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I tried my new sc28 remote today with the sb600, and the shots where all under exposed - greatly, almost black. When I put the flash on the camera, all worked as advertised. According to the flash it was metering correctly, should I be using manual settings on the flash for off camera work. Am I missing something in the setup?

J.Davis wrote:I tried my new sc28 remote today with the sb600, and the shots where all under exposed - greatly, almost black. When I put the flash on the camera, all worked as advertised. According to the flash it was metering correctly, should I be using manual settings on the flash for off camera work. Am I missing something in the setup?

As far as I know it should work with sc-28 as if it was attached to your camera's hotshoe. When it is attached via sc-28, are you putting your flast too close to the subject and thus blowing it out?

Alex

Flash was level with the camera and about 2m to the subject. When I tried the same settings with the flash on camera, the shot blew out.

J.Davis wrote:Flash was level with the camera and about 2m to the subject. When I tried the same settings with the flash on camera, the shot blew out.

What settings did you have on the flash and in-camera?

My brief experience with the SC-28 was pleasant...it behaved..can you please post your settings?

Have you made sure the flash is seated correctly in the cable and the cable is seated correctly in the hotshoe?

I have the SC-17 which I believe is just an older version of the SC-28 and I get identical exposure results with the SC-17 and SB-800 on my D300 (and D70 before it) than I do with the SB-800/D300 alone.

Sometimes it is important to offer the embarrassingly obvious possible solution: are you sure the flash had properly charged when you shot via the chord? If the batteries were going flat, it is possible the instances when you shot via the chord the flash wasn't properly charged.

One thing to watch when using the flash off camera, but on a cord, you need to worry about a couple of extra things.
First off, watch the zoom setting. This is still controlled by the camera unless you tell it otherwise.
This means that if the flash -> subject distance is greater than camera->subject distance, the zoom on the flash may give you significant light falloff around the edges
Second, if you increase the distance, the flash has to work harder to illuminate the scene. You may inadvertently go beyond your flash's comfort zone
Third, you need to make sure the flash is pointing in the right direction. As your flash gets further away, this can get critical.
These are taken with D200 +SC29 (same as SC28 but with FocusAssist built in) + SB800. lens 52mm@f2.8 Aperture priority Flash on TTL no corrections.
FLash on camera. Subject about a metre away.


Flash off camera at same distance to subject as camera autozoom still enabled


Flash off camera about double camera distance Note light fall off & that this accentuated that I was quite pointing in the right direction.


If you stop down, the light requirement will go up, so second point will come more into play.
I probably should have done this but did a quick & dirty & left the camera on the settings it had.

Problem solved - when the cord (at the flash end) was fiddled with, the flash would fire by itself. I cut 50mm off the cord and resoldered the fitting ( minus the two side fittings). The flash now works as advertised - even meters. Sooo happy now.
Thanks to you all for your input.