Commander mode allows you to control remote flash unit from your camera. If you never use external flash unit, you may not find this topic very interesting but, if you do, I think this article will help you a lot to understand what this mode is for and how it works with Nikon D90, other Nikon semi-pro and pro body cameras.
Commander mode is one of the very powerful feature available with most of the advance DSLR cameras including Nikon D80, D90, D200, D7000 and D300 that allows built-in flash of your camera to control remote (off camera) flash by sending electronic signal over wireless. Most of the today’s advance flash like SB-600, SB-800, SB-900 and SB-R200 supports commander mode but unfortunately SB-400 flash unit doesn’t support commander mode. SB-400 is not considered as Advance Wireless Lighting strobe. It can only be used in the hot-shoe or on a sync cord connected to the hot-shoe. The Nikon SB-900, SB-800, SB-600 and SB-R200 Speedlights can be set as wireless remote units and can be triggered by using an on-camera SB-900 or SB-800 set in “Master Mode”, directly from the built-in flash on the D80, D90, D200 and D300 or using the SU-800 Wireless Commander Unit.
SB-R200 is Wireless Remote Speedlight which works with Nikon Advanced Wireless Lighting System and other Wireless Speedlight Commander unit like SB-800 and SB-900 or SU-800 Wireless Speedlight whereas SB-800 or SB-900 unit can also be used as a master unit (like built-in flash) in commander mode to control other flash units like SB-600 or SB-800 or even SB-900 wirelessly. Now lets discuss how to set Nikon D90 camera commander mode so that we can control external flash unit.
How to set commander mode for Nikon D90?
Here I am setting up Nikon D90 to control external flash unit using built-in flash as a commander flash.
1. Press the Menu button on the back of your camera.
2. Go to Custom Setting Menu option (pencil icon).
3. Select e, Bracketing/flash, menu and press OK.
4. Select e2, Flash cntrl for built-in flash, and press OK.
5. Choose Commander Mode.
When you are inside Commander mode, you can set different parameters to control remote flash unit. But at the same time you have to be careful about which Group and Channel you selected because you are going to use same Group and Channel settings in your remote flash unit. Group is set to combine multiple flash units in single or different group for exposure settings and Channel is used to avoid interference with other camera’s settings around you using by different photographers. If you set Built-in-Flash option to – - mode, your built-in flash unit will send signal to control remote flash unit but will not fire flash itself to control exposure.
Related posts
- How to set SB600 Flash to work in Commander Mode
- Nikon Wireless Speedlight Commander SU-800
- Five different ways of connecting External Flash to Nikon D7000
- Setting the SB-800 as a “Master Flash Unit”
- Setting the SB-800 as a “Wireless Remote Unit”
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About UM3$H
SB-600 is great flash from Nikon but SB-900 is the best I think which is more flexible to control more external flash unit over wireless media.
SB-600 is of course a great flash unit. I own one and it’s great to use as a kicker flash.
Thanks for the nice tip.. But what about new Nikon D5100 ? Can the built in flash can be used as a master flash ? Please advise..
Raj,
Nikon D5100 doesn’t have built-in commander mode. That means you can’t control external flash unit wirelessly using D5100. However, it is CLS wireless compatible using an SB-800, SB-900 or SU-800 as commander with an SB-600, SB-800, SB-900, or SB-R200 as remote flash units. So in your case, you can use SB-900 as a master flash unit to control SB-600 unit remotely.
Hope it helps.
I have a d7000 and sb600 flash. When I set the camera to commander mode, and the built in flash to –, and the sb600 to TTL, the built in flash also fires. In theory, if the pop up flash is set to –, it shouldn’t fire, but it does! I read on a blog that it has to fire in order to communicate with the sb600. Further, that when built in flash is set to –, that it only fires to communicate and not to adjust the exposure. That the only way to eliminate the built in camera flash was to buy a piece of plastic – available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000E1G0LI/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/176-1820922-1668043?ref_=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
to block the pop up flash, therefore blocking the direct light, yet allowing the camera to communicate with the sb600. Is this true? Are there any alternatives?
Cerati,
Everything you said here is true. It does fire to communicate with remote flash units but that doesn’t play any role on exposure. Timing is in microsecond and we feel like it’s happening at same time but that small amount of signal (pre-flash) used by built-in flash really doesn’t do anything on exposure. But if you think its effecting your light settings, you can use one of those but again it doesn’t affect and to be honest with you, I have never used any of those in any of my remote flash unit setup.
Hope it helps.
Thank you!
I am use to using monoligts, I have a few alienbees. I decided to try my hand
at speedlight strobes. I like their portability. So I tried some preliminary tests
with an sb-600 in commander mode attached to a light stand, but set to manual.
But I am finding out that I can’t successfully use an incident meter.
Readings were jumping all over the place. Then I thought that the on camera flash (commandr or trigger) needed to be on the metered subject. This helped some but meter readings still not accurate. I figure u can’t get a meter reading in TTL but I thought it would work in manual.
In camera, I have on cam flash with — . The sb-600 is in group A set to manual.
and I am manipulating the flash power for sb-600 on the camera.
Thanks Kathi for sharing your experience and improvisation. It’s all about experience and how it works for you.
1. How can I use two remote sb 600 and firing them from the built in flash in Commander mode. Now I want each flash to have a differnt output level. I couldn’t figure how to this with TTL.
2. Is it possible to mix two remote flashes, one SB 600 and one SB 900 that would fire at the same time after triggered by the built in flsh in Commander Mod?
Yoram,
Here is what I think will work in your case.
1. You can use two SB-600 and assign them into different group so that you can have different power set to different devices.
2. Yes, you can mix two flashes or as many flashes you want. You can assign them same channel and group number and trigger it from built-in flash in commander mode.
Hope it helps.
I think I agree with Jason here.
Very usefull text,thank you. I am doing dental macrophotography and considering buying 2 wireless flashes sb-r200(using ring flash for the moment). My question is should I buy the whole R1C1 kit with the SU-800 controller or just a couple of the SB-R200(I am with Nikon D90). Do you think it is worth almost to double the price. And one other quetsion -could you advise for a soft box for these flashes- I see people use piece of paper A4 bended but it seems kind of impravctical.Thank you
If you have D90, its built-in flash works as a commander unit and controls SB-R200 wirelessly. You don’t have to spend money buying SU-800. I would also recommend using A4 size white papers or any white board but if it’s not possible in your setup, I suggest you to go with small size (6″x8″) softbox which costs around $15 I guess.
Thank you very much,really appreciate it,I promise I”ll post the first attempts in the forum;)
Thanks jason
im a owner of nikon d5000. i want to buy my 1st speedlight but im stuck with which one to choose either sb 600 or nissin di622 mark 2 and im also in budget right now. im gonna use it on camera all the time and im confuse with the commander mode and the cls
zul,
To be honest with you, I have no experience with Nissin di622 mark 2 flash unit but I looked very briefly and seems like works great with Nikon and Canon DSLRs. It costs almost half of SB-600 and if you are in tight budget and planning to use on camera flash only, go for it.
Commander mode is a feature available in camera (as far as I remember, D5000 doesn’t support commander mode) which allows camera’s built-in flash to control flash unit remotely by sending wireless signal and CLS (Creative Lighting System) is technology implemented on Nikon’s speedlights (flash units) to make them more efficient, robust, user friendly with Nikon’s DLSRs.
hi again
thank for ur fast reply btw lol. actually here in my country the nissin cost about RM4xx for 1st hand and the sb 600 i can get around Rm5xx 2nd and the sb 700 around rm9xx 1st. so i think i should wait and get the sb 700 because of the cls( i just realise it a technolgy on nikon speedlight from ur comment lol and i think it kinda useful technology). what do u think is it worth for the future where i will not upgrade my speedlight again if i buy the sb 700 which i prefer upgrade my lens or body in future. thanks for ur reply again.
In that case, I will definitely wait and buy SB-700. It’s new and improved version speedlight unit and supposedly upgrade for SB-600 I think.
Great site and love all the help.
For the first time today I decided to get my SB-700 off of my Nikon D-7000. I set it all up and went to commander mode as explained and put my placed my master flash to —. Got it all on the channels and boom it all worked great. SB-700 fired perfectly and built in flash did not. Then halfway in to practicing…the built in flash started firing.
Now I can’t get it to stop. I didn’t change anything in the set up of the cammonder mode. I am about to lose my mind and can’t figure out what to do. It is firing in full flash mode and did start affecting my shot’s exposure. Any ideas??????? I have a shoot tomorrow indoors and was hoping to get this working. Thank you!!
When you use your built-in flash as a commander, it fires flash not to affect exposure but to send signal and measure how much lights in the environment and then send that information back to remote flash unit. You may want to reset your SB-700 to default factory setting and start all over again. The per-flashes that you are talking about is necessary to send signal to remote flash unit though.
hi! i just got my nikon d5100 i allready had a flash, the sb-600. I´ve never used it external. I understand that my build in flash cannot control my external flash. How can i control it then? Do I have to buy a second flash just to be able to contoll it? or is it a cheeper way of doing that? some kind of wireing? And how does it work? Pleas help!
Cheaper solution would be to use cable, SC-29 (plug and play), but If you want to control flash unit wirelessly, you can either buy SU-800 or get pocketwizard or other wireless transmitter and receiver compatible with your camera.
Alternatively, if you are planning to get another flash unit in future, get SB-910 which can act as a master unit and your extra flash unit as well.
Thank you!
Hello and thank you for all the time you spend to advise us!!!
I have a nikon D7000 and SB700 external flash , and like Kelley Craig I also have a big problem with the flash who fire and ruin my exposer ,I tried to set like you explain, but nothing hap end…it may be a factory problem? or , someone have the secret to solve it ?! thank you again!
Hi Lucian,
When you set your commander flash to – -, it will tell camera not to fire commander flash (or built-in flash in your case ) to interfere exposure but it will still fire pre-flash to communicate with remote flash unit and transfer data if you are using i-TTL mode. The pre-flashes are extremely short, and are almost impossible for the human eye to see. But if you feel like those pre-flashes are taking part in overall exposure and ruining your shot, try different angle or more distance with your subject just to experiment with lights power and direction.
I have a 300s. I have set it to remote according to instructions with the inbuilt flash set to — –. According to the user’s manual this should mean that ‘the built-in flash does not fire, but the AF-assist illumination lights’. This sounds pretty clear; the flash should not fire. But mine, like others mentioned here, does, and we’re not talking pre-flashes something is amiss.
I think I am missing something here but I never noticed that built-in flash contributing on exposure when it is set to — in commander mode but it fires pre-flash though.
Update : To all who are experiencing that pre-flash is contributing to exposure, I will recommend trying to increase camera distance with your subject, change aperture (one stop down may be) and try again if that helps. May be being too close to subject with on camera flash (which is used as a commander and not supposed to contribute on exposure when set to — mode) and widely opening aperture is letting that small fraction of pre-flash coming to the sensor and affecting exposure.