Speedlight compatibility with d3200

[lennon33x]

So if i put one of these transmitters on my hotshoe, i can trigger flash guns remotely simply by taking a picture on my d3200?

Yes. There are caveats though. The transmitters and receivers are usually synced by group, and some additionally have channels. The more basic ones (the cheap Chinese ones from eBay) are RF triggers and have groups. They usually run somewhere around $20. They are very cheaply made and extremely unreliable.

Midrange transmitters (Yongnuo YN-622, Pixel Opas/King) run around the $60-100 per set. They are much more reliable and have better quality. Cactus triggers, Phottix and Elinchrom can sometimes fall in that range.

Your most reliable, and most expensive, triggers are your Paul B Cybersyncs and Pocket Wizards.
They can get around $300-500+ a set.

With some triggers you get what you pay for. I choose to stay married, so I went mid-range and have the Pixel set-up. Some of the RF triggers have capabilities of ETTL and high-speed sync. But these systems are limited in what they can do by the types of flashes you have. If you have an ETTL/HSS style trigger system and your flashes don't have these capabilities, then they won't work (I just found this out the hard way).

 

[hamlet]

But i bought the sb-910. Doesn't this flash gun have the capabilities to trigger other flashes when on my cameras hotshoe?

 

[lennon33x]

But i bought the sb-910. Doesn't this flash gun have the capabilities to trigger other flashes when on my cameras hotshoe?

Theoretically, yes, if they have optical slave capabilities. Every one of your flashes has to have some[/] capability of wireless. According to Nikon's website, it can serve as a "wireless command." But, the proprietary concept is that you have to purchase other Nikon speedlights to utilize wireless capabilities. If you switch to studio strobes, or use a less expensive third party flash (i.e. Yongnuo 565ex, etc.), you lose that capability or it won't be as reliable.

If you go with the optical/IR slave route, then you have to shoot in the right conditions. If it is too bright outside, or other lighting interferes with your OFC's ability to see the flash, then you can have misfires or the flash won't fire at all. With IR, the off-camera flashes have to have direct route in between them. So modifiers such as soft boxes, umbrellas, GOBOs, etc., can have reliability issues. Some radio frequency triggers can receive info from pretty far distances (+/- 100 meters).

The other question I have (and this is my own personal preference), is that why would you want a flash mounted directly on the hotshoe to fire and then have OFC? Are you doing it to simply use the SB-910 as a command? Or is your preference for on-camera flash? I don't like the way on-camera flash flattens out/washes out the subject. Again, this is my own personal preference. If you have one OFC mounted to a stand, with a softbox rotated at your subject to 45 degrees, you can get a much softer, more dramatic effect than having two flashes (one on camera and one OFC). Because your flash is mounted directly to your hotshoe, the modifications to soften the light are very limited. Food for thought

 

[hamlet]

I never considered these scenarios and its something i've got to think about. But the reason i bought a flash gun is because i want to shoot at higher shutter speeds without raising my iso to extremes to freeze everything in my picture and not have motion blur due to slow shutter speed. These other options like using the flash gun to get a picture to look a certain way are things i probably have to mess around with myself.

 

[lennon33x]

I never considered these scenarios and its something i've got to think about. But the reason i bought a flash gun is because i want to shoot at higher shutter speeds without raising my iso to extremes to freeze everything in my picture and not have motion blur due to slow shutter speed. These other options like using the flash gun to get a picture to look a certain way are things i probably have to mess around with myself.

I JUST had this issue with mine. Granted I don't shoot Nikon, my goal was to freeze motion, which I can do, albeit totally by accident. My flashes/strobes (I have a Triopo 980 and two Neewer Studio strobes) are not HSS, and I use the Pixel King Transmitter with Pixel Opas transceivers. After many, many shots, I realized that the compatibility between the King/Opas system was allowing for communication that would allow me to get 1/2000 and higher.
This is ISO 50, f/1.4, Shutter Speed 1/250
View attachment 61481
This is ISO 160, f/1.4, Shutter speed 1/2000
View attachment 61482

Granted I think my situation was more of a happy accident, and I've figured out that I can only do it with my current setup with studio strobes. I am limited to about 1/200 if I want to incorporate my flashgun. That being said, look into the YN-622 by Yongnuo. They run about $60/pair on Amazon here in the US.

 

[18.percent.gary]

But the reason i bought a flash gun is because i want to shoot at higher shutter speeds without raising my iso to extremes to freeze everything in my picture and not have motion blur due to slow shutter speed.

If you're talking about using Auto FP in bright conditions to use flash above your camera's synch speed then you're out of luck. The D3200 doesn't support Auto FP so you're stuck with a maximum shutter speed of 1/250 (your synch speed) regardless of what your flash is capable of.

If you're taking shots in low light and using a flash to freeze motion then shutter speed is completely irrelevant. The duration of the flash is what freezes motion.

Let's say you want to take a picture a water balloon exploding like Reavesce and freeze the water droplets even more (completely frozen). You set up in a pitch black room with no ambient light at all. You set the camera to ISO 100, F8 and a shutter speed of 10 seconds. Yes, TEN. Without a flash the entire photo would be completely black.

But you're using a flash. During the 10 second exposure the flash fires once. The flash duration is let's say 1/20,000 of a second long. The subject is only illuminated for 1/20,000 of a second which freezes any motion much better than your camera could ever do with a max shutter speed of only 1/4000. Again, shutter speed is irrelevant to freezing motion when using a flash.

 

[hamlet]

I don't know what that means but i'll find out soon enough.


But in my experience, shutter speed does stop everything in motion. I was able to stop my computer fan when i used the on camera flash and a fast shutter speed.

 

[astroNikon]

Yes you have the basic understanding.

But what he is talking about is how the light then becomes the "exposure" part of the equation.

In simplistic terms

If you are in a pitch black room with hamsters running around like crazy
you can't see anything because it is pitch black
If you take a photo of 10 seconds with no light your photo would be pitch black

Any Light then becomes the "exposure" part of the equation. (let's ignore the aperture ISO for this example)

If you take a photo with shutter for 10 seconds, and say use a flashlight for 3 seconds you will have exposure for 3 seconds but catch 3 seconds of motion out of 10 seconds of shutter being open.

if you use a flash, and that flash is fast it will "freeze the motion" even with a 10 second shutter.

This is because the sensor gathers light for a split second from the flash, as the other 9.99 seconds is pitch black.
Thus the flash then becomes the "exposure" factor

I hope I got it right in that simplified example.


Opposite of that. You can be in a pitch black room and use a flashlight and write words in the air,
such as this

 

[hamlet]

Now i understand what you mean, but i actually never thought about doing something like that. I will use my flash gun to get the right exposure at very high shutter speeds.

 

[18.percent.gary]

I will use my flash gun to get the right exposure at very high shutter speeds.

As I said before, anytime you use any flash with your D3200 you will be limited to a maximum shutter speed of 1/250. Anything faster than 1/250 and a portion of your image will be covered by a big black band (the shutter blade).

You will not be able to set your shutter speed faster than 1/250 when using a flash.

 

[ratssass]

:study::study::study:

 

[18.percent.gary]

Whoops... the synch speed for the D3200 is only 1/200.

Replace all my "1/250" with "1/200" in the posts above.

 

[amolitor]

High speed sync may actually be possible with the OP's combination of gear.

 

[18.percent.gary]

High speed sync may actually be possible with the OP's combination of gear.

How so? My sister attempted to get it to work on her new D5200 with my SB800 with no luck. There's no Auto FP option in the flash menu on the D5200 so I assume the D3200 s the same.

 

[ratssass]

High speed sync may actually be possible with the OP's combination of gear.

<---not being a jerk,genuinely interested...please elaborate. BTW,using D7000,Promaster 7500,Yongnuo 603n.