Gustav Lassen , Feb 16, 2008; 05:29 a.m.
Hi everyone,
I have bought a delicious Nikon SB-600, to use with my just as delicious Nikon
D200 DSLR. I am very happy with the performance of them, but I am having some
trouble setting up my SB-600 to be used off-camera wireless.
I have managed to set-up the SB-600 to fire off the flash properly, but I can't
seem to manage to disable the built-in flash on the camera. I went into the
menu and set the Built-in Flash Mode to Commander Mode, and put the Built-In
Mode to -- which should mean that the flash should not fire.
But my problem is that it STILL fires the built-in flash!
I am aware that the flash should fire the pre-flash and all that, but the flash
really messes with the exposure of the image, why?
What am I doing wrong? :-)
Kind Regards,
Gustav Lassen
Jon Curtis , Feb 16, 2008; 05:46 a.m.
Delicious?
Secondly, how do expect to trigger your SB-600 with-out firing your built in flash?
Gustav Lassen , Feb 16, 2008; 05:56 a.m.
Well...
Delicious, yes, though the verb might be a little too, say, extreme.
I know that the flash has to pre-flash in order to trigger the SB-600, but I kind of expected that it would work without the built-in flash actually exposing the final image.
David Haas 
, Feb 16, 2008; 05:59 a.m.
Gustav -
Do a search in the forums on Nikon d200 Commander. This question was just asked about 3 / 4 weeks ago.
Otherwise get out the d200 manual and look under flash / commander mode. You are correct - You will not be able to eliminate the pre-flash, but you can turn the power down to a point where it will not interfere with the exposure.
Also - Are you shooting in manual or one of the automatic (shutter / program or aperture modes?
Dave
Hans Janssen , Feb 16, 2008; 06:11 a.m.
You have to buy a SG-3IR from Nikon, a IR thru filter that blocks all the visiable light. You put that in the hotshoe and it covers the pop-up. That is the only way to block the pop-up
Gustav Lassen , Feb 16, 2008; 06:31 a.m.
David: I am shooting in Manual mode. I will do another search on the forums, I searched before I posted but didn't seem to find anything, but I will do another try, thanks for your help!
Hans: Couldn't I just cover the flash with my hand instead?
Douglas Lee 
, Feb 16, 2008; 06:56 a.m.
"Couldn't I just cover the flash with my hand instead?"
No, you would block the signal to the SB-600, I believe.
Hans Janssen , Feb 16, 2008; 07:06 a.m.
You can google for answer on this question till you weight one ounce, but you don't not find it, because there is no anwser, except it can't..
Jon Curtis , Feb 16, 2008; 07:32 a.m.
Just wanted to add,
Manuals are a good thing. If you don't have one, you can download them from Nikon.
David Haas , Feb 16, 2008; 09:40 a.m.
Sigh... Here's the best answer I could find...
Use the Custom Settings Menu (E3) to set internal / pop up flash to 1/128 power and manual mode.
It should be powerful enough to trigger the SB600 and not interfere with the lighting. (Technically Hans is correct - You can't eliminate it totally, but you can reduce the interference.)
Dave
