Nikon D7000 flash sync problem??

c22w1

c22w1

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Chris
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I have been out today around the moors taking shots of our small feathered friends.
Due to the poor light I needed to use a minimum of ISO 3200 which was resulting in quite heavy noise. So with me not yet having a SB700 flash I resorted to the on board flash.
Every time the flash fired it scared the birds away which is what I expected but the they soon reappeared ready to pose for their next portrait. However the shots I have got are of the birds taking flight and very few of them while they were still on their perch etc meaning that the flash was firing just before the shutter opened.
It appears to me that either the flash is firing a pre-flash (which I cannot see) or that the flash is synced to the rear curtain, I have looked through the menus but cannot find anything related to the flash and first curtain or rear curtain sync as there is on my Canon but maybe Nikon call it something different?
Does anyone know a workaround please?
Would the SB700 have the same effect?
Thanks
 
Yes, there is a pre-flash in any flash mode except full manual. That may be enough to scare them, though small garden birds can also react fast enough to the sound of the camera's mirror rising and first shutter curtain opening, to be on their way by the time the flash fires.

Your shot shows the bird mostly frozen by the short duration of the flash, but the fast-moving wings are blurred from the significant ambient light component of the exposure.

Edit: in my limited experience of this kind of thing, I found birds really weren't too troubled by the flash, but noise spooks them.
 
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The modelling flash as its known in Nikon terminology can be turned off in the menu....wife has the camera so cant tell you the exact menu..but can definitely be done.

Neil
 
neilos100 said:
The modelling flash as its known in Nikon terminology can be turned off in the menu....wife has the camera so cant tell you the exact menu..but can definitely be done.

Neil
Click to expand...

Modelling flash is something different to the pre-flash that is fired for auto-exposure calculation, just before the mirror rises. It happens so fast our eyes often struggle to detect it and it merges as one into the main flash.
 
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