Question on SB600 Speedlight and Manual Mode

[MStadnik]

Last night I was taking photos at a soccer tournament and have been using my D90 mostly in manual mode these days. At any rate I don't remember the exact settings I was trying to use but the SB600 flash wouldn't fire though it was attached and "on". I put the camera into AV mode and then the flash fired... I'm just trying to figure out why it didn't work in manual mode... any ideas? Thanks!

[MStadnik]

Nevermind... figured it out. I think I must have attached the speedlight when the camera was on... guess I really need to use this more and I would have remembered that

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by MStadnik

Nevermind... figured it out. I think I must have attached the speedlight when the camera was on... guess I really need to use this more and I would have remembered that

That shouldn't affect things. Were you trying to get it to flash multiple times in a row? The flash needs to recycle.

[MStadnik]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

That shouldn't affect things. Were you trying to get it to flash multiple times in a row? The flash needs to recycle.

No... it never flashed at all after attaching it. I thought maybe I had somehow put my camera into a mode where it thought it wasn't supposed to fire so I tried pressing the flash button to cycle through the flash modes and it wouldn't do that either - the camera flash just kept popping up instead. It was almost like the camera didn't recognize that the speedlight was attached. I'd never had that happen before - I think I've always been able to attach the speedlight and turn it on and go.. that's why I was so confused when it didn't work. It does say in the instruction manual to make sure that both the speedlight and camera are off before attaching it to the camera so I figured I had just remembered incorrectly and was doing it wrong.

[OsmosisStudios]

I've taken my flash off and put it on cameras all the time when one or the other or both were on. Are you sure you had it properly set in the shoe and locked in?

[MStadnik]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

I've taken my flash off and put it on cameras all the time when one or the other or both were on. Are you sure you had it properly set in the shoe and locked in?

I'm not sure... just tried to attach it to my already "on" camera and turned it on - sure enough it worked. I may have put it on incorrectly since I didn't have the best light to work with. Just odd that it happened to me two evenings in a row. Guess next time it happens, I'll remove it and try attaching it again now that I know that it shouldn't make a difference. Thanks

[candleman]

interesting.. you weren't shooting Program?

if theres enough light, Program wont fire the flash.

ALSo, if you're using shutterspeeds longer than what you have set as a parameter the flash will be disabled then too. I cant tell you what that shuterspeed is.. its a custom setting..
we're talking roughly a second or longer.