AlienBees and Commander Mode, D300

[benhasajeep]

Manual, A, or Auto mode on the SB-800 there is no preflashes. With the on board flash, as far as I know there is always a preflash - except - when you hold down the flash value button. If you do this the preflash fires once and the information is held as long as you hold the button. Every flash after that as long as you hold the setting, there will be no preflash.

Or do as you have done and order some triggers.

 

[iflynething]

Sounds like you have it mostly figured out, but yes...when triggering something optically, you need to be aware of a preflash, as that will set off the lights prematurely.

A radio trigger system would make things much easier and you wouldn't need to use your SB600. They Cyber Sync radio triggers are great, and a good deal cheaper than Pocket Wizards, but you can try out a cheap radio trigger set like the Cactus for less than $50.

Manual, A, or Auto mode on the SB-800 there is no preflashes. With the on board flash, as far as I know there is always a preflash - except - when you hold down the flash value button. If you do this the preflash fires once and the information is held as long as you hold the button. Every flash after that as long as you hold the setting, there will be no preflash.

Or do as you have done and order some triggers.

I have bought a set of TwinLink Triggers from the local camera store. I just wanted reliability and not having to use my SB-800 all the time, saves alot of weight too.

I get great range from them too, but of course right now, I'm not needing that much anyways

~Michael~

 

[mdtusz]

Hmm. Never heard of twinlink. You'll have to let us know how they work. Seem kinda expensive though all things considered. Cybersyncs don't cost that much and skyports are about on par (AFAIK).

 

[iflynething]

So far they are working just fine (knock hard on wood)

I range tested them and inside the house, I was able to get roughly 200 ft. That's with no direct line of sight. Honestly, I'm not paying more for more range, I just need consistent flashes and that's what they are giving me. If I need more range, these will be sold and I'll go the PW's route, but for now I'm not going PW's route, mainly for price

~Michael~

 

[LBPhotog]

Take the D300 out of commander mode, pop your on camera flash up, but use a flash meter to figure out the exposure of the subject. Dial that exposure into your MANUAL settings and fire the on camera flash to trip the optical slaves in the AB's ...

As it has been said here already, the pop up flash will be "over powered" by your ABs and will add little, if any at all, light to the over all exposure. And, as stated already, the preflash is tripping your AB's (and if they are going off at full power the 800's take about a second to recycle to full power) and the time between preflash and real flash is milliseconds - hence your ABs aren't getting enough time to recycle to full power before they are being asked to go off again. This, is what I believe, is your issue.

For the record ... the SB-800 has an X-Sync build into it, so why are you messing around with using the commander mode if you have a sync cord?

 

[iflynething]

Take the D300 out of commander mode, pop your on camera flash up, but use a flash meter to figure out the exposure of the subject. Dial that exposure into your MANUAL settings and fire the on camera flash to trip the optical slaves in the AB's ...

As it has been said here already, the pop up flash will be "over powered" by your ABs and will add little, if any at all, light to the over all exposure. And, as stated already, the preflash is tripping your AB's (and if they are going off at full power the 800's take about a second to recycle to full power) and the time between preflash and real flash is milliseconds - hence your ABs aren't getting enough time to recycle to full power before they are being asked to go off again. This, is what I believe, is your issue.

For the record ... the SB-800 has an X-Sync build into it, so why are you messing around with using the commander mode if you have a sync cord?

Thanks for all of the help. I have been pleased with the wireless triggers and that's why I wasn't using the sync cord becuase I wanted to be wireless.

I was so used to the CLS system, it didn't occur that a preflash triggered the AB's. I knew they happened, but didn't think about that being the problem.

~Michael~