Nikon D90 with SB-600?

Cupart

I'm thinking of getting a Nikon SB-600 flash for my D90 and was wondering about the wireless flash setting and how it actually work...

Is the remote flash controlled by IR or some radio frequency? Really, does the flash have to be in line of sight of the camera?

I think I read somewhere that the camera's flash has to be activated for the remote flash to be fired. Is this so?

Is this a fiddly thing to set up or is it plug and play?

Cheers

Cosmo K

Check out:

http://www.dtowntv.com/

theu did a couple of episodes about wireless flashes.

eas

Hi Cupart,

Cupart wrote: »

Is the remote flash controlled by IR or some radio frequency? Really, does the flash have to be in line of sight of the camera?

Nikons system works with IR. Theoretically the master and slave need to be in line of sight of each other. However, IR does bounce fairly well indoors. Depending on weather and lighting conditions, you can sometimes get surprising results outdoors (good and bad)

Cupart wrote: »

I think I read somewhere that the camera's flash has to be activated for the remote flash to be fired. Is this so?

The CLS system uses the onboard flash to communicate between camera (master) and slave (your sb600). You can set your onboard flash to not fire during exposure if that's what you want.

Cupart wrote: »

Is this a fiddly thing to set up or is it plug and play?

it's pretty simple really - set your onboard flash to master from within the camera menu, then set your sb600 to slave in it's menu and your ready to roll. (Make sure the flash and camera are set on the the same channel and group). It would be all covered in the manuals anyhow.

DermoF

Hi,

I just got a Nikon d90. I also have a Sunpak PF30x flash with 'Canon E-TTl II' written on the underside. Is this flash compatible with the d90?

I'm new to all this and any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

ozymandius

@cupart

I have a D90 and SB600 and they're great together. Yes, they communicate using brief flashes from the camera - like morse code. The camera instructs the flash(es) to send out a pre-flash which it uses to measure the exposure, then sends a lower power sequence to set the power and to trigger the final burst. All this from the on-camera flash. Though it is received as infra-red it does make visible and sometimes irritating flashes. You can have the on-camera flash contributing to the final exposure or not.

The SB-600 is a bit fiddley to setup, I believe the new SB-700 is more straightforward. But more expensive. Get some gels while you're at it.

See here for more than you really want to know about Nikon's CLS.

I think if you get big into flash photography you will end up with simpler flashes and radio links. THe SB-600 is a good, though pricey, start.

The other site you'll want then is Strobist

ozymandius

@DermoF

I would guess that it would work as a simple manual flash - no fancy stuff, no iTTl or whatever. I presume the hotshoe extra connections don't line up.

That said if one wrecks the other it's not my fault ...

DermoF

Thanks Ozy