Flash Compatability

[becky]

Nikon D80 flash compatability

Sorry, I posted this in the Nikon forum first, not the Nikon DSLR forum.

I am getting at Nikon D80 for Christmas (yes, I've played with it already!). I am wondering if a Sony HVL-F1000 flash is compatable with a Nikon camera. The instructions say to use only a Nikon flash. Is this just to get me to use their product, or should I believe it? I'm just a casual hobbiest & don't want to screw up my new camera by using something I shouldn't. Any advice? This is the flash I have.

[K1W1]

You can use third party flash units on Nikons but in most cases there will be no communication between the flash and the camera so you basically end up with a manual flash rather than one controlled by the camera which makes results a bit hit and miss.
I do not know whether that particular flash unit will work.

One more thing.
If you post images that are bit bit narrower (no more than 1024 pixels wide) it makes it much easier for the vast majority of viewers. Wide pictures throw the whole forum page out of whack.

[Visual Reality]

Depends on your screen resolution. No distortion here, but yeah that pic is a bit large.

Curious, why do you have a Sony flash? Did you have a Sony DSLR?

[K1W1]

I did a Google search on the flash. I doubt, in fact I would be prepared to say that it will not work on a Nikon DSLR.

It's a flash designed for Sony P&S style cameras and has no hot shoe. It connects to the camera body via that cable and a proprietary port on the camera body.

[becky]

I had a Sony Mavica D95 back in the day. The zoom was great, but I moved on to smaller digital cameras. Now I'm moving back to an SLR, but digital. Thanks for the info. I've got the flash listed on ebay right now, but thought I might be making a mistake! I guess I'll get the proper flash & do it right. Sorry about the picture. It's my first post here, so I guess I'll have to downsize if I ever post a picture again! Thanks again....
Becky

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I think I read different flashes have different voltages so the wrong flash can apperently bugger the camera. At least according to my memory of the manual.

Good luck on the D80, a great camera. Hope you continue with the forum once you've got the cam. I find the forum and the hobby go well together to help me learn.

[becky]

I've already saved this forum in my favorites. I'll have to educate myself on this camera--it has a lot of buttons to figure out! Thanks again for your help.
Becky

[Elisha82]

Sigma and and especially Metz makes some decent flashes for Nikon too.

[jcon]

This is just my opinion, but one of the major advantages of going with Nikon systems, is for their Speedlight Flash Units. CLS(Creative Lighting) is simply amazing. The Nikon flashes (SB-xxx) are worth every cent and I will suggest them over any other flash unit every day.

[tizeye]

This is just my opinion, but one of the major advantages of going with Nikon systems, is for their Speedlight Flash Units. CLS(Creative Lighting) is simply amazing. The Nikon flashes (SB-xxx) are worth every cent and I will suggest them over any other flash unit every day.

+1
And amazingingly when you compare to similar offerings (power wise - but lacking the CLS capability) from other manufacturers, they are not overpriced.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

+2, you'd be nuts as Jcon pointed out to use a different manufacturer unless you had a bunch of cheap old units. For just 1 or 2 on or off camera strobes stick with Nikon.

[erichlund]

I don't know anything about the Sony flash you have, but if someone says it has a proprietary connector, well, that's Sony through and through. There are lots of third party flashes made that will work on Nikon cameras. I believe there are even a select few that claim to work with Nikon's iTTL. As mentioned, Nikon's flashes are designed for their cameras, and work the best, but I've always had good luck with third party flashes.

As far as hit and miss results, if you like doing things manually, you'll soon learn how to use a flash manually, and your results will be consistently great. There's a segment of the crowd that don't believe you can live without automation. Not true. So if you cannot afford a Nikon flash, you can get by with a third party flash.

As for the possibility of damaging your camera, unless you have some 30+ year old flashes lying around, it's not likely. The industry as a whole moved to much lower trigger voltages quite a while back. To give you an idea, my Canon A-1 had the same warning in it's manual about trigger voltages. I bought that camera in 1981, so that's at least 27 years ago. So, if you buy something new, you should have no problem.