D80 Built in Flash & External speedlight

run_Forrest_run

Ever since I got an SB600 speedlight for my D80 I have never used the built-in flash. However the other day I was asked to take a snap and since I didn't have the speedlight on me I used the built-in flash. I noticed the shot came out fairly underexposed. I checked all settings including exposure compensation and everything seemed normal (battery was fresh also).

Maybe I am just used to the better light given by the speedlight but I could have sworn the amount of light from the built-in flash was usually greater than what I am seeing now.

Has anyone ever noticed this with the D80 or similar?

digitalbeginner

run_Forrest_run wrote:

I checked all settings including exposure compensation and everything seemed normal (battery was fresh also).

Did you look at the "Flash Compensation" setting as well? It's separate from the Exposure Compensation,

Dave

run_Forrest_run

Yeah I checked the flash compensation also, all normal.

However it seems I am not alone, some interesting points here:

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JS05

daedalus2097

I've found it is relatively weak so desn't travel great distances, but maybe try upping the ISO sensitivity so the flash doesn't have to be as strong. Does it get any better if you turn the flash compensation up? If it doesn't then you're at the top of the flash's capacity. If it does, then there's your solution... Not the best but once you remember it it's fine.

run_Forrest_run

thanks, I will check the ISO values and play around with it.
I am not too worried about it because I have the speedlight but was just wondering because I was sure it was once better than it currently is.

thebaz

unfortunatly i only have the nikon d 50 , but have a sb 600 flash as well, as posted elsewhere i never use pop up flash, as i have found it pretty much useless, i just up the iso or use external flash.

daedalus2097

IIRC the camera will pick a shutter time to go with the flash (in auto or Aperture modes anyway), and 1/60th is the longest time it will use without using slow flash or other settings. If you can up the ISO it will start to give shutter speeds of 1/100 and others, this shows that the flash is capable of correctly exposing with whatever other settings you have...

bp_me

The 1/60th with too small an aperature (big f number) may have contributed to it. Care to post the EXIF data? If for some reason I have to use the built in flash, it works fine, despite the "look" on-camera flash causes.

mloc

The difference between built in and external flash is huge.

The pop-up flash on D200 impressed me til I bought a SB800... Now the only way that pop-up flash gets used is for remote triggering.