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<blockquote data-quote="yauman" data-source="post: 288360" data-attributes="member: 15418">The camera communicates with the remote flash via pulses of very low power flashes - as sequence of &quot;dot&quot; and &quot;dashes&quot; like Morse code. That communication string tells the remote flash what settings to use - ie power level, head zoom position etc.&nbsp; Then when it's time to tell it to go off, it has to send another &quot;GO signal&quot; via another short burst of low level flash.Now, the reason the pre-flash &quot;setting&quot; communications has to be different from the final &quot;Go&quot; signal is that it give you the option to &quot;Flash Lock&quot; ie, send the preflash separately to tell the remote flash to lock in the settings - then when you take the picture, it just need to send the &quot;go&quot; signal without being preceded by a pre-flash sequence. You can program one of the buttons to be the FV button -it's a good option especially when you are photographing subjects who are sensitive and quick blinkers - blinking at the preflash, caught with their eyes close when the main flash goes off.&nbsp; I always use the Flash Lock option when shooting models - just one pre-flash during setup and then shot away without any more pre-flashing.&nbsp; When you use Flash Lock, the locked settings stays until you do another flash lock so subsequent firing is just a much shorter firing signal rather than a longer string of pre-flash instructions. I always wonder why Nikon (and others) don't use RF to communicate rather than light pulses. With modern integrated chip technology, it's so simple, cheap and easy to just embed and RF comm chip in the camera and the flash!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="yauman, post: 288360, member: 15418"] The camera communicates with the remote flash via pulses of very low power flashes - as sequence of "dot" and "dashes" like Morse code. That communication string tells the remote flash what settings to use - ie power level, head zoom position etc. Then when it's time to tell it to go off, it has to send another "GO signal" via another short burst of low level flash. Now, the reason the pre-flash "setting" communications has to be different from the final "Go" signal is that it give you the option to "Flash Lock" ie, send the preflash separately to tell the remote flash to lock in the settings - then when you take the picture, it just need to send the "go" signal without being preceded by a pre-flash sequence. You can program one of the buttons to be the FV button -it's a good option especially when you are photographing subjects who are sensitive and quick blinkers - blinking at the preflash, caught with their eyes close when the main flash goes off. I always use the Flash Lock option when shooting models - just one pre-flash during setup and then shot away without any more pre-flashing. When you use Flash Lock, the locked settings stays until you do another flash lock so subsequent firing is just a much shorter firing signal rather than a longer string of pre-flash instructions. I always wonder why Nikon (and others) don't use RF to communicate rather than light pulses. With modern integrated chip technology, it's so simple, cheap and easy to just embed and RF comm chip in the camera and the flash! [/QUOTE]

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