Problem with my D7000 wireless setup with SB-700

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amer369

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Hi everyone,

I've haven't been a member of this forum for long but have really benefited from it as an complete amateur and reading through the various dicussions. I bought my first DSLR 2 months back, a Nikon D7000 and have been hooked on this forum ever since.

Right, the problem started when i bought a SB-700 so i could experiment with 'off camera flash'. I couldn't get my camera to remotely trigger the flash. I EVEN read the manual to make sure i had everything set right.

Menu : e3 - flash set to commander mode. Built in flash (BIF) was set to -- and Group A set to TTL. Channel set to 1.

The SB-700 was set to remote mode and. Group A and Channel 1.

Camera BIF fired a preflash but the SB-700 wouldn't fire. I tried the SB-700 on the hot shoe and it worked prefectly.

Remotely again, I then set the Group A on the camera menu to AA (Auto Aperture) instead of TTL - pressed the shutter release... this time the SB-700 beeped but still didn't fire. (high pitch-low pitch x 6)

Set the Group A back to TTL and this time set the SB-700 to SU-4 in the remote settings menu.
This time the SB-700 fired but seemed like it was mistimed (heard 3 beeps too) as it would not expose the image, even shooting almost directly into the flash head (to catch the light) the image never showed any light emanating from the flash unit. ( but the flash did fire as looking straight into it was almost enough to blind you when it does fire!)

Apologies for this long post.. theres a little more to go....


Next, on the camera menu, in commander mode, i set the built in flash (Master: to TTL instead of --) Group A still TTL. The SB-700 did not fire and more interesting was the 'built in flash' (BIF) fired but no where near enough to expose the image ( i suspect camera still trying to act as trigger only and not flash) . Even when the BIF was set to Manual and 1/1 power the BIF fired but not enough to expose the image.

Out of commander mode as a normal flash the BIF works perfectly.

Can anyone please shed some light (no pun ;)) as to what could be going wrong when the BIF is used on commander mode. Has anyone else ever experienced anything remotely similar with a Nikon or a D7000?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.:)
 
Also please advise if I have this post in the wrong section of the Forum.... seemed the most appropriate to me....Thanks
 
Are you in aperture priority mode, not p ?
Is the flash set to Chanel 1, same as bif ?
Can the bif definately see the SB ?
 
SB700 set on "remote" (front red lamps flashing). Camera set to commander, any setting ttl, manual, __ will do
 
When in SU-4 mode the SB-700 will be triggering off the pre flash not the exposure flash, hence no sync.

I can't help on why the SB-700 won't fire with the BIF on master, other than can the BIF definitely see the IR sensor on the side of the SB-700?
 
Thanks for all the replies, I'll try and cover all the points raised.

There is definitely a line of sight between the camera and the ir sensor of the flash.

I've tried shooting in both manual mode and aperture priority mode.

The channel and group are both identical on the camera and SB700.

Yep understand about SU-4 mode firing a preflash but it doesn't explain why there is no flash fired (for exposure) when the camera is in commander mode and BIF set to TTL or full power on M. I mean with the BIF set to TTL in commander mode the camera should light up my image whether I have an off camera flash or not... Right?


An update: I bought another SB700 from jessops to help.. Again the same problem between BIF and SB700.

This time as I had the luxury of 2 SB700's so I decided to use one as the master and the other as slave (group A) it worked fine even with the flash facing slightly away from the ir sensor. Realised the IR sensor is quite sensitive which I really liked. Indoors, you don't need the line of sight as direct as I first thought. It's just like a remote control, does have to point to the TV exactly.

I am more and more convinced that I have a fault with my D7000 when I set the camera to commander mode. Could it be that the software in it is programmed to send the wrong signal as master... Hence the not being able to fire a slave?
 
Have you read what the beeps mean? I can't remember off the top of my head but I know they can be giving warnings about exposure etc...
 
Just a thought, but when you put the D7000 into Commander mode are you pressing OK to confirm the mode change? If you just select Commander and don't OK it then iirc the camera will simply revert to the previous setting.
 
Just to conclude this thread the cameras built in flash was at fault for not being able to trigger the SB700. Managed to exchange the camera and after that everything was fine. Thanks to all who tried to help.
 
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