>Date: Fri, 01 Jan 1999 22:13:14 -0800
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Sauro)
>Subject: Flashing in the Dark [v04.n183/23]
>Message: 23
>
>I'm a new F5 owner and I mostly use a Nikkor AF-D 24-120 zoom with a
>SB-28 flash.
>
>The combo is driving me nuts! When I try to grab a quick candid shot,
>half the time the flash doesn't fire, or the camera won't shoot. It's
>as if the F5 is checking dozens of factors, communicating back and forth
>with the flash, and if everything isn't perfect, it doesn't fire.
>
>The culmination came tonight when I tried to take a great candid shot of
>my two kids on a ski gondola at Northstar in Lake Tahoe. It was very
>dark inside the gondola, and no matter what I did, I could not get the
>stupid F5 to fire. Apparently it won't shoot in auto focus mode in the
>dark. And in the dark gondola I couldn't find the "mode" button on the
>flash, and the dumb light on the camera kept going out too soon, also.
>And I had no idea where the manual focus switch was in the dark.
Do you recall if the AF mode was in Single or Continuous Servo? If it is
in Continuous Servo the AF will hunt to try to find something that is
bright enough or contrasty enough to focus on. Given that you were in
total darkness the chances of it being able to focus are unlikely. Still,
if you were in Continuous AF the camera should allow you to fire without
being in focus unless you changed one of the custom settings to
Continuous AF with focus priority instead of the default release
priority.
In Single Servo AF mode, the camera will activate the near infrared LED
beam on the SB-28 to give the system enough light to focus. This beam is
patterned and will allow you to focus in total darkness. However, Nikon
didn't make the pattern wide enough to cover all five AF sensors so if
you selected any of the sensors other than the center sensor you may have
difficulty focusing. In single servo, the camera will first activate the
LED beam if there is not enough light to focus, find focus, then allow
you to fire the shutter.
>
>Is this right? Does the F5 not work with a flash in the dark? Or am I
>doing something wrong.
>
>When I got home, I put the flash in Manual Mode, and the camer in Manual
>Focus mode and I could get it to fire in the dark. But that make the
>camera less useful than a point-and-shoot.
That doesn't sound right. Have you changed any of the custom settings or
do you have the multi-control back with freeze focus activated?
Ed
