Nikon SB-26 manual

[cdw3423]

I just got my SB-26 from ebay. Does anyone know where I can download a manual in pdf format for the SB-26? Also I noticed the external battery plug has 3 pins. Does anyone know what the 3rd pin is for? It is shorter than the other 2. I wanted to make my own external battery for it.

Chris W

[another view]

Here's one for the SB-28. It looks different but it's actually a very similar unit. The SB-26 has an optical slave, unlike the 28. Other than this I couldn't find one - but you could probably find a Magic Lantern book on it at ebay or half.com.

[another view]

Oh yeah - not sure about the pin. I (reluctantly ) spent the cash on the SD-8a battery pack. The good news is that it works at least with the SB-26 thru SB-800 and really works well.

[cdw3423]

Oh yeah - not sure about the pin. I (reluctantly ) spent the cash on the SD-8a battery pack.

Do you think you could find a volt meter and probe the voltage on the various combination of pins and let me know what they are?

Chris W

[cdw3423]

Also I was reading that in slave mode there is no TTL. But the slave has "simultaneous" (S) firing and "delay" (D) firing. With delay firing I read where you can have the on camera flash in TTL mode and the slave flash will go off after the in camera flash. But what is the point of that? If the slave has to be manual exposure mode, how does the on camera flash being in auto exposure mode help?

I read about that on this web page, http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...f4/flash/SB26/


Chris W

[another view]

I could try checking the voltage with the pins on the pack's cord, but can't do it until next week (don't have a meter here at the moment...).

The flash doesn't have to be in manual mode - set it to "A" auto mode, not TTL. I've assisted another photographer where we've used two flashes (one on camera and one remote on a monopod, so it can be positioned anywhere). I hold the SB26 on the monopod and it uses it's optical slave to fire it. That flash is in "A" mode but I'm not sure about the other one which is on-camera. That one's probably TTL.

The two modes should have to do with the pre-flash that TTL uses to check exposure. It happens so fast (on most cameras) that you don't even see it, but if you didn't compensate for it by delaying the firing of the flash, then it would fire only at the pre-flash, not during the actual exposure.

[EmbeddedMatt]

Did you try looking at the European Nikon site for the PDF manual? I found a PDF manual there for my eBay SB-30 when I could not find it on the Nikon USA site.

[Speed]

I just got my SB-26 from ebay. Does anyone know where I can download a manual in pdf format for the SB-26? Also I noticed the external battery plug has 3 pins. Does anyone know what the 3rd pin is for? It is shorter than the other 2. I wanted to make my own external battery for it.

Chris W

Check out the Nikon Mall, on NikonUSA.com. It will set you back $10, plus shipping.

I recently bought a manual for my F5. $11 for a manual (plus $4.50 for shipping) certainly didn't break me.

http://www.nikonmall.com/searchresul...SB-26&x=32&y=6

[cdw3423]

Did you try looking at the European Nikon site for the PDF manual? I found a PDF manual there for my eBay SB-30 when I could not find it on the Nikon USA site.

Someone on the alt.photography NG posted a link to the manual on the European Nikon site. For those searching later here is the link to the page on the European Nikon site where you can download the
SB-26 Manual in pdf format .

Chris W

[cdw3423]

I found an SC-16 power cable on ebay, it should be here in a few days. Now I just need to know the polarity of the pins, what that 3rd pin is for, and I can make my own external battery pack. I bet I can out perform the $300+ quantum packs for less than $100 including the cable.

Chris W

[another view]

Got my meter back tonight so I could check the pins. I'm afraid I have no idea - but I think there's more to the SD8A than just batteries.

I couldn't get any reading on any combination of the pins, but wasn't sure the probes on my meter were making contact inside the plug. So I cut small pieces of wire to stick in the holes of the plug, and stuck a meter on them. I still got nothing but know I was making contact because all of the sudden I got a shock that felt like 120v! I decided not to tempt fate (or smoking it) so I pulled out the instruction manual that came with it. As you can guess, it doesn't say anything that will help.

So - long story short - I have no idea! Oh yeah, don't try this at home... ;)

[joeflyer]

Also I was reading that in slave mode there is no TTL. But the slave has "simultaneous" (S) firing and "delay" (D) firing. With delay firing I read where you can have the on camera flash in TTL mode and the slave flash will go off after the in camera flash. But what is the point of that? If the slave has to be manual exposure mode, how does the on camera flash being in auto exposure mode help?

I read about that on this web page, http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...f4/flash/SB26/


Chris W

The delay(D) slave mode is used when you are using TTL auto exposure with your main unit. This was made available to keep the slave unit's light output from misleading the TTL sensor into cutting the main unit's flash out before a proper exposure has been made for that unit's target(usually the main subject). Nikon, I guess, assumed that the slave unit would be used to light the shadow areas of the scene. Do remeber though that when you set the SB-26 to D slave mode, your maximum usable sync speed is one f/stop slower than the fastest available for your particular camera, e.g. if you are shooting with the F100, your max sync would be reduced to 1/125s.

By the way you can use the A flash mode of the SB-26 in slave mode just remember to set the aperture value according to your preference: for 1:1 lighting the aperture value set on the flash should match the camera's aperture value, for 2:1 lighting it should be one stop wider, etc.

[mtbbrian]

You might also try www.nikonians.org, it's a Nikon Users Group.
You might have to register with the site.
Good Luck!
Brian
Nikon Samuari #2!