d90, sb600, 2 flashpoint monolight's 320m [wireless firing them]

dinamaria · Dec 16, 2012

I have a d90, sb600, and two flashpoint II monolights 320m. I have never worked with lights before, other than the sb600 so I set everything up this weekend and tried it out. I set my internal flash to commander mode and made a few other tweaks and shot away. It looks like they are all being triggered properly, but from reading comments and articles online, it seems like this should not be happening. Is their any risk to doing this vs buying a trigger? If you recommend a trigger, is their one that will work with all three? I will upload an sample photo after dinner (just remember I am an amateur).

Thanks

jake337 · Dec 16, 2012

What did they mean it shouldn't be happening? Your triggering your sb600 with your camera and the sb600 triggers the monolights via optical trigger. Are you trying to trigger anything around corners or are having trouble triggering anything right now. You might have problems outdoors triggering the sb600 from a distance on bright days.

dinamaria · Dec 16, 2012

jake337 said:
What did they mean it shouldn't be happening? Your triggering your sb600 with your camera and the sb600 triggers the monolights via optical trigger. Are you trying to trigger anything around corners or are having trouble triggering anything right now. You might have problems outdoors triggering the sb600 from a distance on bright days.

They were talking about pre-flash occurring, but when I take the picture it appears the flashes are going off at the right time. Because I am new at this (first time doing anything with lights), I just wanted to make sure. I know the picture is not perfect but here is a sample of my setup. I had one monolight at 45% with softbox at full power (on left of subject) and other monolight 45% on right at half power. They were both set about 3 to 4 feet away. I had the SB600 pointing towards the background on the floor. I had no other lighting on in the area. Looking now, the pictures do seem a little darker, but I probably am able to fix that with better positioning and higher power on fill light.

I also wanted to make sure I was not risking anything by this method. Like less control and possibility of flashes firing before shutter opens. Sometimes the internet is bad because you read too much

John27 · Dec 16, 2012

As I understand it, when you put it in commander mode (or disable red-eye pre flash in the menu) you don't get the pre-flash, so it doesn't really matter.

I like wireless triggers myself. They can be had cheap. The pros and people serious about lighting use Pocket Wizards. I use some Amazon.com cheapies because my budget just didn't allow for pocket wizards right now, but they work very good. They are Cowboy Studio brand triggers. They are hotshoe triggers (meant to be used with off camera hotshoe flash, like your sb600), but as I understand it, they will work with your strobes by connecting a PC sync cable to them (they have a PC sync port). An alternative is a wired setup, using the PC sync port on your camera, or if it doesn't have it, Nikon and some third parties make hot-shoe PC sync cable adapters.

Amazon.com: CowboyStudio NPT-04 4 Channel Wireless Hot Shoe Flash Trigger Receiver: Camera & Photo

That's the trigger I use. Cheap and good! Just buy as many receivers as you need, and you should be good to go!

One note on those, several reviews note them failing after a couple of months. Others note them lasting for years. I have a hunch that those who experience failure don't realize that there is actually a battery inside the transmitter that must be replaced, but you actually have to take the transmitter apart to get to it. (It uses a 23A 12v battery). So when the battery eventually dies, they will become unreliable or just stop working. (The receivers use AAA batteries but they are replaced by just opening a battery door). I use Sanyo Eneloop AAA's in the receivers and they last for hundreds of shots (never had one die yet, I'm always done before I need to change batteries, even if I replace the AA's in my speedlites twice!)

dinamaria · Dec 16, 2012

John27 said:
As I understand it, when you put it in commander mode (or disable red-eye pre flash in the menu) you don't get the pre-flash, so it doesn't really matter.

I like wireless triggers myself. They can be had cheap. The pros and people serious about lighting use Pocket Wizards. I use some Amazon.com cheapies because my budget just didn't allow for pocket wizards right now, but they work very good. They are Cowboy Studio brand triggers. They are hotshoe triggers (meant to be used with off camera hotshoe flash, like your sb600), but as I understand it, they will work with your strobes by connecting a PC sync cable to them (they have a PC sync port). An alternative is a wired setup, using the PC sync port on your camera, or if it doesn't have it, Nikon and some third parties make hot-shoe PC sync cable adapters.

Amazon.com: CowboyStudio NPT-04 4 Channel Wireless Hot Shoe Flash Trigger Receiver: Camera & Photo

That's the trigger I use. Cheap and good! Just buy as many receivers as you need, and you should be good to go!

One note on those, several reviews note them failing after a couple of months. Others note them lasting for years. I have a hunch that those who experience failure don't realize that there is actually a battery inside the transmitter that must be replaced, but you actually have to take the transmitter apart to get to it. (It uses a 23A 12v battery). So when the battery eventually dies, they will become unreliable or just stop working. (The receivers use AAA batteries but they are replaced by just opening a battery door). I use Sanyo Eneloop AAA's in the receivers and they last for hundreds of shots (never had one die yet, I'm always done before I need to change batteries, even if I replace the AA's in my speedlites twice!)

Thanks for the input. I will look at getting some wireless triggers in the near future, but will continue using my setup to practice positioning, metering, etc. Thanks again! Cheers.