# Trigger Nikon flash Via Canon Body ?



## MNiles

Hey guys, 

So I think i'm making the switch to Canon after being a Nikon shooter for a very long time.  The D800 just seems to have way to many issues already and the D4 is out of budget and also would cause a divorce.  I'm thinking of going canon 5D MIII.  

Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon. I don't need the flash on the camera body. I'm not going to be using this everyday but we have thousands of dollars in Nikon Flash Units that it would be a shame to let them go to waste. figured it would be nice to use them with a remote trigger. I know how to use slave mode and have the canon flash trigger them but in order to keep the wife happy i'm not going to jump into a Canon flash purchase the same day/week as my 5D purchase.

I have some remote triggers I was going to try to get the Canon transmitter and pair it with the nikon receiver and see if that would work.

thanks in advance.


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## Mach0

What are these " issues" with the d800?


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## Bossy

Do you not have lenses you'll need to replace as well?

How is the body you're using now limiting you?​


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## Tony S

Won't work with each other, they like to keep things proprietary to each other.  So you most likely are going to need to use something like a Pocket Wizard or some other remote to fire off at least your flash set to Master (commander mode on Nikon?) and run the others from there. Radio remotes are much more reliable anyways than what Canon has on their system.


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## KmH

MNiles said:


> Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon.


You bet. Any Nikon flash that can be triggered as an optical slave can be triggered by the flash of light from any other camera flash. Brand of camera does not matter. It can even be the flash from an el cheapo, P&S camera.


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## MNiles

@ Bossy, I'm looking to go full frame.  I think I'm at the point where I could utilize full frame to my advantage and expand my learning and skill. A step above my D7000 in full frame will be a D800 or Canon 5D Mark III if i'm going new and I'm not going to buy used gear. as far as the lens go yes ill need a few new lenses but since I come from a video background we do have a few Canon L lens hanging around.  My personal stash is all Nikon. 

@Mach0, Lots of Issues getting kicked around but more so low ISO and since the larger sensor can cause blur due to micro movement (documented by Nikon first few pages of the user manual) to avoid this issue I was going to drop the camera down to DX mode and use a smaller sensor area since it will do a crop but I'm hearing that does not really resolve the issue plus then i'm not really using full frame all the time like I want to.  

I'm a nikon fan boy and will keep my gear but I have always had a love for Canon products I figured this could be the push I needed to go over to Canon stills.. Mind you it's a hard choice so many things I love about Nikon like the dual dials for shutter and app right at my finger tips. I'll miss that bit.


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## MNiles

KmH said:


> MNiles said:
> 
> 
> 
> Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon.
> 
> 
> 
> You bet. Any Nikon flash that can be triggered as an optical slave can be triggered by the flash of light from any other camera flash. Brand of camera does not matter. It can even be the flash from an el cheapo, P&S camera.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info, I knew that bit but as i stated in my post I won't be buying a canon flash with the 5D body and the 5D MII and MIII don't come with a built in flash so there is no way to do a slave trigger. 

@TonyS like I said i'm not trying to stick the Nikon flash in the Canon hot Shoe I know that would never work. But was thinking as you said using a Radio based remote system. Just not sure if Pocket Wizard would work both ways.


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## Tony S

The Pocket Wizard sends out a generic signal to another PW, it's not speedlight brand specific unless you get into the new ones that keep the ability to fire ETTL.

This might help get yyou going in the right direction and when you do get a Canon flash here is an interesting way you can use both brands at the same time with a remote to fire them off and have metering from the flash unit itself... I'm betting a lot of folks are not aware that their flash units will do this.

Mix and Match Canon and Nikon Flash, Wirelessly!


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## MNiles

Tony S said:


> The Pocket Wizard sends out a generic signal to another PW, it's not speedlight brand specific unless you get into the new ones that keep the ability to fire ETTL.
> 
> This might help get yyou going in the right direction and when you do get a Canon flash here is an interesting way you can use both brands at the same time with a remote to fire them off and have metering from the flash unit itself... I'm betting a lot of folks are not aware that their flash units will do this.
> 
> Mix and Match Canon and Nikon Flash, Wirelessly!



Tony Thanks for the mental kick in the head.  I was so focused on will the freq be the same for nikon vs canon as far as 2.4Ghz channels go that I forgot pocket wizard uses the sync cable to trigger the flash.  See with the Radio Popper you stick the receiver onto the flash unit and fire away no sync cables. I was so focused on the wireless aspect of it that I forgot it was as simple as the damn sync cable. 

If I'm ever in Washington I owe you a beer !​


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## Tony S

lol... sometimes we forget what we know already.


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## KmH

MNiles said:


> KmH said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> MNiles said:
> 
> 
> 
> Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon.
> 
> 
> 
> You bet. Any Nikon flash that can be triggered as an optical slave can be triggered by the flash of light from any other camera flash. Brand of camera does not matter. It can even be the flash from an el cheapo, P&S camera.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> Thanks for the info, I knew that bit but as i stated in my post I won't be buying a canon flash with the 5D body and the 5D MII and MIII don't come with a built in flash so there is no way to do a slave trigger.
Click to expand...

Slap one of your many Nikon flash units on the Canon's hot shoe to act as the optical trigger.


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## Dao

I used to have a SB-800 for a little while (Sold it already in here).  I was able to trigger it with a cheap ebay radio trigger with my EOS 40D.  I set the flash in manual mode, dial the power setting and go from there.


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## zamanakhan

i am not sure why noone has suggested this yet...

But why not sell the nikon flashes and buy canon equivelent? 
I see sb-600's selling for $200+ these things sold brand new for $200 if you sell them you are barely losing any money. The advantage of branded flashes for me is to have ttl. I am not sure u'll have ttl with canon you'll have full manual mode. 
Why don't you wait till the d800 starts shipping and we have concrete evidence that it will have the "issues." Right now its all speculation.


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## MNiles

zamanakhan said:


> Why don't you wait till the d800 starts shipping and we have concrete evidence that it will have the "issues." Right now its all speculation.



It sounds foolish but I order camera's from my local camera shop rather then the amazon's or BH due to little things like free lifetime sensor cleaning and the great deals they give me products.  Reason why this choice is so hard for me is due to the simple fact that they are getting limited amounts of both units and the pre order list is already rather long.  I'm first on both lists.  I did call my contact at BH but he already said no way in heck I'm I getting a D800 from them if I want and it seems that demand on Mark III is as high as expected and I won't get a unit for sometime from them should I decide to go that direction. 

As much as I would be willing to wait I need another camera soon. Two of ours got damaged by TSA not securing the hard case(not all that hard to push down until you hear CLICK) before putting the case on the luggage cart.(one of those cameras was one of my personal units) It's silly to buy older models rather then go with the new ones that are right around the corner.


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## Tiberius47

MNiles said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> So I think i'm making the switch to Canon after being a Nikon shooter for a very long time.  The D800 just seems to have way to many issues already and the D4 is out of budget and also would cause a divorce.  I'm thinking of going canon 5D MIII.
> 
> Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon. I don't need the flash on the camera body. I'm not going to be using this everyday but we have thousands of dollars in Nikon Flash Units that it would be a shame to let them go to waste. figured it would be nice to use them with a remote trigger. I know how to use slave mode and have the canon flash trigger them but in order to keep the wife happy i'm not going to jump into a Canon flash purchase the same day/week as my 5D purchase.
> 
> I have some remote triggers I was going to try to get the Canon transmitter and pair it with the nikon receiver and see if that would work.
> 
> thanks in advance.


 
If you are using things with a PC cord, then they should work fine.  This includes things like pocket wizards and cheaper radio triggers.

However, if you want to use the built in flash on a Canon body to trigger the Nikon flashes using the optical slave technique, then it won't work, as the signals used are different between the two brands.


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## 2WheelPhoto

"Canon 5D MIII"  <--- I don't blame you there. I was expecting more from Nikon too.


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## KmH

Tiberius47 said:


> MNiles said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hey guys,
> 
> So I think i'm making the switch to Canon after being a Nikon shooter for a very long time.  The D800 just seems to have way to many issues already and the D4 is out of budget and also would cause a divorce.  I'm thinking of going canon 5D MIII.
> 
> Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon. I don't need the flash on the camera body. I'm not going to be using this everyday but we have thousands of dollars in Nikon Flash Units that it would be a shame to let them go to waste. figured it would be nice to use them with a remote trigger. I know how to use slave mode and have the canon flash trigger them but in order to keep the wife happy i'm not going to jump into a Canon flash purchase the same day/week as my 5D purchase.
> 
> I have some remote triggers I was going to try to get the Canon transmitter and pair it with the nikon receiver and see if that would work.
> 
> thanks in advance.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you are using things with a PC cord, then they should work fine.  This includes things like pocket wizards and cheaper radio triggers.
> 
> However, if you want to use the built in flash on a Canon body to trigger the Nikon flashes using the optical slave technique, then it won't work, as the signals used are different between the two brands.
Click to expand...

A SB-700, SB-800, or SB-900 in SU-4 mode will trigger on the flash of light from any flash unit.


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## Tiberius47

KmH said:


> Tiberius47 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> MNiles said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hey guys,
> 
> So I think i'm making the switch to Canon after being a Nikon shooter for a very long time.  The D800 just seems to have way to many issues already and the D4 is out of budget and also would cause a divorce.  I'm thinking of going canon 5D MIII.
> 
> Is there any way of triggering Nikon Flash units with a Canon. I don't need the flash on the camera body. I'm not going to be using this everyday but we have thousands of dollars in Nikon Flash Units that it would be a shame to let them go to waste. figured it would be nice to use them with a remote trigger. I know how to use slave mode and have the canon flash trigger them but in order to keep the wife happy i'm not going to jump into a Canon flash purchase the same day/week as my 5D purchase.
> 
> I have some remote triggers I was going to try to get the Canon transmitter and pair it with the nikon receiver and see if that would work.
> 
> thanks in advance.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you are using things with a PC cord, then they should work fine.  This includes things like pocket wizards and cheaper radio triggers.
> 
> However, if you want to use the built in flash on a Canon body to trigger the Nikon flashes using the optical slave technique, then it won't work, as the signals used are different between the two brands.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> A SB-700, SB-800, or SB-900 in SU-4 mode will trigger on the flash of light from any flash unit.
Click to expand...


Ah, okay then.  I have absolutely NO experience with Nikon flashes.  Do they take into account any metering preflashes?


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## KmH

Not in SU-4 mode.


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## KmH

SU-4 mode is a manual control mode, not a TTL mode. The camera doesn't meter the flash and you have to set the speedlight output power level manually.

Pre-flashes are used by the camera for 2 purposes:
1. To provide light it can meter to judge exposure.
2. control signals that set the speedlight power.

To use TTL the camreera and speedlight have to speak the same language.


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## Tiberius47

I think you misunderstood my question...

If the pop up flash on my camera is in TTL, then it's going to use a preflash to determine the correct exposure.  If a Nikon flash detects this preflash, will it fire then, or will it wait until the actual flash?


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