Nikon D50 in the studio- help

[jbeacham]

Next week i am going to use my new D50 in the studio for the first time so last night i thought i would attach a hotshoe etc to ensure that the camera recognised it & automatically set itself to 1/60 or whatever leaving me to worry about the aperture [ as was the case with my Panasonic previously.

The camera however did not appear to recognise either a hotshoe or a non-Nikon flash.

I have read the manual [ not overly helpful], visited the Nikon website [ very helpful if you spend a lot on Nikon flashlights] & have looked in the search engine here [very helpful but didn't find anything specific enough].

Am i missing something in the settings? I don't want to go to a group shoot & look a total bozo [again!]in front of a load of Fuji F2 users.

If anyone uses the D50 in a studio with an infrared triger would they be kind enough to advise what settings they have for flash or do i have to go completely manual, set the shutter speed to 1/60 & set exposure & set the flash to fire automatically. I would have expected a hotshoe to be recognised by the camera which adjusted itself accordingly.

Thanks in advance

John B

[tigerli]

I used my D50 in a studio with strobes. I used both wireless strobe remote and wired ones before. I always use a flash meter to read the light, and then use my D50 on manual mode. My shutter speed is usually fixed at 1/125, and adjust my apecture accordingly. I don't think that any programmed modes will work with strobes, but I haven't tried them.

[Ray Schnoor]

I'm not sure what you mean by "The camera however did not appear to recognise either a hotshoe or a non-Nikon flash." The hot shoe is the part of the camera you attatch the flash to. Do you possibly mean a hot shoe extension cable or maybe even an IR transmitter? As to the non-Nikon flash, the D50 works best with Nikon flashes SB-600 and SB-800. From Jeff's review:

"The next item on the top of the camera is the hot shoe. While the D50 works best with the SB-600 and SB-800 flash (supporting both AF-assist and wireless features), it will work with Nikon flashes as well. If you have a third party lens it will most likely work too, though you'll have to choose its settings manually. The D50 can sync as fast as 1/500 sec with an external flash. "

Ray.