d7000 & sb700 won't flash outside

Hi all,

I have a rather interesting dilemma I hope someone can help me out on.

I have a d7000 and sb700. When I attach the sb700 to the on camera shoe the flash will work as supposed to in every mode.

However, when using the built in flash as commander, and the sb700 on remote, the flash will not work outside under any exposure. Example. I put the flash on a tripod, set it to remote, popped up the built in flash, set the setting to commander and set my desired flash settings (M at 1/4 power). This was inside. The flash worked like a charm. I moved outside without turning anything off or touching any settings except for the exposure dials (i'm in manual so I moved all three, shutter, iso, and aperture). The flash would not go off. I over exposed, under exposed, drastically over and under exposed. Nothing. I walked with the set up inside, and touched nothing but the shutter release button and the flash fired perfectly.

Any thoughts????

Thanks in advance.

Are you standing to the left or right of your flash?

The sb700 was directly in front of the pop up commander flash on the d7000 by about 10 inches, though it was also above it by about 4 and a half inches. It was mounted on a Jobu flash bracket mounted on the lens collar foot of a 500mm lens sitting on a tripod.

I was told the pre-flash triggers the sb700 and I'm thinking since it was bright daylight with very little for the pre-flash to reflect the sb700 just didn't see the trigger.

It's obviously not a very intuitive design. I tried it this morning with the flash looking at the pre-flash and it worked fine, so I'm thinking this was the problem. Strike for Nikon CLS.

Yeah, it definitely sounds like the pre-flash wasn't being sensed.

Did you try the flash in su-4 mode? That may not give you the results you want though.

Welcome to the site, btw!

jdeg said:

Yeah, it definitely sounds like the pre-flash wasn't being sensed.

Did you try the flash in su-4 mode? That may not give you the results you want though.

Welcome to the site, btw!

Click to expand...

Thanks jdeg, No I haven't really played with su-4, from what I heard, it still needs to see the preflash from the d7000 built-in, correct?

Thanks.

su-4 does need a pre-flash, yes.

I'm wondering if you have the d7000 set correctly? Under Menu > Custom Settings Menu > Bracketing/Flash > e3 - is CMD set? Does the channel and group match the channel you have set on the sb-700?

Is the camera set to something other than auto or scene? Edit - I realized you said the camera was on manual.

Also, try the flash setting at something other than 1/4 power. I'm wondering if that is not powerful enough to trigger the flash.

Yeah the d7k is set right. It will work when the sb700 sees the pre-flash. It's just hard to get it to see it in bright conditions (not directly in or at sun light tho) when there is nothing close for the pre-flash to bounce off (birds in flight). The workaround is putting it on the camera shoe or getting a cord to hardwire it. I did try 1/1 power, and it still couldn't see it. I am going to try putting my hand just in front of the sensor on the sb700 so that the pre-flash should reflect and alert the sb700, just to see, but that's clearly not a solution. I don't think Nikon develops with birds in flight fill light in mind. ;~).

Actually - the 1/4 power shouldn't matter since CLS relies on infrared and pre-flash. You can set the built-in flash to not flash at all under the commander menu. It still has to be raised to output the pre-flash though.