Nikon D300 v Olympus Flash

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rmcsandhurst

New member
I have an Olympus FL-600R Electronic Flash bought for use on my Olympus OM-D EM-1 camera (Sorry for the bad language :culpability:). Regretting the sale of my Nikon D300 a couple of years ago, I am awaiting delivery of one bought from eBay last night :encouragement:.

My simple question, which I cannot readily find the answer to on line, is "can I use this flash on the D300"?

TIA

Dave
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
Will a Ford water pump work on a Toyota? :) (not a good bet)

The Olympus flash should work on any camera in its Manual flash mode, or its non-TTL Auto mode. It will ONLY be compatible in TTL mode with the Olympus camera it was designed to communicate with.
 
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skene

Senior Member
Provided that there is a center prong for manual use, like Wayne stated... you should be able to use it in manual only. You will also be able to use it in off camera slave mode in manual using the D300 in commander mode.
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
skene said:
You will also be able to use it in off camera slave mode in manual using the D300 in commander mode.
Click to expand...

Did you actually mean "commander" ? Is that Nikon compatibility actually true? The FL-600R manual says: "Wireless control is available with Olympus digital cameras that support RC mode."

The flash does claim to have SL slave mode, triggered by any true manual flash, which could be the D300 internal flash in manual mode, but the commander mode will trigger any manual slave too early, before the shutter opens.
 
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skene

Senior Member
Well, the reason I state for commander mode, is that you can dial the flash exposure to almost non existant which is just enough to trigger the flash but not have an affect on your subject.
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
skene said:
Well, the reason I state for commander mode, is that you can dial the flash exposure to almost non existant which is just enough to trigger the flash but not have an affect on your subject.
Click to expand...

Except that won't work with the Commander.

You can do that with the internal flash in its regular Manual mode. Very low power level is normally enough to trigger a slave. The D300 camera has a menu for the internal flash, to select TTL, Manual, or Commander mode, and it can only be in Manual mode to trigger an optical slave.

Because the Commander is a no-no for slaves. Commander puts out numerous low level flashes before the shutter opens, to request preflash from each TTL group, and to set power level in each TTL or Manual group, any one of which simply triggers a slave too early to be useful. An optical slave triggers from any flash it sees.

The easy way to say it is that the Commander is simply incompatible with any manual flash gear, even including light meters. We have to choose to use the Commander system, or a Manual system, with no mixing.
 
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