Seng_Kiat: I've attempted to replicate your shot:


A900, Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5(D) with Hoya Pro1 Digital MC filter, sRGB, 28mm (have to lah handheld what), F4.5, 1/160s, ISO100, Multi-segment Metering, Manual Mode, EV 0.

Then I tried using my Zeiss in case it's a Zeiss thing:

A900, Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 with B+W 007 filter, sRGB, 135mm, F4.5, 1/160s, ISO100, Multi-segment Metering, Manual Exposure, EV 0.

EXIF is also inside for all to see. I can't quite figure out what it is. Does the F58 on the A700 give the same problem in AWB?

hanafinoor: Perhaps you could call them to tell them how much you bought it for? Also, was it under warranty? They have not gotten back to me on registering my F20 either.

Pang: The second picture has an overexposed flash because the flash is 30 cm away from the object and it cannot go low-power enough to light a subject at F4.5 and ISO100 correctly at such close distances. Trying the same shot at F5.6 however nothing gets overexposed.

As for the first shot being warmer - the higher the flash output*, the warmer the flash is. When you plug the F58/F42/F20 on an A200-A900 body, it will tell the body what is the flash temperature based on flash output. Because the flash was off-camera however, it did not pass the WB information.

In the first picture the flash was further away and the camera was at ISO100 thus it needed to output more. Thus it was warmer.

That said, there's nothing wrong with a warmer flash - observe your point-and-shoots and you'll see that the flash unit has a warm color.

Of course, the point of this exercise is not to use manual WB but to use AWB to copy Seng_Kiat's scenario. Read the context!

*output because the term "flash power" is misleading; flashes always fire at full power, just that the duration changes. Unless you have a very expensive professional studio light which is engineered to change power and not just duration so it maintains a very consistent 5500K no matter what output setting.

White balance compensation
Slight variations in a flash gun’s voltage and brightness can destabilise white balance in respective frames during continuous shooting. The Speedlite 430EX II compensates for this by transmitting colour information from the flash to the camera. This information is then used to optimise the white balance setting for each individual image. This function works with the camera set to Auto WB or Flash Mode.

***** Flash Color Information Communication When the SB-600 is used with compatible digital SLRs, color temperature information is automatically transmitted to the camera. In this way, the camera’s white balance is automatically adjusted to give you the correct color temperature when taking photographs with the SB-600.

Auto White Balance compensation allows for more accurate white balance in flash photography sending color temperature information from the HVL-F58AM to the camera, where it is incorporated into the camera’s white balance settings.

My wall is beige-colored. (And uh, my shirt is not pure white, either.) The monitor in the second picture is beige also, in case you assume that all of these are neutral white. This makes the flash appear even warmer.

My mistake for putting the warmness of the first picture to higher power flash - it is also and primarily attributable to the scene being beige!

John Groseclose  Pro User  says:

Nikon's published flash duration specs for the SB-600:

Flash duration (approx.):
1/900 sec. at M1/1 (full) output
1/1600 sec. at M1/2 output
1/3400 sec. at M1/4 output
1/6600 sec. at M1/8 output
1/11100 sec. at M1/16 output
1/20000 sec. at M1/32 output
1/25000 sec. at M1/64 output

of course, extreme cases may be difficult... but i'm using the cobra+a900+dome diffuser its quite reliable in AWB.. some minor white balancing only..

great debate on flash...
too bad I'm no master in this area... PP for White Balance is my thing...

If you hooked a SB-600 up to a point-and-shoot which doesn't use a mechanical shutter, shooting at 1/1800s would thus get 1/2 output even though the flash is 1/1 output.

i think what he is trying to say is that
if the shutter is at 1/1800 (faster)and the flash is at 1/900 (slower)
the cam only manages to capture 1/2 of the flash instead of full...

a more extreme example will be shutter at 1 sec and flash at 2 sec...

did i misunderstand ur question?

But i still dont get why cant x-sync set at 1/900. what bro albnok said was because
your shutter curtains are not fast enough to run from one end of the frame to the other
so when i shoot at 1/4000? how is it like? hmm..

interesting...albnok free tonight? TT on knowledge sharing, teh tarik on me