Okay so I took everyone's advice and bought the Yongnuo RF-603 and I cannot seem to get it to trigger my speedight (I have the Nikon SB-500) no matter what I do. I have a d5500. I have changed channels and settings, tried the speedlight on and off of the camera. I've got the cable hooked up to the trigger on the camera. they are on the same channel. What am I missing?
Ashley, I'm sorry to have to say that you have the wrong flash for your goals. On a D5500, it is a hot shoe flash, and it will do that, but it will only work on the camera hot shoe. Some of the Nikon flashes have become pretty minimal, at least let's say Not for off-camera flash enthusiasts.
The SB-300, SB-400, and SB-500 have no LCD display, and thus no menu for the user to set things like modes. Instead, these models depend on being on the camera hot shoe for communication to use the camera's menu. Then the camera menu settings (for modes like TTL or Manual flash mode) from the internal flash menu are also used for these hot shoe flash models (other flashes have their own menus). But that means that these models are not capable of off camera work, because they need access to the camera menu in order to have a menu. They have to be on a late model Nikon camera hot shoe to work at all, in any way.
The SB-500 is the fancy one of these minimal menu-less models, and it does have a switch to set Group A or B for remote AWL use with the Nikon Commander. However, the D5500 does not have a commander.
I am Not certain (just talking, I don't have these models), but the Yongnuo YN622N trigger system claims to be able to control a SB-400 remotely on its trigger (able to do what the camera hot shoe does). It does not mention the SB-500? It seems likely to work, but that's merely my speculation, I know no details, and I have no evidence.
So what would work better (and on the RF-603 too) is flashes like the Yongnuo, for under $100, which would have more features, and more power too. Or any regular speedlight, not just Yongnuo, but Yongnuo is a popular brand. Any regular speedlight flash with a menu to set Manual mode ought to work on the RF-603. For example, Yongnuo model YN560 for manual flash only, or YN565 or YN568 for TTL too.
The RF-603 does not work with TTL (Manual flash only), but everyone also needs a TTL flash.
FYI, the RF-603 cable is not used for flash. It is a shutter cable, and is only used to use the RF-603 as a remote shutter release instead of as a flash.
The problem though is this: Page C-3 of the SB-500 manual describes Manual mode (which the RF-603 requires), and says this:
It says a few times: On the camera, uses the camera menu. On those Nikon camera models that were designed to work with such a menu-less flash.
