Nikon D1The D1 WonderCam!<<Exposure :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 7:Amazing Flash Unit!Review First Posted: May 12, 2000 |
Amazing Flash Unit!
Like most professional SLRs, the D1 doesn't carry a built-in
flash of its own, but rather is designed to work with external strobe systems,
or "Speedlights" as Nikon is fond of calling them. We were fortunate to have
not one but two of the special SB-28DX flash units to work with while we had
the D1, and felt the results & flexibility we found were impressive enough
to justify a completely separate section of the review to discuss them. Herewith
the story of the D1 & SB-28DX:
Flash
The D1 carries a standard
Nikon hot shoe, compatible with a wide range of Nikon speedlights, as well as
many third-party flash units, albeit with a lower level of integration with
the camera. The manual includes a full list of compatible Nikon flash units,
and details the capabilities provided by each. (Note though, that the special
SB-28DX speedlight model is required for TTL metering with the D1.) There's
also a sync terminal for attaching another flash via a sync cable, giving you
even greater options. (Actually, see below for a discussion of multiple-flash
operation: It's pretty incredible!) With Nikon speedlight models SB-25, 26,
or 28, the flash will sync at shutter speeds as high as 1/500 of a second(!).
Five flash
sync modes are available by pressing the flash button on top of the camera.
Front-Curtain Sync fires the flash in sync with the opening of the front curtain
of the focal plane shutter, at the beginning of the exposure. Slow-Sync uses
a slower shutter speed in Program AE and Aperture Priority modes to bring out
background details by letting in more ambient light. Rear-Curtain Sync creates
a motion effect firing the flash just before the shutter closes. On longer exposures,
this results in a sharp image of the object, trailed by a blur caused by it's
motion before the flash fired. (When used with Program AE or Aperture Priority,
this slows the shutter speed to achieve the same effect as Slow-Sync). Red-Eye
Reduction emits a small pre-flash before firing the full flash to reduce the
red-eye effect. Finally, Red-Eye Reduction with Slow-Sync combines the two sync
modes and is available only with Program AE and Aperture Priority exposure modes.
When using the external Speedlight, Nikon recommends
setting the camera to any metering method except Spot. After setting exposure
and the flash sync mode, set the Speedlight to TTL so that it meters through the
lens. ("DX" version of the SB-28 only.) You can also select the flash's
appropriate range for the subject and the ISO setting to match the camera's.
Because each Speedlight varies, you'll want to check the accompanying manual to
verify settings and proper usage.
Multi-Auto
Flash with the SB-28DX
When Nikon asked us what
accessories we wanted with the D1, we made the unusual request fortwoSB-28DX speedlights, along
with a variety of cabling and multi-flash accessories (notably an SC-17 remote
TTL flash cable, and an AS-10 multi-flash adapter. (We had the distinct
impression that the Nikon consignment manager thought we were a little
flash-obsessed!)
The reason we
wanted two Nikon speedlights was to experiment a little with the multi-flash
capability of the D1, as part of our "All-Nikon, All-Digital Studio" story.
Through various emails we've received, we've become aware of a significant
number of pro photographers using fairly modest digicam setups for serious
product photography and other studio shooting. Particularly with the advent of
Nikon's new PC Micro Nikkor 85mm 1:2.8 D, the prospects for serious studio work
in an all-digital environment seem better than ever. An important part of studio
work is complex lighting, with multiple light sources. While most studio pros
will already have a strobe pack (or two or five), we wanted to examine the
capabilities offered by just combining multiple Nikon speedlights. What we found
was very interesting, to the point that we concluded (admittedly based on rather
limited experimentation) that it should indeed be both possible and practical to
construct a fairly capable studio lighting system using only the Nikkor
speedlights. One benefit of doing so (for the relative novice at least) is that
the Nikon speedlights can take advantage of the powerful TTL (through the lens)
flash metering of the D1.
Important Note:The SB-28DX is a special model of Nikon's
flagship SB-28, specifically designed to interface to the D1. It will work like
a conventional SB-28 (as far as we know) on cameras other than the D1, but it's
special characteristics are critical to accurate TTL metering with the D1. (A
standard SB-28 won't work accurately.) The reason is that current Nikon film
SLRs offering TTL metering do so by using a flash sensor that reads the light
reflected from the film itself, during the actual exposure. In the case of the
D1, the optical characteristics of the CCD prevented such an approach. Instead,
the D1's flash-metering circuitry measures the flash output that is reflected
from the shutter curtain immediately before the exposure itself, and uses that
information to determine the exposure. (We're told that the SB-28DX emits a
special metering pulse immediately before the main flash, but we confess to
being unable to detect it - it must be *awfully* quick! The possibility of a
pre-flash from the SB-28DX though, suggests that it might require special
"smart" slave triggers to fire non-SB28 flash slave units properly.)
The SB-28DX really deserves an Imaging-Resource
level review all its own: It has more modes and functions than you can shake the
proverbial stick at (as hinted at by its control-panel display, shown at right),
and integrates beautifully with the D1. One indication of its complexity is its
96-page instruction book! Used in its simplest mode, an SB-28DX mounted atop the
D1's hot shoe takes advantage of subject-distance information obtained from the
chips inside D-series Nikkor lenses to implement what Nikon calls "3D Matrix
Metering." The result is that the basic flash, operating in its simplest
full-auto mode seems nearly incapable of making a bad exposure. Straight-on,
bounced from any direction, off-camera via an extension cable, it doesn't
matter. You can certainly use it to take unattractive pictures, but just about
all of them will be well-exposed!
Used in conjunction with one or more additional SB-28DX
units, you can adjust the output of each unit to achieve a balanced exposure,
with separate output levels for main, fill, and sweep (background) lights. Our
evaluation of the SB-28DX in multi-flash mode was admittedly limited to some
rather crude tests of setting relative flash intensities on the main and remote
unit to achieve different light balances between the two units: We really didn't
have time (either with the unit, or in our overloaded schedule) to conduct
extensive "live" studio tests. We did see enough though, to convince ourselves
that multiple-flash studio photography with the D1 and multiple SB-28DX strobe
units would be quite practical. There are a few pieces of hardware that are key
to getting the whole assemblage to work. We'll share a couple of these here, to
help anyone interested in pursuing the all-Nikon, all-digital studio concept
further.
SC-17 Remote TTL cord
In an SB-28DX system, one flash must serve as the "master,"
with the others essentially daisy-chained off of it via SC-18 or SC-19 extension
cables. The only catch is thatallthe signals from the
D1's hot shoe must be connected to the master SB-28DX. This is trivial if you
want the main light to come from the vicinity of the camera, but what if that's
not what you're looking for? The answer is the SC-17 remote TTL cord, which
gives you a few feet of extension from the hot shoe contact to the flash itself.
(Nikon doesn't officially support it, but you can wire together multiple SC-17
units, or cut & extend the wires yourself. This obviously voids all
warrantees, etc., but we know photographers who routinely use 10-foot extension
cables cobbled together from butchered SC-17s.)
AS-10
Multi-Flash Adapter
The SB-28DX
itself has a three-prong sync connector on its side, allowing you to directly
strap together two of them into a multi-flash setup, with one mounted on the
camera, and the other held off to the side. Once you've made that connection
though, all the available connector sockets are full. To combine more than two
SB-28DXs together, you need one or more AS-10 multi-flash adapter units. These
are little gadgets that fit on the hot shoe of the flash, and offer three sync
sockets to chain additional speedlights off of. What we found most useful about
the AS-10 though (not needing the additional sync sockets in our 2-flash setup)
was the 1/4-inch threaded tripod socket on its bottom. This let us mount the
remote flash securely on a spare tripod, leaving our hands free without
requiring an assistant.
SC-18 and SC-19 extension
cables
These are rather
pedestrian, simply consisting of 3-prong extension sync cables. Useful to know
what they are though: The SC-18 is a 1.5 meter unit, while the SC-19 is a 3.0
meter unit. Use these to carry sync signals between flash units in a
multi-strobe setup. (Maximum official cable length is 10 meters or 33 feet.
Again, we know photographers who use longer home-brew cables, but such lengths
aren't supported by Nikon and may not work reliably.)
In our test shooting, we had a bit of a finicky time
balancing light output between strobe units properly: The SB-28DXs are complex
beasts, more so than most digicams we're accustomed to testing. We were able to
get the multi-flash strapup working though, and achieved a variety of very
"different" (my wife's term for something ugly but interesting) lighting effects
with the combination. We had the clear sense that a day's experimentation in the
studio with the flash units tucked inside our softbox and mounted on a tripod or
two would result in a very flexible and powerful lighting system. Clearly *way*
beyond the capabilities of any shoe-mount flash system we've ever seen
before!
Other SB-28DX tricks
While we've
focused on the SB-28's multi-unit sync capabilities, it has a host of other
features, some vital, others whimsical. In the former category is its ability to
automatically zoom to match its coverage area to lenses ranging from 24 to 85mm.
Flip down a built-in diffuser, and the range extends to 18mm at the wide angle
end. The obvious advantage of this zooming capability is that it's flash power
is concentrated into a tighter beam for telephoto use, extending its range: It
has an ISO 200 guide number of 33.6m or 107 feet. At f/2.8, this translating to
a maximum range of 38 feet at ISO 200, and the 85mm zoom setting. Another nifty
addition is a fairly powerful autofocus illuminator lamp on the front of the
unit, permitting accurate autofocus operation in total darkness. Finally, in the
whimsical category, the SB-28 has a stroboscope setting, in which it emits a
stream of flashes, at repetition rates of anywhere from 1 to 50 flashes per
second. The number of flashes that can be emitted in this mode depends on both
the intensity of each flash, as well as the repetition rate. Values range from 4
flashes at 20-50 fps (flashes per second) and 1/8 power to 90 flashes at 1/64
power and 1-2 fps. (Fun for humans, but our cat hates it.)
A cautionary
note
Shortly after posting this review, we heard from
Juergen Specht of the D1 mailing list that a number of his members have reported
variable results (eg, inconsistent exposure) with the SB-28DX operating in the
"DTTL" (through the lens metering) mode. Juergen himself now uses the SB-28DX in
its "auto" mode almost exclusively, to avoid the problem. We didn't experience
this in our own testing, but it appears a number of D1 owners have... (Juergen
didn't give us instructions for joining his list, but the listserver address is
[email protected].
(Note that's a "1", not an "i" or an "l" in the list name.)
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