where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
Is it just me or is Nikons website rubbish? I have been trying to find out compatibilty of the SC-29 cable with the D5000/SB400. All I want to do is move the flash off camera and retain all normal functions. Nothing too clever, no CLS stuff, just using my D5000 with SB400 off camera.
C'est possible?
Manual is pretty clear that the SC-28 or SC-17 works. The 17 is very inexpensive (compared to the others) and commonly available used. If Nikon thought the 29 was compatible they would probably say so. Of course that doesn't mean SC-29 wouldn't work at all...
If I'm not mistaken, the only difference between the SB-29 and the SB-28 is that the SB-29 has an AF assist light in the camera hotshoe side. If it's compatible with the SB-28 there should be no problem.
edit: do you own the SB-29? It may be overkill for what you want. I've got an older one—the SC-17—and it does TTL just fine, like clillja mentioned.
Hi guys,
At this time I do not own anything but I am about to buy so wanted to make the right choice. I am happy with the SB400 flash so I didn't want to find that I got a cord that was only any good for the SB6/8/900 or the D90 or whatever.
@clillja; I just looked on page 200 of the D5000 manual and it does say that the 17,28 & 29 will work. I went straight to the website and wasted 15mins looking around there.
Thanks as always, I'll see what I can find.
I have the SB-29, I like the AF assist feature, it does help in low light
Pete
I thought with the SB-29, you couldn't get the flash to use TTL and only got manual? This is a great question by the way, I was just looking at purchasing a macro flash SB-29, and can be found used for $100 where I live. hey Jonnyapple, does the SC-17 get the job done as well? I have a D700 and a 105mm Ais.
Oops my bad the SC-17 cord enables TTL flash ability! :)
I use the SC-29 cord with an SB-400 on a D60. The cord extends all the hotshoe contacts so it works just like the SC-17 with the SB-400. You can keep auto mode or select manual with the flash off camera. One small advantage of the SC-29 over the sc-17 is that it has a good lock to keep the end of the cord secured in the camera hotshoe.
The IR illuminator function of the SC-29 cord does not work with the SB400. The feed for the illuminator comes from the speedlight not the camera, This feed is provided from two pins placed just forward of the hotshoe on the SB-900 or SB-800 flash. The SB-400 doesn't have these extra pins so it can't light up the illuminator on the camera end of the SC-29 though it can do everything else.
Hope this helps.
My own setup is an SB-400, SB-900 and two old SB-80dx's. I use these with a D60 that doesn't have the CLS commander function which is a bit limiting, so the SC-29 is quite useful. It lets me use the SB-400 off camera auto for a simple setup. It supports all the SB-900 features off camera including the remote IR illuminator if I want more powerful single light auto. Lastly I can take the SB-400 off camera on low power manual and use it to trigger the three more powerful speedlights all running in manual using their SU-4 remote optical slave mode. The SC-17 will do almost all of this for less money but the SC-29 is well made and I like it.
Very informative answer sideways - thanks.
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