Studio lighting DSLR

I've recently tried to use studio lights with a DSLR Nikon D70. Setting the camera to 60th at f11 and using a hand held metre to adjust the studio light to that strength.I took the shot the lights seem to go off but all I get is black way underexposed. I'm using a slave set up with the on camera flash pointed to the ceiling. ISO is set to 200 on camera and on the light metre. Could any suggest what may be the problem. I've had no problem using a film SLR with these lights.

You are probably getting a preflash that is triggering your studio lights and not syncing with the camera, that is why there is "black way underexposed". You need to turn the preflash off on the camera if you can do that, I don't use Nikon cameras, or use a Sync lead.

What you says sounds right,Why would the camera do a pre flash?The camera is set to front sync or normal.On camera direct flash seems to sync fine.Unfortunately It's not possible to connect the camera with flash it has to be done via slave with the D70 a semi professional model.Why are things not working with DSLR when SLR is no problem?
Thanks for your help.

The pre flash is to reduce red eye and I don't think you can turn it off on the D70 unless you disable the flash completely. Think about getting the hot shoe adapter that has a connector to attach a sync cable to the strobes. Turn off the onboard flash and use the adapter. It’s a problem with the D70 people have complained about in the past. It’s not a DSLR or SLR problem just a camera specific feature.

Thanks for helping put together the solution. Switched the on camera flash from TTL to manual down to 1/16 thus eliminating the pre flash and things are working well.

A Nikon AS15 hot shoe to PC adapter and PC cable to the first strobe works wonders. Very reliable and no light where you don't want or need it.

Did you ever get a response on this or figure out a solution? Reason being, I'm about to purchase a D50 using strobe lighting.

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Originally Posted by Baz

I've recently tried to use studio lights with a DSLR Nikon D70. Setting the camera to 60th at f11 and using a hand held metre to adjust the studio light to that strength.I took the shot the lights seem to go off but all I get is black way underexposed. I'm using a slave set up with the on camera flash pointed to the ceiling. ISO is set to 200 on camera and on the light metre. Could any suggest what may be the problem. I've had no problem using a film SLR with these lights.

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Originally Posted by JCPhoto1

The pre flash is to reduce red eye and I don't think you can turn it off on the D70 unless you disable the flash completely. Think about getting the hot shoe adapter that has a connector to attach a sync cable to the strobes. Turn off the onboard flash and use the adapter. It’s a problem with the D70 people have complained about in the past. It’s not a DSLR or SLR problem just a camera specific feature.

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The preflash is not for red-eye, it's for measuring the exposure. Digitals prefire to measure the light hitting the subject.

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Originally Posted by brent0927

Did you ever get a response on this or figure out a solution? Reason being, I'm about to purchase a D50 using strobe lighting.

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Just in case brent0927 has'nt decided on getting a D50 for strobe lighting yet, I just tested its flash sync with an old Sunpak 4000 autozoom flash and attached a slave to trigger it (the D50 doesnt appreciate the 160 volts in its trigger circuit directly connected).

I tested at shutter speeds up to 1/500 and with flash duration at 1/50,000 with all flash modes the camera supports (even red-eye).

I used the camera built in flash at powers from 1/16 to full power and it synced fine with the slave flash at all settings.

Hey KJ! As for my purchase, I ended up going with the D50 and getting a Nikon AS-15 sync adapter. For lighting, we bought 3 Paul C. Buff 'X-Series X800 Flash Units'. As for your comment regarding the 160 volt trigger issue, I'm not aware of any. I can't comment too much however since my photography studio just finished getting built out (within our offices). Next week I'll finally start testing all my equipment together. I will say however that the D50 seems to be a very capable piece of equipment...attached are a couple pics I've taken using the white lighting and a photography tent.

Hey Brent, nice pics.

It seems as though I was being a bit over cautious about the sync voltage. Many modern digital cameras get their circuitry fried if used with older strobes that have over 6 volts trigger voltage.

After delving through the D-50 manual I found that it is ok up to 250 volts (as long as it is not negative voltage).

So it looks like I can use the AS-15 sync adaptor instead of getting a Wein Safe-Synch limiter.

For any that have a camera with a 6 volt limit, theres a list of strobes and voltages here: http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html