What cheap flashes can be wirelessly triggered by a Nikon SB-900?

Question

I have a Nikon SB-900 and I love it. I am looking to expand my off camera capabilities and would love to buy another flash.

The one important factor I'm looking for is the compatibility between my SB-900 and the new flash to work wirelessly. Wireless i-TTL isn't mandatory, but definitely a plus. I'm fine with setting the new flash in Manual mode.

Simply put, I want to keep the SB-900 on my Nikon D3100 and the new flash on a light stand. When I take a shot, I want both to go off, and the new flash should be triggered wirelessly. I don't want to have to buy a wireless commander since the SB-900 can do that already.

Thanks!

Asked by Jeff Lange

Answer

If you want to use i-TTL, the safest options it to go with Nikon. The cheapest Nikon flash available new would be the Nikon SB-700, or the Nikon SB-600 if you can find it used.

However, if you don't need i-TTL, you can get away with any cheap flash. For example I have a pair of YN-460 speedlights, dirt cheap compared to the Nikon flashes but can still be used as optical slaves. Combining optical slaves with using i-TTL on the SB-900 may not work however, as the slaves can be fooled by the pre-flashes used for measurements. Some flashes have a mode that is supposed to ignore these preflashes and only trigger on the "real" flash, but I can't vouche for the accuracy of these systems, YMMV.

Also note that, as an alternative to using optical slaves, you can use radio triggers. These will have to be purchased separately, and you need one unit per flash, plus one for the camera, but it will give you increased reliability and range. It will also get around the problem of the on camera flash affecting the lighting in the picture even when set to "off", as a pulse from that flash is required in order to trigger any other, i-TTL or not.

Something worth considering is that you could get 2 or even 3 flashes + radio triggers for less than what that SB-900 cost you ...

Answered by Freed

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HF-DC1 flash light for Canon EOS 400D

Question

I want to buy an external flash light for my Canon EOS 400D. Is HF-DC1 good enough or is it designed for more compact cameras?

Any suggestion on alternatives?

Asked by Don

Answer

Canon HF-DC1 is designed for Canon PowerShot product line only and incompatible with DSLRs. You can get Canon 270EX which is about the same price range. Other relatively expensive options will be Canon 430EX II and Canon 580EX II.

Also there are 3rd party (non Canon branded) flashes, which are cheap. But most of them do not have automatic (TTL) mode and all settings have to be done manually.

Answered by ShutterBug

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Can any radio flash triggers be used without a sync cable?

Question

I am looking for an inexpensive wireless flash trigger system to use with my Pentax k-x and an old flash I wouldn't trust on the camera hot shoe (Vivitar 550FD) because of its high trigger voltage. I see that the CowboyStudio NPT-04 wireless trigger can connect to a camera via a sync cable, perhapts in place of or in addition to using the hot shoe contacts. My camera does not support the use of a sync cable.

Can radio flash triggers be connected using a camera's hot shoe contacts without requiring the use of a sync cable?

Answer

The CowboyStudio NPT-04 trigger connects to the camera via hotshoe or sync cable, you do not need both, just one of them. I have it and have always used it hotshoe mounted.

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How limiting are the line-of-sight requirements of Canon's optical wireless flash system?

Question

I have a Canon 7D and 580EX II Speedlite, and am trying to make the jump into flash photography, particularly portrait work. I understand that the 7D's wireless trigger works by line-of-sight. Will this prohibit me from triggering flashes that are off center? For example, an umbrella to the side (either directly to the side or front-and-to-the-side) of the subject pointing toward the subject. I'd assume that the back of the flash wouldn't be facing directly at my camera.

I haven't bought the gear yet, but I was hoping the trigger on my camera would be good enough to forego the need to purchase any additional triggers.

Answer

The flash is triggered by the popup-flash of the 7D.

The signal is transmitted by light, it is just way too fast for the naked eye to see. The popup flash would strobes rapidly, like sending out morse-codes, and the external flash would pick it up and fires in sync. The whole thing is super fast, like in 1/500 of a second.

Understanding that, you now know that the limitation of such approach is that when the light is too weak, it will not reach the flash, and the external flash will not fire.

Another situation is that, when the surrounding it very bright (under direct sunlight for example), the popup flash is relatively weak, and the "morse-code" signals cannot be properly detected by the external flash.

Reducing the distance between the popup flash and external flash should solve this.

I use the 60D, and it has the same system too. I do not do a lot of outdoor daytime shot, I usually have a cable with me should I need off-center external flash. However I use the wireless flash system indoor very often. It is sufficiently reliable when you are in an indoor settings. Provided that you have some walls to bounce some of the light around, it really isn't a must that the flash must be at line of sight.

Ultimately, in an indoor settings, in a small room, I can place the external flash anywhere I want, and it fires no problem. If your portrait work focus on indoor shooting, its absolutely fine.

Finally, you already have the 7D, you do not seem to have the flash unit yet. You must buy a flash regardless which wireless option you choose, right? So why don't you buy a good flash unit, try out the wireless function on the 7D, then decide if you really need other wireless solution?

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How does commander mode on a Nikon camera body differ from commander mode a on SB-700 Speedlight?

Question

My Nikon D80 and new Nikon SB-700 both offer Commander mode. I have two questions:

• When NOT in wireless mode (that is, when the flash is plugged into the hot shoe either directly or with a cable), is there any difference using commander mode on the body vs the off-camera flash?
• When IN wireless mode, I am able to use both the pop-up flash and the SB-700 at the same time. Is there a difference here?
• Does one take precedence over the other if I set both to commander mode?

Answer

The most significant difference is that the SB-700 can control flashes that are further away (it has more power and a zoom head) and can be swiveled towards a flash that is at your side. By turning the flash head you can also make sure not to spill controller signal on the scene. Of course, when you have several slave flashes at both sides of camera, you can't use the advantages of swiveling head.

When using the pop-up flash for controller, your SB-700 is free for using as a slave.

Cameras usually disable pop-up flash when there's a flash on hot shoe, so you can't use them both as commanders; is your camera different in this respect?

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Why is the D7000 commander mode flash firing during exposure when the manual says it won't?

Question

I'm wondering if I'm using the D7000's Commander mode incorrectly. Page 225 of the Nikon D7000 manual says

The built-in flash does not fire [in "--" Option], although remote flash units do.

Yet what I've found is that the built-in flash in fact does fire, adding ugly on-camera, direct flash to my photos especially for short-distance subjects. I present Exhibit A below, where it is seen that both the remote SB900's and the on-camera's flash are captured, even in "--" Commander option. How do I fix this?

Answer

They lie.

It does, it just not supposed to fire enough to matter. The flash is how it communicates with external units.

You can get an SG-31R unit to block it and let the IR only through.

Your other option is to ditch CLS and go with radio triggers - of which, if you search, we have various questions about.

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How are power levels automatically determined when using multiple speedlights with CLS?

Question

If I take a picture with an on-camera flash, or a single speedlight, my understanding is that the camera/flash pre-fire and then automatically select the approrpriate power level to properly expose the shot.

When you use two (or more) speedlights in a system (like CLS for instance), how do they automatically determine how much power each should use?

I can imagine plenty of cases where you would want one to be stronger than the other, would you have to set the power levels manually then?

I don't have any experience (yet) with off-camera flash, so I apologize if this is a stupid question, or if I have misunderstood how something like CLS is supposed to work.

Answer

In CLS, you organize your flashes into up to three groups (A, B and C; this is not the same thing as control channel). Each group is treated like a single flash. For groups set up to operate in TTL mode, during preflash, each group is metered separately (by camera, or by master flash in non-TTL auto mode), required power level is determined and during exposure each group is fired separately. You can mix up groups firing in TTL and groups firing in manual power.

On master flash, you can choose manual power setting or compensation level for each group and compensation level for the whole setup.

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