After a year and a half I bit the bullet and purchased a Nikon SB-800 flash to augment my D70. I shoot mostly birds and wildlife. I was hoping for an easy transition, but the 125 page manual tells me this ain't gonna happen. For low light, dappled shade, or mid-daylight, are their some basic settings that one would use that still gives me control over the shot. Ie.,iTTL,BL, auto TTL, rear synch, slow synch,etc. etc. Any basic help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I don't use the D70 George, but the SB-800 is my constant companion for outdoor shooting with the D2X. I haven't tried it with a Better Beamer, but have no doubts it would work well. My basic settings are to turn on all the camera's metering sensors, then set the strobe at -1.7 for general use. I vary between iTTL and auto TTL, depending upon whether I am shooting on P (use iTTL) and M (auto TTL). I don't vary the fill for low, dappled or midday light, but I do push it up to -1 for direct backlighting, and down as low as -3 when I want the least bit of fill while maintaining the character of dramatic lighting such as low angle evening light.
The 800 comes with a couple of small gels- a green and an orange. Add the orange to the strobe if you're shooting incandescent lighting and the green if you are shooting under florescent lighting. The gels approximately balance the strobe to the color temp of those specific ambient light sources, in order not to get weird color differences between a white strobe and a colored artificial source. If you need to fill outdoors in warm evening light the orange is also a useful addition to the strobe for the same reason.
The strobe has vast capabilities beyond those basics, but 90% of those are circumstance-specific. Frankly I almost never use any more than the basics unless I have to. I'm assuming that in combo with your D70, it will be as "smart" as it is on the D2X. I've been using strobes for fill since 1977, way back when we had to do all adjustments manually along with a whole bunch of calculations. I've used the full line of Nikon strobes over that span, along with all available Canon strobes during a 2-year foray into that line. The 800 tops them all for ease of use and effectiveness by quite a margin.
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2 repliesThe 800 comes with a couple of small gels- a green and an orange. Add the orange to the strobe if you're shooting incandescent lighting and the green if you are shooting under florescent lighting. The gels approximately balance the strobe to the color temp of those specific ambient light sources, in order not to get weird color differences between a white strobe and a colored artificial source. If you need to fill outdoors in warm evening light the orange is also a useful addition to the strobe for the same reason.
The strobe has vast capabilities beyond those basics, but 90% of those are circumstance-specific. Frankly I almost never use any more than the basics unless I have to. I'm assuming that in combo with your D70, it will be as "smart" as it is on the D2X. I've been using strobes for fill since 1977, way back when we had to do all adjustments manually along with a whole bunch of calculations. I've used the full line of Nikon strobes over that span, along with all available Canon strobes during a 2-year foray into that line. The 800 tops them all for ease of use and effectiveness by quite a margin.