ATTN SB-800 owners

[flipfrog]

i just got it, tried shooting my cuzins weding with it in remote (off a brackett) and had tons of troubles with the flash not firing....

in the end, i was told not to rely on the remote setting, and dish out the extra 70 bucks for the cord (from flash to hot shoe)....

whats the point of this remote wireless set up then!??!

any experience with this matter pls reply here

[sirhc55]

It works Dee - maybe the wedding was not the place to try as the SB800 was new to you

[Aussie Dave]

I've also been playing around with the SB800 wirelessly, and haven't had a problem.

Perhaps it wasn't setup 100% or the little sensor was covered ?? Were you handholding the SB800 ??

[Glen]

It worked for me Dee, at a party I had about five which didn't fire out of maybe 250, that was my first go, so hopefully that will improve. Maybe practice at home first, fair bit of pressure at the wedding.

[Hlop]

Hi Dee,

It isn't really wireless - there is no radio transmission - remote flash "reads" preflashed code from off-camera flash but if someone obscures them from each other, remote flash either won't fire or misinterpret signals

[O1]

Hi Dee
Coul;d you explain the wireless setup that you were using ie what was the master and what was the slave. I am looking to buy 2 x 600 and use the 800 as a master. i am at the point of understanding if this setup will do all that is expalined.

Thanks

Owen

[wendellt]

Hi Dee

i bought the remote cord sc29 (looks like a curly telephone cord)

I was not aware that with 1x SB800 you could use it off the camera shoe
without having two flash units the sb800 being master and the other being a slave

[sirhc55]

That’s the beauty of the D70 over the D2X and D2Hs - the internal flash of the D70 can act as a trigger for the external SB800. On the D2 series you would require 2 flashes to accomplish the same operation.

[genji]

That’s the beauty of the D70 over the D2X and D2Hs - the internal flash of the D70 can act as a trigger for the external SB800. On the D2 series you would require 2 flashes to accomplish the same operation.

BUT the D70's onboard flash has to fire aswell.

also the SB800 on remote must be positioned with clear line of sight. the Sb800's instruction manual illustrates the requirements.

[flipfrog]

so, my set up was the sb800 on a bracket over my camera with the onboard flash acting as the trigger.....

more help guys..................



p.s. i was not the main photographer, i was simply shooting for fun at my cuzins wedding......

[sirhc55]

That’s the beauty of the D70 over the D2X and D2Hs - the internal flash of the D70 can act as a trigger for the external SB800. On the D2 series you would require 2 flashes to accomplish the same operation.

BUT the D70's onboard flash has to fire aswell.

also the SB800 on remote must be positioned with clear line of sight. the Sb800's instruction manual illustrates the requirements.

It only acts as the trigger and does not contribute to the overall flash

[genji]

so, my set up was the sb800 on a bracket over my camera with the onboard flash acting as the trigger.....

more help guys..................



p.s. i was not the main photographer, i was simply shooting for fun at my cuzins wedding......

it may have been better to use the sc29/27.


can you put up a pic of your setup and also of the results??

[DStrom]

Genji,

I was under the impression that although the onboard flash fires it does not contribute to the shot when in commander mode? it only fires to trigger to remote flash(s)

[genji]

Genji,

I was under the impression that although the onboard flash fires it does not contribute to the shot when in commander mode? it only fires to trigger to remote flash(s)

thats what i thought, but from all the experiments that i performed, the D70 does fire!

oh well, back to more experiments...

[flipfrog]

that is the other thing...what is the point of using a bracket to avoid the nasty shadows and unatural light when the onboard still fires to trigger the sb800
?????

[Onyx]

thats what i thought, but from all the experiments that i performed, the D70 does fire!

oh well, back to more experiments...

It fires to trigger the off camera flash, it does not fire to illuminate in the exposure.


1) Requires clear line of sight. The internal D70 flash should have an unobstructed view of the sensor (small circular window) on the right hand front of the SB800 unit.

2) If the flash is to be mounted on a camera bracket near the D70 body (especially beside), get an SC-28 or SC-29 sync cord. Unless you ghetto mod something to redirect the onboard flash's light output straight to the front-right of the SB800 (eg. fiber optic cable).

3) Listen to the beep codes. In fact, know and understand the beep codes. Twice short to signify the remote fired correctly, once long to signify 'ready' or 'recharged' to fire again. If the intervals between the two get longer than 5 seconds, it's time to renew your batteries.

[Luke Smith]

If you were mounting the SB800 on a bracket attached to the camera you may as well use a cable. As the line-of-sight from the camera's flash to the sensor on the SB800 won't be very good you will have to anyway to get reliable operation. As a bonus the cable will be marginally faster too.

Cheers,

Luke

[beetleboy]

I've spent the last two weeks shooting annual report photo's using the SB800 about half the time in Remote mode. I've found it will fire from pretty much anywhere and doesn't even require clear line of sight - picking up reflections of the D70's flash seems to work fine as well!

RE: mounting the flash on a bracket etc - when shooting portrait orientation I often hold the camera with one hand and the SB800 directly above it with my free hand and it fires every time. Ensure you have the SB800 set to Channel 3 Group A and the camera's onboard flash set to commander mode.

[Manta]

More than happy to bow to the greater wisdom of others in this regard but I've had the same experience as Beetleboy - SB800 firing from all sorts of crazy positions, often hidden completely behind furniture, pot plants, etc. - seems all that is needed is some view of the flash from the on-board, not necessarily direct line of sight.