Nikon 978-0-470-04527-5 Whats in This Book for You?

xx Current element

In 2002 Nikon replaced the SB-28DX with the SB-80DX. The changes were minimal, more

power, wider zoom, and a modeling light. They also returned the wireless optical sensor. As

before, although you could use this Speedlight wirelessly, you still had to set everything up

on the ﬂash itself.

When 2004 rolled in, Nikon revolutionized the world of photographic lighting with the SB-

800, the ﬁrst ﬂash to be used with the new Creative Lighting System. The ﬁrst camera to be

compatible with the CLS was the D2H. Using the D2H with multiple SB-800s enabled you

to control the Speedlights individually by setting them to different groups, all which were

metered via pre-ﬂashes and could be adjusted separately.

With the introduction of the D70 and later the D70s and D200, users could even control any

number of off camera Speedlights using the camera’s built-in ﬂash. Of course using the

built-in ﬂash had some drawbacks. Using the D70s, you can only control one group of

Speedlights, and with the D200, you can only control two groups. Even so, this is remark-

able. Never before could you use a Speedlight off camera while retaining the function of

the iTTL metering.

Eventually, Nikon augmented the CLS line with the SB-600, the little brother to the SB-800.

While lacking some of the features of the SB-800, such as the ability to control Speedlights,

it’s still an amazing little ﬂash. Nikon also released a couple of kits for doing macro pho-

tography lighting, the R1 and R1C1. The R1 macro lighting kit has two small wireless

Speedlights, the SBR-200, which you can mount directly to the lens via an adaptor. The SBR-

200 can also be purchased separately enabling you to use any many lights as you want. The

R1C1 kit is essentially the same as the R1 kit, with the addition of the SU-800 commander

unit. The SU-800 is a wireless transmitter that enables you to control groups of ﬂashes just

like the SB-800 without a visible ﬂash. The SU-800 can control any of the Speedlights avail-

able in the CLS line, the SB-800, the SB-600, and the SBR-200.

What’s in This Book for You?

While the manuals that come with the Speedlights are informative and contain all the tech-

nical data about your Nikon Speedlight, they don’t exactly go into detail about the nuances

of lighting — the small things and pitfalls you may encounter or the types of settings you

might want to use on your camera and lenses.

That’s where this book comes in. This book offers you tips and advice acquired in real world

situations by a photographer who has been using the Nikon Creative Lighting system

almost daily since it was ﬁrst introduced.

Initially, ﬂash photography is often thought of with dread as mysterious and confusing.

However, with this book I hope to dispel that myth and help to get you on the road to using

the ﬂash and CLS as another creative tool in your photographic arsenal, rather than some-

thing to be avoided at all costs.

xx Introduction

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