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just a quick question on what people do to overcome the single sided nature of the sb600 in wireless mode? ie shooting from the left side of the flash? or will i have to resort to this on the next shoot again?

(ignore poor whitebalance)


gstark: the sigma 70-300 is not being used for a paperweight yet, but has found other uses in the field. might i also add that this lens did a good job in preventing my slipper from flying away?

you CAN always rotate the head. It turns 90 one way and 180 degrees the other. At 180 rotation, the head will point forward and the CLS sensor will be on the other side. The body will be pointing backwards though

maybe your thong is absorbing all the infra red light?

Mr Darcy - thanks for that, i use bounce flash etc heaps and didnt even think to rotate the head to get what i wanted on wireless! doh!

Oz_Beachside - could be the dark elements inside the sigma absorbing the IR signal heh

it would be nice to have a sensor on both sides wouldnt it? i have not really paid attention, but does nayone know if the sb-800 have the same problem? i must try it for myself.

tried both my SB-600 and SB-800, both seem to work fine sitting either side of my D300 (pop up being the commander flash) but this was a quick test only fired them a few times each.

in SU-4 mode (sb-800) it is only one sided. I was pretty sure that that sensor window was for the SU-4 mode until i noticed it on the SB-600, which i cant find an option of SU-4 mode.

anyone know if the SB-600 has a SU-4 mode? I only just got the SB-600

I think the SU-4 mode is a sb-800 thing. It allows the trigger of the flash from any other flash. Have used it with a little point and shoot and works a treat.

MATT

Hey,

I find using SB800's all the time off camera using wireless camera mode the best results are when you can have all the IR sesnors pointing to the position where you are taking the shot from. I know in the D300 manual and I'm sure it's in the others there is a chart giving shooting distances, which is approx 5M depending upon the angle from the shooting point. Works well mostly and a much cheaper system but also limited compared to using pocket wizards.

Hudo

MATT wrote:I think the SU-4 mode is a sb-800 thing. It allows the trigger of the flash from any other flash. Have used it with a little point and shoot and works a treat.

MATT

I was amazed when I triggered my SB-800 with my Kodak CX7430 (ancient!!!). I am pretty certain that the SB-600 misses out on the SU-4 now, not mentioned in the manual.

there's no SU4 option from what I've researched on the net. You can however use the Nikon CLS with it, but it only works with a limited range.

PiroStitch wrote:there's no SU4 option from what I've researched on the net. You can however use the Nikon CLS with it, but it only works with a limited range.

Does this mean that the range, even when I use my SB-800 as a commander is fairly short? Or does using the SB-800 as commander make a difference? I picked up the SB-600 so I could have a second off camera flash, which I have been able to do, but am wondering about the limitations now after reading this thread.

The CLS from experience works well between 5m to about 8m away indoors. Outdoors the range is limited. All of this is in relation to having the flash consistently fire every time the shutter is pressed as well, so success rate isn't necessarily 0%.

What type of range were you thinking of using it? If it's 20m away, then maybe using the SB600 onboard the camera and having the SB800 on SU-4 mode might be better.

In terms of working around corners, I can't remember if it will work so give it a shot.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, use SU4 on the SB-800 when outdoors over long distances. I have been mainly using it outdoors at ranges under 5m, had a few issues with it when I had the SB-600 on the floor, sensor window facing up and me standing half a meter away. It was not firing consistently then, but otherwise it has been good to use. I have not actually been using the pop up flash as the commander recently, even though that was the reasoning behind picking up the SB-600, the irony of it.

I'll have to try using CLS around corners when I remember.