Apples

Apples

by Garik

submit your photo


Picture of the Week Themes
Suggest and vote on themes

Please participate in Meta
and help us grow.

Tell me more ×
Photography Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional, enthusiast and amateur photographers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite

Without itself emmiting light during the exposure?

share|improve this question
Which, by the way, strongly implies the answer is yes, since it's typical of Nikon cameras (and others), but I don't know the specifics of that model. – mattdm Nov 26 '12 at 20:02

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

The D800 doesn't have a radio trigger, so yes, it emits light when talking to other flashes -- whether with a dumb optically-triggered slave or with the CLS system. The light emitted is minimal, but it's there.

share|improve this answer
   
But, it has a "commander" mode where the emitted light is minimal and intended of communication only, not to contribute to the exposure, right? – mattdm Nov 26 '12 at 20:05
I think (perhaps mistakingly) that the pre-flashes used for TTL metering happen before the shutter curtain opens. I guess this is basicaly the question – strobity Nov 26 '12 at 20:11
Yes, the light emitted during preflash is minimal, but it's certainly there: try shooting a highly reflective surface at 1/250 sec/small aperture and you'll have no trouble capturing the preflash emitted in commander mode. – Dan Wolfgang Nov 26 '12 at 20:43
The command pulse is actually distinct from the preflash; that's what you are capturing in that case. The preflash does happen before the shutter opens, but the control flash can't. But the important thing here is that the commander mode uses a diminished pulse for the control, and while it will show up in reflections, it's intended to be minimal and not contribute to the exposure, as opposed to "master" mode, where the pop-up flash also fires intentionally to light the subject. – mattdm Nov 26 '12 at 20:48
If distance (or complicated reflection paths) is not an issue, there is the SG-3IR infrared filter for the pop-up. It's intended use is with the R1 twin-tube macro flash, but it will work with the whole CLS, making the pop-up into a sort of reduced-power SU-800 unit on- or near-axis (with some white light spill, of course). – Stan Rogers Nov 26 '12 at 21:56
show 1 more comment

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.