Auto Focus Assist Lamp and SB80

[Jeff Surofsky]

I have the SB80 flash, when i use it with or without the sc-17 sync cord, the auto focus assist lamp does NOT work. Is there a setting that I missed on the sb80?

It is set to ON in the cameras menu.

thanks

 

[Jeff Surofsky]

forgot to say, I have the Nikon D100. thanks

jeff

I have the SB80 flash, when i use it with or without the sc-17 sync
cord, the auto focus assist lamp does NOT work. Is there a setting
that I missed on the sb80?

It is set to ON in the cameras menu.

thanks

 

[Tom Weber2]

jeff

I have the SB80 flash, when i use it with or without the sc-17 sync
cord, the auto focus assist lamp does NOT work. Is there a setting
that I missed on the sb80?

It is set to ON in the cameras menu.

thanks

Jeff,

There is also a setting on the flash to enable the AF assist lamp. I discovered the same thing last night. In custom settings it's the second item that comes up. Believe it or not you set it to "NO AF-ILL". I got this by trial and error.

Hope that helps.

Tom

--
St. Louis, Missouri
equipment is in my plan
http://www.pbase.com/tweber
http://web.valuenet.net/tweber

 

[Sergio Subrizi]

A very helpfull info.
can you please explain where did you find that option ? (i mean which menu ?

thank you

jeff

I have the SB80 flash, when i use it with or without the sc-17 sync
cord, the auto focus assist lamp does NOT work. Is there a setting
that I missed on the sb80?

It is set to ON in the cameras menu.

thanks

Jeff,

There is also a setting on the flash to enable the AF assist lamp.
I discovered the same thing last night. In custom settings it's the
second item that comes up. Believe it or not you set it to "NO
AF-ILL". I got this by trial and error.

Hope that helps.

Tom

--
St. Louis, Missouri
equipment is in my plan
http://www.pbase.com/tweber
http://web.valuenet.net/tweber

 

[Johnny Stenback]

[...]

There is also a setting on the flash to enable the AF assist lamp.
I discovered the same thing last night. In custom settings it's the
second item that comes up. Believe it or not you set it to "NO
AF-ILL". I got this by trial and error.

Then there's apparently different SB-80DXes out there. With the one I've got, the AF assist lamp (the red one) does not turn on when AF-ILL is set to "NO". Mine's about a month old.

Johnny

 

[DRodey]

The way I understand it is that the camera has to be set in single focus mode for the assist light to operate. If the camera is on continuos mode it will not function. My SB-80 does not use the camera body focus assist light as it has a built in IR on the front of the flash. Step in to a dark room and look throught the lens, touch the shutter release and you should see a coiuple of verticle red bars in the center. That is the focus assist from the sb-80.

There is also a setting on the flash to enable the AF assist lamp.
I discovered the same thing last night. In custom settings it's the
second item that comes up. Believe it or not you set it to "NO
AF-ILL". I got this by trial and error.

Then there's apparently different SB-80DXes out there. With the one
I've got, the AF assist lamp (the red one) does not turn on when
AF-ILL is set to "NO". Mine's about a month old.

Johnny

--
http://www.Rodenroth.com

 

[Tom Weber2]

The way I understand it is that the camera has to be set in single
focus mode for the assist light to operate. If the camera is on
continuos mode it will not function. My SB-80 does not use the
camera body focus assist light as it has a built in IR on the front
of the flash. Step in to a dark room and look throught the lens,
touch the shutter release and you should see a coiuple of verticle
red bars in the center. That is the focus assist from the sb-80.

Re my earlier post, I am obviously wrong and D Rodenroth has the right answer. Sorry if I mislead anyone.

Tom

 

[Jeff Surofsky]

So let me just see if I get what you are saying.. if the auto focus assist lamp is set to ON in the camera, AND I hook up the SB80, the red bars act as the assist lamp. (thus overriding the cameras assist for the flash's assist). If I turne off the flashs assist, then the cameras assist will work?

How do I get into the menu to change this setting? I seem to have misplaced my sb80 manual!

thanks

jeff

I have the SB80 flash, when i use it with or without the sc-17 sync
cord, the auto focus assist lamp does NOT work. Is there a setting
that I missed on the sb80?

It is set to ON in the cameras menu.

thanks

Jeff,

There is also a setting on the flash to enable the AF assist lamp.
I discovered the same thing last night. In custom settings it's the
second item that comes up. Believe it or not you set it to "NO
AF-ILL". I got this by trial and error.

Hope that helps.

Tom

--
St. Louis, Missouri
equipment is in my plan
http://www.pbase.com/tweber
http://web.valuenet.net/tweber

 

[Tom Weber2]

So let me just see if I get what you are saying.. if the auto focus
assist lamp is set to ON in the camera, AND I hook up the SB80, the
red bars act as the assist lamp. (thus overriding the cameras
assist for the flash's assist). If I turne off the flashs assist,
then the cameras assist will work?

How do I get into the menu to change this setting? I seem to have
misplaced my sb80 manual!

thanks

Jeff,

I've learned from this post as well, so here's more blind leading the blind. My af assist on the flash is off and is on in-camera. My in-camera aff is firing. I assume from the earlier post if aff is on in the flash, the in-camera aff wont' fire because the flash's infrared aff assist overrides it.

You get to the flash custom settings by holding in the center of the control button for 2 seconds. From there, the up and down arrows bring you to the various options. The second option is aff assist.

Tom
--
St. Louis, Missouri
equipment is in my plan
http://www.pbase.com/tweber
http://web.valuenet.net/tweber

 

[FunD2h]

to add to what a previous post said about the auto focus has to be set to single servo and the auto focus zone has to be in the center point.

 

[ewencameron]

Hi

We run with AF assist switched OFF on the D100 (CSM menu), but ON on the SB80 - this prevents the (very bright, very annoying, non-infra-red) camera lamp from winking when we don't want it to (when the SB80 is not mounted/turned off), but retains the IR assist on the SB80 when it is mounted/turned on. (we don't use the integrated flash on the D100, btw)

As per previous posts, AF must be in single servo mode, centre-focus zone, for the AF assist to fire. Logical really - to track in continuous mode, the AF assist would also have to fire continously. Same with the SB28/F5.

Took us a while to work it out as well!!

Regards

Ewen & Valerie Cameron

 

[Jeff Surofsky]

Thanks for all of your replies!

I took my camera with me when we went trick or treating and since it was at night, The camera wasnt focusing when I needed it to and I noticed that the lamp did not turn on.

I have seen photogs use the d100 at weddings and mitzvahs that I have video taped (I am a videographer looking to get into photo as well) and they all seem to use the lamp and not the infrared..

Does the lamp yield a better result than the infrared?

Hi

We run with AF assist switched OFF on the D100 (CSM menu), but ON
on the SB80 - this prevents the (very bright, very annoying,
non-infra-red) camera lamp from winking when we don't want it to
(when the SB80 is not mounted/turned off), but retains the IR
assist on the SB80 when it is mounted/turned on. (we don't use the
integrated flash on the D100, btw)

As per previous posts, AF must be in single servo mode,
centre-focus zone, for the AF assist to fire. Logical really - to
track in continuous mode, the AF assist would also have to fire
continously. Same with the SB28/F5.

Took us a while to work it out as well!!

Regards

Ewen & Valerie Cameron