SB900 question

Russ MCR

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Hi

I'm thinking of buying a SB900, but have a question before I do so. What is the easiest / cheapest way to use this Speedlight off-camera. Can you, for example, use a wire straight from the camera body itself?

Many thanks,
Russ.
 
no - the easiest and cheapest way for you to do this would be to put the SB-900 in remote mode, and to use the onboard flash on your D700 as a controller. No additional expense, and you retain full TTL capability. The D700 menus to do this are a little clunky, but it works as well as anything else
 
Cheers all. Most useful.

If I use the the built-in flash as controller - to what degree can I block the light from the built-in, while still allowing this to control the SB900? (Say is a situation where I want the light to come exclusively from one direction...)
 
Cheers all. Most useful.

If I use the the built-in flash as controller - to what degree can I block the light from the built-in, while still allowing this to control the SB900? (Say is a situation where I want the light to come exclusively from one direction...)

you can set up the on board to issue control pre flashes only, and (allegedly) not add any light to the exposure from the menu's for the onboard. As it only the infra red part of the pre flash spectrum that is actually used, if you find your still getting some light leakage from the pre flashes then you can buy a widget from Nikon (I forget the part number) to block the leakage, or stick an old, exposed piece of 35mm film over the flash to stop it being a problem

Cheers

Hugh
 
Cheapest way is obviously just using the built in popup flash as a CLS commander, usually the easiest way too, but it does have issues (line of sight, it still shows up as a reflection in glass/metal/etc - but the SG-3IR sorts the reflections at least).

I recently decided to pick up a TTL cable (I got a lastolite one cheap, works a treat), and it's great. Lets me now have up to four groups of flashes in CLS (of course, one of those groups is a group of 1 flash, which is the commander).

But, I'd go the CLS route while you're getting started, and you're not forced to use iTTL, you can still set the off-camera flash using manual power settings from within your D700's menus.
 
altho in my limited experience of 4 days with my SB900 I haven't seen that much leakage from the onboard flash

Try it with a glass vase, or something that's chromed. You'll see reflections of the flash then. It's really shiny stuff (so occasionally eyes too, but depending on subject distance, it might be too small a reflection for the sensor to pick up if you're shooting long).

It's not so much that the popup adds any useful exposure to the shot, just that it can reflect in very shiny/reflective objects.
 
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