I'm puzzled by some odd behavior I'm seeing with my D700, SB-800, and SB-600.

If I put the SB-800 on the D700's hot-shoe and use it as a master to trigger the SB-600 (on remote), the SB-600 won't fire. If I use the D700's pop-up flash as a commander I can get both the SB-600 and SB-800 to fire remotely. I've checked all the channels and groups and they all match in both scenarios. Do I need to do something settings-wise in the D700 to get the SB-800 to work properly as a master on the hot-shoe?

The SB800 neeeds to be in commander mode.

Hold down "ENTER" for a bloody long time (god I hate this about the SB800) until you get in the menu system and then turn on master mode in there...

In master mode the sb800 will show it`s own setting and those of the other groups a, b and c. The `M` is itself and should be set to whatever exposure mode you want to use i,e. TTL, Manual, A/A. If it is set to - - - then it acts as a master but without contributing to the overall exposure. Use the `SET` button to highlight the master and change it`s mode using the `Mode` button. Any good?

Sorry I should have put in there originally that the SB-800 while on the hot-shoe was in the MASTER mode (or commander whatever it's called - I don't have it front of me at the moment). Hence the confusion ...

Well, not to be too pedantic, but is the -600 in "Remote" mode? It sounds like it is since you're checking the channels.

Is the -600 on standby? Did you turn the Auto Standby off?

Another basic issue might be that the IR sensor on the SB-600 is not picking up the signal from the -800, try and test it by turning the IR sensor toward the SB-800 in a room where they are pretty close. Bright sunlight also interferes with the signal.

In the D700 menu you can set the on-camera flash as TTL, commmander, or manual, but I'm 90% sure that has nothing to do with the SB-800 on the hotshoe as Commander.

If you try what I suggest above and it doesn't work, then I'm out of ideas.

Michael, your comments made me remember another factoid that might be important. If I do it so I can see the front of the SB-600 (and yes it's in remote mode) the little red lights on the front will blink rapidly (as if it were giving me some sort of cryptic error code) after firing the sb-800 from the hot-shoe.

Mine is doing the same, the rapid blinking. I think it may be a low battery warning, I only got the 600s today though I`ve had the 800 for a while, maybe it`s time to RTFM I`m pretty sure it`s a low battery. If you have the sound turned on the 600 makes a kind of 2 tone noise as well as the 800 master, which means that the slave is telling the master that it`s tired. Wow!

Humm ... interesting. I don't have the manual with me, which is why I haven't FRI yet . I thought at the time this was happening that the batteries were fresh, but perhaps not. I'll have to try it again with freshly charged batteries.

OK. I've finally had some time to attempt to troubleshoot this problem some more. The bad news is it is still happening. It's not the batteries. To recap, when I put both the SB-600 and SB-800 as remotes and fire them using built-in pop-up flash on my D700 everything works just fine. When I put the SB-800 on to the hot shoe and set it as Master the SB-600 won't fire (although hitting the "flash" button to test the connection works fine - so channel and group settings appear to be fine). When I try to take a shot I get about 6 seconds of alternating high and low pitched beeps and red lights flashing on the front of the SB-600 and it doesn't fire.

I've read both the SB-600 and SB-800 manuals to try to figure out what the beep is trying to tell me and it doesn't seem to apply or at least I can't figure out how it applies. The manual says that those beeps either mean that the "flash mode of the remote flash is set to Non-TTL auto flash on the master flash unit" (which isn't the case - I've tried setting it to both TTL and manual and neither works and both give me the same error) OR "the signal from the master flash unit cannot be received correctly". I'm guessing my problem is the later but could they be any more vague?

What am I doing wrong or is there something wrong with either of the flash units? (maybe the sb-800 - because the sb-600 works just fine as a remote for the pop-up commander)

Do you have a camera store near you where you can test a different sb-600 or 800?

What shutter speed are you shooting at and what are your camera settings?

What kind of lighting are you doing your test under?

Is the fresnel or bulb area of your 800 damaged in anyway? If the test button makes the flash pop off camera it's very odd that it's not working. Makes me wonder if the 800 isn't broken.

Jammy Straub wrote:
Do you have a camera store near you where you can test a different sb-600 or 800?


Possibly but the camera stores around here are pretty terrible so there's no guarantee.


What shutter speed are you shooting at and what are your camera settings?


Not sure exactly put it was probably something like 1/200 @ f/8


What kind of lighting are you doing your test under?


just normal household incandescent lamps


Is the fresnel or bulb area of your 800 damaged in anyway?

It doesn't appear that way.


If the test button makes the flash pop off camera it's very odd that it's not working. Makes me wonder if the 800 isn't broken.

I'm starting to think that too.

Can the little window (round on the side) of the 600 see the front IR output of the 800? I've had to turn the flash body backwards and pivot the head forward to get the IR signal to the remote unit. The IR receptor on these isn't behind the front red plastic, that's just the transmitter.
If you have a video cam with nightshot mode you can point it at the front of the 800 and see if it's putting out an IR signal. Hook the camcorder up to a tv and watch for the bright light from behind the red plastic. Be sure you have the AF assist light turned off.

Yes the little window on the side of the 600 is right in front of the 800, a few feet away. Unfortunately, I don't have a camcorder that can view IR.

I ran into something else that's weird. I noticed that every once in awhile the 600 would fire under this scenario, so I tested 20 pops and 65% of the time I got the error beeps, 20% of the time it fired like it's supposed to, and 15% of the time it did neither (just sat there).

That, to me, says something is broken on the 800 for sure. FYI the CLS pulses are not in infrared, they are visible light emitted by the main tube. Is you flash still under warranty by chance?

I had the SB-800 give me similar results a while back and it turned out to be my rechargeable batteries. I suppose they were old enough they couldn't supply the current and or voltage required for those command flashes that are at full power.

A simple quick cleaning of the contacts (battery, hot shoe and foot of the flash) would also help rule out any of those possible issues.

rnickl wrote:
I had the SB-800 give me similar results a while back and it turned out to be my rechargeable batteries. I suppose they were old enough they couldn't supply the current and or voltage required for those command flashes that are at full power.

A simple quick cleaning of the contacts (battery, hot shoe and foot of the flash) would also help rule out any of those possible issues.


Interesting ... I use rechargables too and have had some weird behavior with them and the charger lately. Humm ...

Updating this thread for posterity's sake, in case others run into a similar issue.

rnickl nailed the problem ... it was my rechargeable batteries. I used some brand new rechargeables and everything worked like it was supposed to.