Looking for the right flash units

[TriggerHappy]

I'm looking to buy two speedlights. The first is to be mounted on my D200 and the second on my F5. I understand the latest sb-900 isn't backwards compatible with film but I'm still interested in this for the D200. I'm a little confused about the extent of backwards compatibility in the Nikon flash range so I'm helping you can help me out. There's also a second requirement I have for the F5 flash: I'd like it to be able to act as a slave flash so that I can have one unit for my F5 and two flashes to be used with my D200 and any future upgrades. Any good solutions?

Thanks folks!

 

[TriggerHappy]

OK, I've spent the evening doing a little more reading and I think the best solution I can come up with is one SB-900 and one SB-600. The SB-600 is compatible with the F5 apart from high speed sync which I can manage without and can act as a slave to either the SB-900 or the pop-up flash of the D200. This gives me the option of 2 off camera flashes that I can control directly from the menu of the D200. Three cheers for Nikon's CLS! Better get the wallet out

 

[Kaouthia]

I belive the iTTL/CLS flashes are compatible with the F6, but that's the only film body as far as I know.

Now, the SB-600 documentation (and SB-800, apparently) does claim that it's backwards compatible with D-TTL bodies (as well as the film bodies), although it won't work in D-TTL mode on my D100 (not that D-TTL was actually all that useful).

It'll work no problem with RF-602 radio triggers though.

Personally, I'd look into the possibility of RF-602 triggers working with your F5, and getting a pair of SB-900s. You wouldn't get TTL using RF-602 triggers on the F5, although I don't think you would with the SB-600 on the hot-shoe either.

If the SB-600 will work on the F5's hotshoe as a regular manual power flash, it should be able to trigger the SB-900 in SU-4 mode, but if you're going to do that, the RF-602 option makes sense for the cost, and one of your flashes isn't tied up being on the hotshoe.

 

[TriggerHappy]

Certainly says here that d-ttl should work with your D100 and ttl should work with the F5:

Flash Exposure Control
1) i-TTL Balanced Fill-Flash with Nikon D2H and D70
2) D-TTL Balanced Fill-Flash with Nikon D1 series or D100
3) TTL Auto Flash with the Nikon F5, F100, N80, N75, and FM3A
4) Manual Flash

Slightly worries me that perhaps it won't though after your experiences.

My reasoning for wanting TTL is that I'm new to flash and it offers something to fall back on should I struggle. On top of that two SB-900's would set me back over £600 and I could save £100 by going for the SB-600 and I was planning on going second-hand to save even more.

RF-602's are on the list already but I really like the idea of controlling flash output from the camera (yes, I'm lazy). I'll have to experiment to see how much of a limitation the flexibility of flash positioning is when relying on the pop-up flash to trigger them.

 

[Kaouthia]

It's ok, I'm lazy too, I love CLS, although I usually use an SB-900 as a commander - Easier than fiddling around with the camera's menus (see, lazy).

Shame you're not closer, you could've had a play with mine to see what functionality you do and don't get with each of the flashes.

When shooting film, you probably won't want to rely on the TTL anyway (even if you did have an F6 with iTTL) - purely because you won't know what your results look like until after you've got it all developed.

What I'd do in your position is get all my flashes setup with the D200 and RF-602 gear, then when things look right, pull the transmitter off the D200, put it on the F5, then shoot. That way you know things should look right (making sure your D200's ISO is set to the same as your F5's film speed, as well as aperture and shutter speed).