D850 & SB700 connection advice

WaltonR · 4 Feb 2023

I'mlooking for some advice please.
I have a Nikon D850 but have never tried to use either of my speed lights via remote connection. The speed lights are an SB600 and an SB700. Tonight I was trying to have a go at some portraiture using off camera flash. My Elinchrom D-Lite RX 2 studio flash was a bit too powerful so I decided to try the SB700 speed light remotely.
When I navigated my way to the Flash Control option in the Photo Shooting Menu it was greyed out and when I tried to select it I got the message saying "This option is not available at current settings or in the camera's current state"
Reading the manual it seems that I need to get and SU800 commander, but that's £349 on Wex or buy some fancy more modern SU flash?
Is that the case or is there some other setting that I'm missing out on here?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Brazo · 5 Feb 2023

You can buy the SU800 it’s very good or some triggers like the pocket wizard set.

However you have everything you need at hand with your two flashes.

One can be mounted on the camera to trigger the other master/slave modes. Use SU4 mode but you’ll need line of sight between the two flashes.

realspeed · 5 Feb 2023

I have Pixel king remote flash triggers and can recommend. has a 300FT range( in photo Nikon D810 and Nikon SB900)

on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12440533...NLvKY18hqgbV9Nb5UZ/KOg7Pxs|tkp:Bk9SR6L7-pLEYQ

I also use on conjunction with above these

so I can do this and fire the flash remotely using the phottix transmitter and receiver to trigger the camera ,which in turn activates the Pixel King transmitter to the flash which may or may not be camera mouinted
mounted like this

demo

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AglXZi1FJ3E

View: https://youtu.be/-7GnmGx_ids

sk66 · 5 Feb 2023

I would not recommend the SU800 these days, it is IR/optical. Cheap wireless radio triggers/receivers are readily available and a better option (pixel, yongnuo, godox, etc)... 2 or 3 youngnuo 633-II's would be quite handy (they act as both transmitter/receiver and wireless remote)

But as was said, you can just put the SB600 in the hotshoe and set the SB 700 into SU-4 mode (optical slave). You can set the SB600 to a very low power if you don't really want it to contribute much.

WaltonR · 5 Feb 2023

Thanks for the advice guys. I really appreciate the effort put into your replies.
I spent some time looking through Westcott and Godox websites and then, today, went into Wex for a chat. The chap in the shop told me about the Calumet CF0094 Wireless Trigger/Receiver kit for £49.
I've spent some time this evening playing with the camera & speed light settings and have had some degree of success. The only issue I still have is the "This option is not available at current settings or in the camera's current state" message. I still can't get past it on both my D850 or the new Zfc.
Again thanks. for the assistance.

Bristolian · 5 Feb 2023

There is a quirk in the D850 that allows the SB700 to be used but not set-up via the in-camera menu. Weird!

According to the compatibility chart on the Nikon web site which, if I read it correctly says the SB600 is compatible. https://nikonsupport.eu/europe/images/6312/SBCC_en.pdf

sk66 · 6 Feb 2023

WaltonR said:
The only issue I still have is the "This option is not available at current settings or in the camera's current state" message. I still can't get past it on both my D850 or the new Zfc.

Most cameras cannot use flash in silent mode (electronic shutter).

toohuge · 7 Feb 2023

WaltonR said:
Thanks for the advice guys. I really appreciate the effort put into your replies.
I spent some time looking through Westcott and Godox websites and then, today, went into Wex for a chat. The chap in the shop told me about the Calumet CF0094 Wireless Trigger/Receiver kit for £49.
I've spent some time this evening playing with the camera & speed light settings and have had some degree of success. The only issue I still have is the "This option is not available at current settings or in the camera's current state" message. I still can't get past it on both my D850 or the new Zfc.
Again thanks. for the assistance.

We’ll need more information about what settings you’ve got your camera set to - before we can narrow down the issue.

As mentioned - electronic shutter can prevent certain features

WaltonR · 7 Feb 2023

Thanks for all the advice guys. I’ve managed to find out why the option is greyed out. It’s very simple. I need to be using a Nikon flash gun that supports Unified Flash Control (SB-5000, SB300, SB400 or SB500) and then this option becomes available. When using any other flash guns you change the options on the gun itself.
Again thanks for the assistance.