SB-800 Wireless Commander mode doesn't work properly :(

[capecodchris]

Duncan:

I am going to try the scrap of cardboard and see how that goes. I may also have a roll of 120 film that I screwed up when I was first learing how to load my hassy. Thanks for the advice.

Chris

You could also make a little "deflector" out of a scrap of aluminum
foil, posterboard and tape that would bounce the light from the
onboard flash up to the ceiling or into a wall.

Duncan C
---

Good idea, I am going to try a piece of cardboard to spread the
lighting.

Chris

There are some exceptions to this. like when you are shooting
highly reflective objects such as mirrors which will simple reflect
you and all the flash lights back to the camera, underexposing the
rest of your shot.

The camera does use the flash in low power mode to trigger the
SB-800 so it does fire and you cannot stop this. What you can do
though, is losely cover the front of the flash unit with some paper
or cardboard so that the slight can spill around the sides of the
card but the main flash is blocked from the subject that you are
taking the shot of. The spill should be enough to still trigger the
flash without adding catch lights to the subject

I have a D70 and a SB-800 flash and I am trying to make use of the
"remote Commander" mode of this combo. I have custom setting 19
set to TTL commander -> TTL and I have my sb-800 set to "remote".
The exposure is perfect, but I am getting fill from the camera
flash which is confirmed by taking a picture in a mirror. For some
reason, the on camera flash contributes to the lighting as well.
This is really useless and terrible. I am trying to take some
pictures of some shiny objects and am getting horrible hot spots
and I do not have my sc-29 remote cord so I am screwed. Am I doing
anything wrong that anyone knows about or is this a malfunction?

Chris

--
http://bradm.photopoints.com ,
http://www.usefilm.com/browse.php?mode=port&data=13628

--
dpreview and PBase supporter.



http://www.pbase.com/duncanc

 

[Duncan C]

Cape,

You need to use slide, not print film.

Duncan C
----

I am going to try the scrap of cardboard and see how that goes. I
may also have a roll of 120 film that I screwed up when I was first
learing how to load my hassy. Thanks for the advice.

Chris

You could also make a little "deflector" out of a scrap of aluminum
foil, posterboard and tape that would bounce the light from the
onboard flash up to the ceiling or into a wall.

Duncan C
---

Good idea, I am going to try a piece of cardboard to spread the
lighting.

Chris

There are some exceptions to this. like when you are shooting
highly reflective objects such as mirrors which will simple reflect
you and all the flash lights back to the camera, underexposing the
rest of your shot.

The camera does use the flash in low power mode to trigger the
SB-800 so it does fire and you cannot stop this. What you can do
though, is losely cover the front of the flash unit with some paper
or cardboard so that the slight can spill around the sides of the
card but the main flash is blocked from the subject that you are
taking the shot of. The spill should be enough to still trigger the
flash without adding catch lights to the subject

I have a D70 and a SB-800 flash and I am trying to make use of the
"remote Commander" mode of this combo. I have custom setting 19
set to TTL commander -> TTL and I have my sb-800 set to "remote".
The exposure is perfect, but I am getting fill from the camera
flash which is confirmed by taking a picture in a mirror. For some
reason, the on camera flash contributes to the lighting as well.
This is really useless and terrible. I am trying to take some
pictures of some shiny objects and am getting horrible hot spots
and I do not have my sc-29 remote cord so I am screwed. Am I doing
anything wrong that anyone knows about or is this a malfunction?

Chris

--
http://bradm.photopoints.com ,
http://www.usefilm.com/browse.php?mode=port&data=13628

--
dpreview and PBase supporter.



http://www.pbase.com/duncanc

--
dpreview and PBase supporter.



http://www.pbase.com/duncanc

 

[joefri]

I am taking a picture of a circuit board with my 35mm lens and I am
about 3 feet away. I have the SB-800 on channel 3a and the D70 is
set to Commander mode. I agree that the flash that the D70
contributes is VERY small, but when you are taking a picture of a
circuit board, which has shiny lead traces, they reflect any little
bit of light. A ring flash would make this problem a LOT worse
unfortunately. What you have to do is use 1 or 2 speedlights at a
45 degree angle to prevent this problem. How I ended up fixing
this problem was to take the picture off plane which removed the
reflection and used the "perspective" command in Photoshop to make
the circuit board "square" again. I really miss my sc-29 sync
cable and am disappointed in Nikon for the bug.

I don't know if I agree that a ring flash such as the Nikon SB-29 would make it a lot worse, most ring flashes usually have a number of tubes that you can turn on and off depending on your subject. That's what they were made for close up work. I've seen excellent photos of silver coin collections that were taken with a ring flash.

Anyway regardless, it sounds that at least you've found a solution for your problem.

 

[capecodchris]

Obviously I do not want to argue, but this is a major bug. If you want the on camera flash to contribute you use SU-4 mode on the SB-800, and if you don't you should be able to use the "remote" mode. I would expect that the D70 with the SB-800 would work the same with either a sync cable like the sc-27 or the remote mode, which it does not. This simply does not provide TRUE wireless synchronization like it should. Of course this is only my opinion and I will NOT be switching to canon!

Chris

 

[capecodchris]

With macrophotography I agree. What I am taking is far from macro photograohy. Think about it, I am getting a nasty reflection when the flash is mounted 3 inches off of the lens axis and have to move 45 degrees off access to get rid of the reflection. Imagine how bad the relfection would be with a ring flash that is less than 1 degree off of the lens axis. If you are really close, these angles change again and that is why a ring flash is useful for macro photography.

Chris

I am taking a picture of a circuit board with my 35mm lens and I am
about 3 feet away. I have the SB-800 on channel 3a and the D70 is
set to Commander mode. I agree that the flash that the D70
contributes is VERY small, but when you are taking a picture of a
circuit board, which has shiny lead traces, they reflect any little
bit of light. A ring flash would make this problem a LOT worse
unfortunately. What you have to do is use 1 or 2 speedlights at a
45 degree angle to prevent this problem. How I ended up fixing
this problem was to take the picture off plane which removed the
reflection and used the "perspective" command in Photoshop to make
the circuit board "square" again. I really miss my sc-29 sync
cable and am disappointed in Nikon for the bug.

I don't know if I agree that a ring flash such as the Nikon SB-29
would make it a lot worse, most ring flashes usually have a number
of tubes that you can turn on and off depending on your subject.
That's what they were made for close up work. I've seen excellent
photos of silver coin collections that were taken with a ring flash.

Anyway regardless, it sounds that at least you've found a solution
for your problem.

 

[joefri]

With macrophotography I agree. What I am taking is far from macro
photograohy. Think about it, I am getting a nasty reflection when
the flash is mounted 3 inches off of the lens axis and have to move
45 degrees off access to get rid of the reflection. Imagine how
bad the relfection would be with a ring flash that is less than 1
degree off of the lens axis. If you are really close, these angles
change again and that is why a ring flash is useful for macro
photography.

I am taking a picture of a circuit board with my 35mm lens and I am
about 3 feet away.

Sorry Chris, I missed the 3 feet away part

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

I guess what I wonder is you must think wireless can be implemented another way, and I don't know the technology possibilities well enough. How could they have done it?

Obviously I do not want to argue, but this is a major bug. If you
want the on camera flash to contribute you use SU-4 mode on the
SB-800, and if you don't you should be able to use the "remote"
mode. I would expect that the D70 with the SB-800 would work the
same with either a sync cable like the sc-27 or the remote mode,
which it does not. This simply does not provide TRUE wireless
synchronization like it should. Of course this is only my opinion
and I will NOT be switching to canon!

Chris

--
Stinson

http://www.StinsonsTerra.NikonD70Gallery.photoshare.co.nz
http://www.StinsonsTerra.StinsonsC750Gallery.PhotoShare.co.nz
http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=64739
ViewExif at http://ak.no-ip.com/EXIF/

 

[cincyMAT]

I have an SU-4 slave unit I use on a third party flash to work as a background light. The SU-4 comes with a SG-2 that is a little plastic flip up or down card that mounts on an arm that fits the camera hot shoe. It's used to block forward flash out put while allowing the slaves to fire. Here it is on BHPHOTO's web site:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=201231&is=REG

I looked but could not find a SG-2 sold separately. Maybe it will give you some ideas.

-
Mark
http://cincymat.smugmug.com/

 

[capecodchris]

I would think the proper way to do it would be that the last flash from the built in speedlight from the D70 would occur before the shutter opened. I am going to guess that this would require some type of timing circuit and the nikon engineers are just lazy or it isn't cost effective. What most likely happens now is the series of flashes "tells" the SB-800 to go into SU-4 mode and to flash on the last flash from the built in speedlight. So as far as I can tell it is either lazy engineers, not cost effective, or the didn't think about the implementation. Luckily there are several work arounds so I am not that concerned, just a little ticked off.

Chris

Obviously I do not want to argue, but this is a major bug. If you
want the on camera flash to contribute you use SU-4 mode on the
SB-800, and if you don't you should be able to use the "remote"
mode. I would expect that the D70 with the SB-800 would work the
same with either a sync cable like the sc-27 or the remote mode,
which it does not. This simply does not provide TRUE wireless
synchronization like it should. Of course this is only my opinion
and I will NOT be switching to canon!

Chris

--
Stinson

http://www.StinsonsTerra.NikonD70Gallery.photoshare.co.nz
http://www.StinsonsTerra.StinsonsC750Gallery.PhotoShare.co.nz
http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=64739
ViewExif at http://ak.no-ip.com/EXIF/

 

[CyberHugger]

Another option is to use a second SB-800 flash on the hotshoe as your commander. Just turn the flashhead around so it faces backwards.

Other than that, get an AS-15 adapter for the hotshoe and use a sync cable.

I have a D70 and a SB-800 flash and I am trying to make use of the
"remote Commander" mode of this combo. I have custom setting 19
set to TTL commander -> TTL and I have my sb-800 set to "remote".
The exposure is perfect, but I am getting fill from the camera
flash which is confirmed by taking a picture in a mirror. For some
reason, the on camera flash contributes to the lighting as well.
This is really useless and terrible. I am trying to take some
pictures of some shiny objects and am getting horrible hot spots
and I do not have my sc-29 remote cord so I am screwed. Am I doing
anything wrong that anyone knows about or is this a malfunction?

Chris

--
Olympus C-4000 (new to digital)
New D70 owner
Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/cyberhugger/root (pbase supporter)

 

[capecodchris]

Yeah, I already have the sc-27 cable, but it is at my parents in connecticut since I recently moved from florida to massachusetts.

Chris

Other than that, get an AS-15 adapter for the hotshoe and use a
sync cable.

I have a D70 and a SB-800 flash and I am trying to make use of the
"remote Commander" mode of this combo. I have custom setting 19
set to TTL commander -> TTL and I have my sb-800 set to "remote".
The exposure is perfect, but I am getting fill from the camera
flash which is confirmed by taking a picture in a mirror. For some
reason, the on camera flash contributes to the lighting as well.
This is really useless and terrible. I am trying to take some
pictures of some shiny objects and am getting horrible hot spots
and I do not have my sc-29 remote cord so I am screwed. Am I doing
anything wrong that anyone knows about or is this a malfunction?

Chris

--
Olympus C-4000 (new to digital)
New D70 owner
Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/cyberhugger/root (pbase supporter)