Camera Labs

I am a Nikon D90 user and I bought a Nissin Di662 as my first external flashgun.
It works well when I attach the Di662 to my D90. It also works as a slave (detached from the D90) when I fire the built-in flash.
What I've been trying to do is using the Di662 as a slave flash without firing the D90 built-in flash.

I set the D90 as follows.

"Flash Control for Built-in-Flash", "Commander Mode", choose "--" for Built-in-Flash.
"GroupA", choose "TTL" (also tried "M")

So, I expected to see the Di622 fire when the Built-in Flash did not.
However, the built-in-flash still fired!! I could not stop the built-in-flash firing.

Is this because the Di622 doesn't work with commander mode? or is there something wrong with my D90?
I wonder why my D90 still fires even when I have not set it to fire.

Nothing wrong, I think it is even mentioned in the manual, for the built-in commander to work, the built-in flash has to fire as it works with IR-signals and they can not be sent alone.

So, don't worry and continue using your D90.

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- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

Im not at all an expert on flash, but doesnt the built in flash fire only to tell the slave when to fire, and it doesnt actually affect the image in any way?

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Nikon D5000 and D300 with 12-24mm, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, 60mm f2.8 Macro, 18-200mm, 17-55mm f2.8 (all Nikon)

Unless you are real close up and/or have a reflecting surface in your picture. But in general it WILL NOT affect your picture. If it does however, there is the accessory SG-3IR if my memory recalls correctly.

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- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

In commander mode the built in flash will fire to command the external flash to fire.

In the flash menu, you can set the built in flash to have no impact on the overall picture, or dial in a little fill if required. There is plenty of control there on board.

Thanks you for your reply so quickly!!
Really appreciate you all!
Good to know that there is nothing wrong with my D90 and my new Di622 flash.
I'll carry on practising.

Re: Flash
When I try to use flash, the camera doesn't allow me to increase the shutter speed more than 200s. Can anybody tell me if it's possible to increase the shutter speed faster than 1/200s?

I have got my camera to hand, but I'm pretty sure popping it into M, you can dial in as fast a shutter as you want.

Obviously you'll be underexposing your shots and TTL metering will blast the flash away at full power, so your recharge times will be effected and batteries will run down pretty quickly...

Does the external flash allow x-sync? Because of the speed of the shutter and the time the flash exposes your subject, you will see black bars in your picture if it is faster than the 1/200s, however in x-sync it will emit a few short flashes to expose almost continuously your subject.

There are websites with nice animations to show the said effect, dont know where exactly. Probably wikipedia

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- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

good point, woutK89 - with a SB600 there's no issues with banding at 1/4000th, but a 3rd party flash unit may operate differently...

Have a look at Dom Bower (I think) on youtube...

He's got some examples of external flash at high shutter speeds to turn day into night, and capture action...

ok...
Manual Mode... set the aperture... use built-in-flash to pop up...
I'm using built-in flash only now...

Shutter speed still can't be changed over 200!

why?

the recharge time of the flash is too slow. That is the only explanation I can think of.

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- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW

http://nikond90blog.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... video.html

here you go

right.... so I don't seem to be able to go beyond 1/200s when I use flash (no matter built-in-flash or external output) unless I get special equipment.

Thanks guys for your help.

Phil, I was searching so much for much that video, seemed it was a link to Youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqf3TM-WGTE

Was much easier.

_________________
- Wout -
Nikon D80 with 18-70 DX, 70-300 VR, 35 1.8 DX
Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with 488RC0 midi ballhead
Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 200 AW