Rear sync flash

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Warren Thai - 30 May 2008 11:24 GMT

I own a Nikon D50. In the user manual it says that rear sync flash will fire
the flash just before the shutter closes. This is what the camera does but
it also fires a lower intensity flash when the shutter opens. Is this
normal? What is the purpose of the initial flash?
-Warren

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jimkramer - 30 May 2008 12:25 GMT

>I own a Nikon D50. In the user manual it says that rear sync flash will
>fire the flash just before the shutter closes. This is what the camera does
>but it also fires a lower intensity flash when the shutter opens. Is this
>normal? What is the purpose of the initial flash?
> -Warren

Yes it is normal. The first (pre) flash is to determine the exposure of the
"real flash." There may or may not be a way to disable the preflash, but
the accuracy of your final exposure may suffer. Hopefully someone with a D50
will speak up...
-Jim

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dj_nme - 30 May 2008 13:12 GMT

>> I own a Nikon D50. In the user manual it says that rear sync flash will
>> fire the flash just before the shutter closes. This is what the camera does
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> will speak up...
> -Jim

The preflash should happen just before the shutter actually trips, to
let the camera do an AE reading in order to calculate the required flash
intensity.
This preflash should be visible through the viewfinder just as the
shutter button is pushed down.
Canon and Pentax both use a similar system, called E-TTL and P-TTL
respectively.

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Peter - 30 May 2008 12:49 GMT

Rear sync flash is often used in low light situations where the light from
the main flash will only fill in foreground areas. I understand the
pre-flash to act as a red eye reduction feature. I have found Thom's Guides
to be an excellent set of reference books for Nikon, although I notice that
he has not completed his D60 reference guide, you can find tons of
information at his site.

http://www.bythom.com/

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Peter

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