How do I use off camera flash without the onboard flash flashing?

cambsno

cambsno

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At a friends for a few days so no trusty manuals!

I have a D300 and SB600. Have CLS set on the camera and if flash is popped up, the sb600 will flash from my stand. How do I stop the camera flash flashing while the sb600 does?
 
cambsno said:
At a friends for a few days so no trusty manuals!

I have a D300 and SB600. Have CLS set on the camera and if flash is popped up, the sb600 will flash from my stand. How do I stop the camera flash flashing while the sb600 does?
Click to expand...

The onboard flash needs to fire to trigger the SB-600 when using CLS, however what you can do is go into the menu and set it's power to "--" so that (in theory) it doesn't effect the exposure....
 
Flash In The Pan said:
The onboard flash needs to fire to trigger the SB-600 when using CLS, however what you can do is go into the menu and set it's power to "--" so that (in theory) it doesn't effect the exposure....
Click to expand...

Thanks, explains why I havent found a way!!!

Out of interest, is the SB900 any different - will it work with flash down?
 
nope
you need to get a SU-800 to put on your camera to fire off camera flashes - then you don't need the on board at all.
 
I'm not Nikon but my understanding is that with top end cameras like the D300 the on-board flash operates as a fully functional controller unit. In which case, is there not a menu function that disables the main flash, leaving only the pre-flash operative?
 
yes, there is, what flash in the pan said, allegedly when you set the 'built in flash' option on the camera to '--', in theory it doesn't contribute to the actual exposure.
 
itsdavedotnet said:
yes, there is, what flash in the pan said, allegedly when you set the 'built in flash' option on the camera to '--', in theory it doesn't contribute to the actual exposure.
Click to expand...

Ok right, that's what I thought. But why the 'in theory' bit? If the main flash is disabled, and only the pre-flash fires, there's no way it can influence the main exposure :thinking:
 
If your not taking close-up pictures disabling the main flash (as post #4) will work fine, if your shooting closeups- Macro you can get a shadow so Nikon sell a IR filter that sits on the hotshoe to block visible light but allows the IR through to trigger the external flash, its called a SG-3IR and costs about £9
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
If your not taking close-up pictures disabling the main flash (as post #4) will work fine, if your shooting closeups- Macro you can get a shadow so Nikon sell a IR filter that sits on the hotshoe to block visible light but allows the IR through to trigger the external flash, its called a SG-3IR and costs about £9
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. I was under the impression that 'disabled' meant what it says, ie switched off completely. I was wrong.

I've just tried it with my Canon 580EX and indeed the main flash is not completely turned off when disabled, just turned down to a very, very low output. It's much lower than minimum manual power of 1/128th, like several stops lower though I didn't bother to work it out exactly. In normal use it's completely invisible but, with Canon like Nikon it seems, you can see it when working close at low f/number and high ISO.

Cheers for the info :thumbs:
 
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