SB900 trigger help

[paulminus273]

I have use a couple of the cheap flash guns off camera with rf602 triggers but now an old friend has given me 2 SB900’s . I would like to try out the cls and I know that I can use the pop up flash on the d90 to control the sb900’s but
A in bright sun IR is not that reliable
B on camera flash is not that desirable to me
So in order to use cls I could use pw radio triggers, expensive or I could use an Nikon cable to control one much cheaper.
The question is can I get a cable system to control both
Thanks for any help you may be ale to give

 

[Naboo32]

I have use a couple of the cheap flash guns off camera with rf602 triggers but now an old friend has given me 2 SB900’s . I would like to try out the cls and I know that I can use the pop up flash on the d90 to control the sb900’s but
A in bright sun IR is not that reliable
B on camera flash is not that desirable to me
So in order to use cls I could use pw radio triggers, expensive or I could use an Nikon cable to control one much cheaper.
The question is can I get a cable system to control both
Thanks for any help you may be ale to give

Hi Paul,

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking if you can (somehow) connect one cable to each SB-900 and have the camera control them both independently, so that you can still assign each one to a different (A,B,C,D) group :shrug:? I would have to say that I don't see how that is possible.

I use two SB-900s (although mine weren't free ... ) and the best I can do is to attach one via the cable to the camera's hotshoe and use it to trigger the other one, via it's infa-red beam. This way, you can still assign them to separate groups and have more reliable triggering than with the onboard flash, provided that the first flash can 'see' the second flashes IR window.

Apart from Pocket Wizards (which I know very little about), I think that any other way of connecting multiple Nikon flashes will rob you of the CLS functionality (the very thing that you are trying to avoid).

Anyway, I'm not an expert on this, but no-one else has answered, so there's my $0.02 . Perhaps you could post this question in the 'Lighting' part of the forum, where the experts on this stuff tend to hang out .

Good luck!

Andy

 

[paulminus273]

Thanks for that you have understood just what I am getting at and I will try the other forum

 

[Ozei]

The SU-800 wireless commander will remote control both 900's (and a lot more guns) individually but it's IR so its efficiency depends where/how you use it and at what range.