash with the 866 commander set to OFF (---) and the 2 SB-800 remote units dialed in appropriately on the 866, something like 1/4 to 1/8 power. All flashes fired every time.
Things did not work so well with the Nissin 866 set up as one of the remotes with an SB-800 serving as commander on-camera. The 866 would not reliably fire. The other SB-800 remote ALWAYS fired.
Sometimes the 866 would fire 10 times in a row. Sometimes I could go away for half an hour, pick up the D3 and fire a shot and the 866 would fire as well. Sometimes the 866 would not fire at all until I aimed the camera (and commander flash) directly at the 866 and snapped a shot. Then the 866 would fire normally again for a few more shots until it would decide to quite again.
The 866 was very sensitive to where I stood with the camera. Whereas the SB-800 remote would fire even if I went into the next room with no direct line of site, just an open door for the pre-flash light to shine through.
Next I pulled out my D200 and put the pop-up flash in commander mode. With the commander set to OFF (---), but the pre-flashes still on, I got somewhat better results, but still not great. So I turned the D200 commander flash on manual at 1/128 power. NOW, the Nissin fired every time. I could even walk the D200 slightly into the next room, fire, and the 866 would fire. I couldn't get as far away into the next room and have the 866 fire as compared with the SB-800. But not bad.
So I went back to the D3 and set the SB-800 on-camera in commander mode with a manual setting of 1/128 power. The other SB-800 and the 866 were set up as remotes in manual mode. It still didn't work reliably. I think it worked better than it did with the commander flash set to OFF (----), but still was extremely unreliable.
One other thing... even when the Nissin flash fails to fire you can watch the two red lights on the front of the unit flash quickly when you trip the shutter. Every time. I take that as a sign that the Nissin is receiving the pre-flash signals, but is failing to fire for some reason.
This is a lengthy post, but can anyone offer any suggestions? All is not lost as the 866 works perfectly as a commander flash on-camera. But I would like to know if others have experienced what I have. And if so, is a firmware update forthcoming?
--
Mike Dawson
