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Stupid question
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ok, i’m sure google has the answer but i’m hoping someone can tell me how to take off my “stupid hat”
got the sb800, still learning about the wonders of flash. now the problem is, i got the commander remote thing working, but it only works when my pop up flash is up.
the pop up fires as well as the speedlight and the setting on my pop up is –? how do i stop the pop up from flashing too?
does this make any sense whatsoever?
thanks!
I don’t use Nikon, so I haven’t got a clue, but I found this on another US forum:
“Menu>Custom setting menu>bracketing/flash>Flash control for built in flash>commander mode>….set the mode screen as desired. Up top, “built-in flash”, set depending on if you want the pop-up to fire or not …if not, scroll to the “–” symbol, which means “off, flash will not fire”**. other 2 options are “M”, manual and “TTL” your choice, just make sure your SB-800 is set to match. I often allow the pop-up to fire, for eye catchlight or just a tad bit of fill by adjusting way down in M mode usually for me, but this is quite effective in TTL mode as well.”I haven’t been able to stop the pop-up flash firing in commander mode when using the SB-600, even setting it to “–“.
Sticking a business card in front has been pretty effective though.
Maybe you’ll have more luck using it with the SB-800.Let us know how you get on…
Like I said, I’m not really familiar with the Nikon flash system. However, it sounds logical to me that the pop-up flash should fire if the camera is to function in commander mode, otherwise, how else is it going to communicate with the remote flash. It’s the light from the pop-up flash that acts as the transmission medium from the camera to the remote flash. However, I would have thought that it would fire at such a reduced power that it would not affect the overall exposure. Canon’s system is similar but you need to use an external transmitter (ST-E2) which uses infra-red flash rather than visible flash.
The onboard flash controls the duration, and therefore the exposure of the remote flashes-
when your onboard flash cuts off, so does the remote-If your subject is close, or if you’re only using one remote flash,
then the onboard flash will influence exposure for close subjects,
and will show up as specular highlights-
particularly as reflections in the eyes-Simon (Allinthemind) suggested a fix for this once,
though I’ve never tried it, it sounds plausible-
tape a section of unexposed/developed transparency film over the onboard flash-
it should massively reduce visible light,
while allowing other wavelengths, ir or uv, dunno which, to control the flash as normal-the card might work too, depending on distances and reflections-
j
you can make it to fire or not
in camera you should get something like this to have the popup flash not to fire:
M —-
A TTL 0.0
B TTL 0.0
C TTL 0.0“M” means the master flash (in your case the popup flash)
A, B and C are the groups for your wireless flashes, in your case your sb800 may be “A”
TTL or — means to fire or not
the 0.0 is the compensation for each groupI tend to leave the popup flash to fire but with a big negative compensation, more to soften the shaddows than anything else
jb7 wrote:
tape a section of unexposed/developed transparency film over the onboard flash-
it should massively reduce visible light,
while allowing other wavelengths, ir or uv, dunno which, to control the flash as normal-Infra-red (IR). I’ve seen people do this to get a cheap IR filter when shooting IR film too.
If you don’t want any additional flashes, only the ones you are controlling remotely, and you want TTL, you will need to get an SU-800, which only uses IR light. Otherwise, if manual control is not a problem, you could get radio triggers like the Pocket Wizard or some cheaper alternative.
you need the IR controllers the cheap option and they are excellent are from Gadget Infinity and the one you need are the following (look for flash type in the description)
http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16766&cat=0&page=They are only $32 which works out at €20 ,, you can then take the flash off the camera and place it anywhere on one of those mini tripods or lightstand or tripod.Great fun
I use the SB800 quite a lot…and of course you do need the pop up flash to fire as that fires the SB800. If it’s set to — then it should only have a very minimal effect on the exposure anyway.
If it still bothers you then Josephs suggestion of the piece of film is meant to work well.
Otherwise Nikon actually do a little gadget which I think I linked to once on the forum before..just can’t remember where right now.
It’s not expensive and it sits over the flash unit and basically blocks the visible light from the onboard.
If I can find the link later I’ll stick it up here for you.
Okay..found it… it’s a Nikon SG3-IR. I found a pretty good description of how it works on another forum..pics an all…
Hope this helps..
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JlDX
Cheers
Robbie
8)My undertstanding of CLS system is that when the comander flash is set to —, it fires a pre-flash to a) gather exposure information and b) to comunicate this information to the slaves. The pre-flash itslelf has no effect on exposure.
I have to admit I was partially wrong
if you use the onboard flash it will always fire regardless of what you put beside “M”
if you use an SB800 is a different matter, it will not fire if you set it to “M —“steelydan wrote:
you need the IR controllers the cheap option and they are excellent are from Gadget Infinity and the one you need are the following (look for flash type in the description)
http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16766&cat=0&page=They are only $32 which works out at €20 ,, you can then take the flash off the camera and place it anywhere on one of those mini tripods or lightstand or tripod.Great fun
They are not bad for having fun, but I had moments when I wanted to crash them… in other words, they are not fully reliable. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone if they will be used for important shoots.
There are some new transmitters coming out, called RadioPopper, they will be able to transmit the ttl signals via radiowaves, and so they will be less constricted than the Nikon CLS by default. I am not sure when they arrive to shops though.
Have a look here: http://radiopopper.com
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