OCF SB-600 triggering question

[filemanager]

Greetings all,

I know virtually nothing about lighting. Zero. El nada. So I decided I should start experimenting. I already had a SB-600 I use ON camera, but I wanted to play with some OFF camera lighting as well.

So I went out and bought myself a light-stand, just to start.

Here's the weird thing... I have a Nikon D80, so my flash will trigger using the Commander mode, but it won't trigger outside! Mr. Flash works perfectly fine indoors, but when I take it outside (and I've only tried this during the day), it won't trigger!

Could the sunlight or something be interfering?

[inkista]

Yup. Remember, CLS uses a near-infrared light signal to communicate between the camera and the flash. This is exactly like a TV remote. You need to be within range, and you must have "line-of-sight" between the flash sensor, and your pop-up flash (i.e., the front of the flash body has to face the camera, and can't be behind something that will block the light signal. This is why we like swivel capability).

CLS generally loses range and reliability when used outside. Indoors, the infrared signal can bounce of walls and ceilings and still be "seen". But outdoors, sunlight can overpower it, and there's nothing to bounce off.

This is why radio triggers are a common next step among Strobists. Before you ask:

---Manual flash only--- (no i-TTL or high-speed sync).
Low Budget: Cactus V4s or Yongnuo RF-602s (~$40 for a Tx/Rx set).
Midrange Budget: Cybersyncs and RadioPopper JrXs (~$150-$200 for a Tx/Rx set). [sync port on flash needed]
High Budget: PocketWizards (~$300-$700 for a 2-transceiver set). [sync port on flash needed]

"Insanely high budget" gets you iTTL/HSS
PocketWizard MiniTT1, and/or FlexTT5 (~$400 for a 2-transceiver or transmitter/transceiver set--not yet out for Nikon). [OEM flash gear needed, hotshoe specific]
RadioPopper PXs. (~$500 for a Tx/Rx set). [OEM flash gear needed]

Remember, too, that with triggers, that you may end up having to scale up to the number of lights you need. So, for example, with a three-light setup, the budgets become:

~$80 for Cactus V4s/RF-602s
~$250-$300 Radiopopper JrX/Cybersyncs
~$800 for PocketWizards
~$1000 for RadioPopper PXs

You can possibly eliminate one or two receivers using tricks like sync cords, splitters, and optical slaves. But that can get to be a PITA at a certain point.

[filemanager]

Ah thank you so much! Finally some confirmation on what I thought!

So you're saying that if I bought a PocketWizard Plus II, for instance, it wouldn't have TTL capabilities? =\

[inkista]

Yup. Ditto the MultiMaxes. Those were released pre-Radiopoppers and the Strobist.

The Nikon TTL PocketWizards are definitely in the works, and most reports say they've less troublesome than the Canon versions (there's been an RF shielding issue with the Canon speedlites that doesn't affect the Nikon SBs). But they're long overdue and PW initially announced they'd be available Q2 2009...

If you look at most radio triggers, they only communicate the center firing pin signal of the hotshoe (i.e., they'll only have the center pin, or only connect up to a sync port of some kind). TTL requires that the camera talk to the flash to force the pre-flash to be at a specific power level, meter the preflash, and then set the power level on the flash. This is done by all the other pins--which aren't included in a synch connection.

The RF-602s and TTL PocketWizards are the only units that have contacts/pins for the TTL information. But the RF-602s are merely using them for the "wake-up" signal, and PocketWizard are sort of reverse-engineering the secret whispers on the pins--hence all the release delays and separate Canon/Nikon units required. RadioPoppers went a whole other route, and are simply translating the pulses caused by the IR signalling and just passing them along via radio to the other unit, and translating them back out to light pulses. So, same units can be used on either Canon/Nikon gear, but you have to have all-Nikon or all-Canon flashes, and a commander unit of some kind.