Nikon SB 5000 Speedlight and Auto ISO

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Paul T

Paul T

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OK brains trust a question for you.

I am currently trying use my Nikon SB5000 Speedlight off camera to provide fill light when photographing birds. I use awl remote radio control and set my D500 and D850 to auto ISO. The problem is that auto ISO will not work regardless of whether the Speedlight is in manual mode or TTL mode. The ISO does not move and stays at the previous setting. E.g if the previous ISO setting was 100 that is where it stays. I have tried all the flash related settings on my cameras with no luck. I shoot with either the D500 or the D850. Any clues or do I have to accept that Auto ISO just doesn’t work when the SB5000 is off camera and set to AWL radio remote mode. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
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Paul T said:
OK brains trust a question for you.

I am currently trying use my Nikon SB5000 Speedlight off camera to provide fill light when photographing birds. I use awl remote radio control and set my D500 and D850 to auto ISO. The problem is that auto ISO will not work regardless of whether the Speedlight is in manual mode or TTL mode. The ISO does not move and stays at the previous setting. E.g if the previous ISO setting was 100 that is where it stays. I have tried all the flash related settings on my cameras with no luck. I shoot with either the D500 or the D850. Any clues or do I have to accept that Auto ISO just doesn’t work when the SB5000 is off camera and set to AWL radio remote mode. Thanks in advance for any help.
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I found this pertaining to the D500. I’d expect the D850 is somewhat similar. The answer is about half way flown the page.

D500 | Digitutor | Nikon Consumer

imaging.nikon.com imaging.nikon.com
 
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I shoot all my bird photos with flash and Auto Iso. I set the flash to minus (-) 2.7 and I run camera compensation independent of flash compensation. I use a Nikon SB-900 or 910 with the MagMod wildlife kit. I shot birds this way for years. I have written a bird photography/flash PDF. Send an email ([email protected])and send it to you. Ill attach two samples.
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Larry Shuman said:
I shoot all my bird photos with flash and Auto Iso. I set the flash to minus (-) 2.7 and I run camera compensation independent of flash compensation. I use a Nikon SB-900 or 910 with the MagMod wildlife kit. I shot birds this way for years. I have written a bird photography/flash PDF. Send an email ([email protected])and send it to you. Ill attach two samples.View attachment 13612View attachment 13613
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Thanks Larry email sent. I am wondering though if there is any difference to the performance of Auto ISO if using the radio remote system of the Nikon SB5000.
 
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Steve said:
I'm not an expert in flash by any stretch, but I do know that Auto ISO and flash are usually a bad combination. I always use manual ISO if I'm using a flash, on or off camera.
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Thanks Steve. Yep I am starting to wonder if Auto ISO using the radio remote capability of the SB5000 is worth the hassle.
 
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Paul T said:
Thanks Larry email sent. I am wondering though if there is any difference to the performance of Auto ISO if using the radio remote system of the Nikon SB5000.
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The radio is for flash sync either in the camera's shoe or off camera. In no way does the radio interfere with auto iso. Flash compensation and camera compensation are separate unto themselves.
 
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Just an update on my initial query. I have spent the last day and a half trying the various settings on my Nikon D500 and Nikon SB5000 speedlight in an endeavour to have the Auto ISO function work when the SB5000 is remote to the camera in Wireless Radio Control mode using the WR-R10 Dongle. (my apologies for not having mentioned the dongle previously). The short version of a long winded experiment is that Auto ISO will not work in Wireless Radio Control. The only way Auto ISO works is when the SB5000 is actually mounted on the camera (or connected with a Nikon SC-28 lead) and in TTL FP or Manual FP mode. In fact there are quite a few functions that will not work across the Wireless Radio Control, the speedlight Auto zoom setting being one. So many thanks to those people who replied and a big yell out to Larry Shuman for providing me a copy of his PDF which I have and will find very useful in the very near future. Cheers and thanks again.
 
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Paul T said:
Just an update on my initial query. I have spent the last day and a half trying the various settings on my Nikon D500 and Nikon SB5000 speedlight in an endeavour to have the Auto ISO function work when the SB5000 is remote to the camera in Wireless Radio Control mode using the WR-R10 Dongle. (my apologies for not having mentioned the dongle previously). The short version of a long winded experiment is that Auto ISO will not work in Wireless Radio Control. The only way Auto ISO works is when the SB5000 is actually mounted on the camera (or connected with a Nikon SC-28 lead) and in TTL FP or Manual FP mode. In fact there are quite a few functions that will not work across the Wireless Radio Control, the speedlight Auto zoom setting being one. So many thanks to those people who replied and a big yell out to Larry Shuman for providing me a copy of his PDF which I have and will find very useful in the very near future. Cheers and thanks again.
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I moved from the d500 to the z8 and when I turn the flash off you would think the camera would expose automatically but i get under exposed pictures some times black in doors. That means only way getting back to auto iso is by turning off the wireless flash options under flash control. That means turning off radio awl. That takes time and is awkward. I am looking for a one button solution to go from flash to no flash auto iso? with the dongle still on?
 
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This link deals with Z cameras and related flash accessories. It might pertain to your issues too.


Nikon Flash for Z Cameras | Thom Hogan

Flash choices for the Nikon Z System cameras
www.zsystemuser.com

If you have a Thom Hogan guide to your cameras, he covers flash use in them. As a general statement Auto ISO and some Nikon flashes do not work well together. See this post too.

D500 Auto ISO with flash

I was photographing a hot air balloon glow, with flash, and auto ISO max set to 2000 both with and without flash. Unexpectedly and to my surprise, the ISO was the camera's max, 51,200, on many of the shots. They were extremely noisy. For just illustrating that we did the glow I was able to...
bcgforums.com bcgforums.com
 
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I dont see auto iso working with the awl. i put flash control in my menu. with wireless flash options set to radio awl. I get a a exposure of P 1/60 f4 iso 100 which gives me an underexposed picture. Is there any way around this so that i can go from using the flash with awl to using auto iso without having to uing the menu to turn off the awl? If the flash is off then there is not signal. seems academic to me but that feature is not there. is there a setting override that i am missing? Ill call nikon and see if they have a wonder kid for this.
 
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The wonder kid walked me through setting up the I menu so that i can just switch it OFF from the quick menu and Leave the dongle connected.
F1 to customize I, ok for any option icon, i picked the first one, ok then select wireless options, ok and your done, use the I button to find the flash mode icon and ok to change to off. You can take the dongle off and that works, the wireless option then grays. If i play with the programable mode in the auto settings and move the iso base setting to say something like 400-800 then maybe i can out think the camera as if i turn off the flash or it misfires or the batteries are dead. If i can out think a Nikon five thousand dollar camera then I will be laughing. Part of this problem was with my ten year old eneloope pro that recharger but need to be replaced as my new charger just says "abnormal". You can always shoot manual. Just for interest sake I went into the auotmatic settings and changed my iso to 1600, with the awl on it took a usable picture. If this helps then you're welcome. I use to have a Minolta many years ago and with flash or no flash or no batteries it would still give me a great picture.
 

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Miyamoto said:
The wonder kid walked me through setting up the I menu so that i can just switch it OFF from the quick menu and Leave the dongle connected.
F1 to customize I, ok for any option icon, i picked the first one, ok then select wireless options, ok and your done, use the I button to find the flash mode icon and ok to change to off. You can take the dongle off and that works, the wireless option then grays. If i play with the programable mode in the auto settings and move the iso base setting to say something like 400-800 then maybe i can out think the camera as if i turn off the flash or it misfires or the batteries are dead. If i can out think a Nikon five thousand dollar camera then I will be laughing. Part of this problem was with my ten year old eneloope pro that recharger but need to be replaced as my new charger just says "abnormal". You can always shoot manual. Just for interest sake I went into the auotmatic settings and changed my iso to 1600, with the awl on it took a usable picture. If this helps then you're welcome. I use to have a Minolta many years ago and with flash or no flash or no batteries it would still give me a great picture.
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